How you learn something new An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. Productions are procedures and classifications. This is the biggie! This is what you are trying to do to gain high levels of expertise. You want to automate procedures and classifications, so you don’t have to consciously think about them. Going back to the example of driving a car, you don’t have to consciously think about all the little things that it takes to drive a car in traffic because you have automated a set of procedures. Going back to the chair example, you can look at something and know it is a chair without consciously…
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Automaticity
How you learn something new An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. Deliberate practice results in the automation of a sequence of steps. It is automated so you don’t have to consciously think about it while you are doing it, you just do it. Some people call this “muscle memory.” I don’t like this term since muscles have no memory. Repeat after me, “muscles have no memory.” This automated sequence of steps is in your memory, in your brain. Your brain places this automated sequence of steps into nice and neat “chunks,” so you do not have to consciously think about them. Remember when you were first…
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Principles
Learning Part 4 of 6 – Principles How you learn something new An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. Principles are cause and effect relationships. In other words, if this occurs then that happens. If that occurs then that doesn’t happen. I touch a hot pan on the stove, I burn my hand. I touch a cold pan on the stove, I don’t burn my hand. And I’m able to pick it up. When I was working as a photographer for LMU and covering a basketball game, a fast break would occur, and the players would be running towards me. I already understood the process for this…
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Processes
Learning Part 3 of 6 – Processes How you learn something new An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. A process is a “how it works sequence.” An example is how radar (radio detection and ranging) works. You have probably seen a radar device in movies and on television. Someone is looking at a screen and they are watching an airplane or missile in flight as it approaches. A magnetron generates high-frequency radio waves, which are then sent to an antenna. The antenna acts as a transmitter, sending a narrow beam of radio waves through the air. The radio waves hit the airplane and are reflected back.…
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Concepts
Learning Part 2 of 6 – Concepts How you learn something new An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. Here’s a common example of a concept: a chair. You can look at one and tell right away that it is a chair. A chair can have four legs, three legs, two legs, one leg, or no legs. A chair can have more than four legs. Your memory stores a definition and examples of chairs. You have learned the concept of a chair. To learn a new concept, you need a definition and examples of the concept. Learning a concept sounds easy, and it is. However, you can…
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Learning Part1
How you learn something new An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. When you are trying to learn something new or you are teaching someone something new, it can be a very daunting task. It is difficult because learning something new is not easy, but it can be made easier if you understand how learning works. Learning can be divided into four basic parts: concepts (definitions and examples), processes (how it works sequences), principles (cause and effect relationships), and productions (procedures/classifications). Deliberate practice results in the automation of a sequence of steps, the automation of productions. Next week Part 2 of 6 – Concepts
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Photography and Deliberate Practice
An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. When I first started photography, there was no World Wide Web (it was 1970, I used film). I subscribed to the Time Life photography series. It was a series of books on photography that was delivered on a monthly basis. Each month I would read and reread each book. Then I would practice the techniques presented in the books. I would devise experiments to test a hypothesis involving photographic techniques. I would perform the experiments and test my hypothesis. This was my deliberate practice with feedback. The books became my coach, the results of the experiments were my feedback. I…
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Coping with the COVID
Developing Expertise Can Help By Glenn K. Seki, Ed.D. Planning NOW how you will develop expertise will help you think about a better future. You can also perform deliberate practice NOW to develop expertise. Instead of binge-watching Netflix, improve yourself and gain expertise (well a little binge watching is ok, I do). I’m not a medical doctor, but I do have a doctorate in education. I’m not a psychologist, but my background is in educational psychology. It just stands to reason that keeping yourself busy with something that you have an interest in or a passion for will improve your expertise in those areas and help your life in the…
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Passion and Interest
An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. What is your passion? What are you passionate about? Are you passionate about a sport, say basketball, or surfing? Tennis anyone? How about art, or music. Perhaps you’re zeroed in on an academic field such as biology, or economics. Maybe you have a passion for exploring, with an eye on the Himalayas. Don’t have a passion, then what are you interested in? Interest and achievement go hand in hand. It is easier to achieve in a domain if you have a strong interest or passion. I have achieved a much higher level of expertise in something that I am passionate…
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Persistence Quote Churchill
Persistence – a key element in the development of expertise.
