Expertise Archives - Page 3 of 6

Mat Rats–Contextual coaching towards Expertise

It is rare that I have anything that resembles spare time but in the words of Lemmy, who at the time was referencing beer, “There’s no such thing as extra, but you can have some of mine!”

Time is a hot commodity in the @DrTimony household these days and between the full time job, part time job, wife, pre-K mini-@Timony, and sleep, it gets downright sticky. When it gets sticky, stress has its opportunity to creep onto the agenda making the brief moments of repose seem barely worth the while. The first thing that tends to suffer the wrath of the scheduling blade is getting to my gym of choice, Balance Studios. And, as many of the sharper readers know, exercise is probably the one thing that could make a life less stressful.

Getting back to the mats has increased the calm in my life. Some friends have said that it must be nice to “blow off some steam” by sparring. I understand the sentiment but it could not be more distant from the truth. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (the gentle art) provides me with some of the greatest calm that I experience through the week. There is no steam. It is more like meditation. Meditation with chokes and joint locks.

Even while sitting off to the side to catch my breath, I enjoy watching the chess match unfolding before me.

Sloth/Mac — Josh R. Vogel earning his brown belt

This week I was able to take in some excellent instruction and engage in several challenging matches. Watching some friends ‘roll’ gave me time to reflect on my decision making process on the mat as well as the input that I received during and after some matches. It is common to pause after a match, submission, or major positional transition and have a training partner provide a few words of feedback. I sat watching and began to categorize the different types of training partners that I encountered that day and in days past. Listening to the narrative of breaths, compliments, corrections, and encouragements. The roles of individuals on the mat depended on the equity of skills. I found myself in the catbird seat among a dynamic context of coaching and made note of a few characters.

The nicknames that I give to these folks are non-judgmental and are solely intended to differentiate.

The Lion: Confident in skills and willing to let the training partner experience dominant positions to practice their offense. The Lion is conversely willing to place the opponent into unenviable, defensive positions with a fraction of the pressure to encourage escapes with good technique. Timely, rare, encouragements inspire.

Cubs: These are real gamers–there is equity in skill and respect. They match each other in intensity which often varies. The level of effort and challenge is often expressed in percentages. These training partners may agree on a level of challenge at 30-50-75% often called ‘flow-rolling.’ This is done to work on the transition more than the endgame. It is common to hear talk-aloud discussion during their training or to pause to make corrections or to discuss best methods for drilling a particular maneuver.

The Predator: This is the no-nonsense competitor who moves from dominant position to dominant position seeking the submission regardless of the equity of the matchup. For over-matched partners, you will typically see them spending their time surviving and tapping when they cannot prevent the choke or joint lock.

These are only a few of the models that may be seen on the mats and I cannot help but wonder how these context specific coaches may serve to advance high level skill acquisition and the progression towards Expertise. More to come.

The Myth of 10,000 Hours

What I want to say most to start this off is, “Who came up with ten thousand hours, anyway?!” except I know where it came from and to be honest I am sick of hearing about it.

Ten thousand hours has become common. Journalists have reduced it to nothing. They have beaten it to death. Even when it is not referencing Expertise, you will hear ten thousand hours being bandied about. It. Just. IS.

I hate to break it…no…I love to break it to you. Ten thousand hours means nothing.

The research that spawned this number was performed on 40 violinists and was seeking to find some common experiences and habits among some of the best of them. Those violinists who had achieved the highest levels of skill had accumulated about seven thousand hours of practice by age 18 and about ten thousand hours of practice by age 20.

These data were common among a very small group of musicians from among a small group of subjects. Data on practice time was self-reported. From this article, came our famous misinterpretation by Gladwell who took it upon himself to recognize “experts” in retrospect by attributing ten thousand hours of practice to individuals and groups.

Outliers. Silliness.

Expertise is superlative. It is rare. It is domain specific and its definitions and components do not transfer to other domains. That is to say that those things that contribute to Expertise in violin playing are not likely to contribute to Expertise in another content area.

While some may ask why it is important to make these distinctions I find it compelling. There are other conditions that are necessary for the achievement of Expertise. It is possible for anyone to become competent with enough practice, guidance, and some motivation. It is not possible to become and Expert on these things alone–even with ten thousand hours of deliberate practice.

Many will live out their existence as “experienced non-Experts,” or the more pedestrian “merely competent” despite significant dedication and many hours, weeks, and years of practice. So sorry.

Early Expertise: Gumming up the Works

As parents, teachers, and mentors we have a strong influence on children. In their pre-adolescent years, parents are the single most significant influence on the lives of their children. Beyond that, there are competing influences of teachers and friends. Once adolescence kicks in, we all lose out to peer influence. It is arguable about whether parents can retain or regain that ground but we know what we know based on research, experience, and fairly legitimate wisdom.

All that being said to set the stage for how we, as adults, can shipwreck the development of Expertise.

While the development of Expert level skills must begin at interest, the identification of that interest is a genuine challenge. I have used the example of my daughter and her knack for spotting airplanes. We were looking at pictures with her and one of those was an airplane. Very soon afterwards, we were driving south of the city and she saw an airplane departing from the airport. It was low enough to be seen out of the side windows of the car in the distance. She yelled, “Airplane! There’s an airplane!” and we were delighted that she made that connection from picture to real life and that she remember the name. All very commonplace in the life of a young child, right?

Let us take a simplistic approach to make a point. What if we thought that her recognition of that airplane was based on an inner love of airplanes? What if we then decided to take a turn off the highway and watch airplanes take-off and land for a few hours that day? What if we purchased toy airplanes, constructed paper airplanes, and rented movie after movie about airplanes?

The likely outcome: Our daughter would think that we had a deep love and value of airplanes. She would probably like airplanes because we like airplanes so much. We spent all that time together doing things and talking about airplanes. She might even start initiating activities that revolved around airplanes which would have an entirely new influence.

Let us be extreme.

Cut to 20 years later and she is piloting a jumbo jet across the wide Atlantic. She deplanes. She sits in Baile Átha Cliath airport eating her lunch and complaining that she does not really like flying but it is a job and pays well with decent benefits. She is, like many others, a competent pilot. Why not an Expert? She was never really interested.

So, what happened?

The Myth of Reflection?

Think…

Do you believe that you are capable of objectivity?
Do you believe that you can answer that question objectively?

Reflection is something that is expected of the educator. Expected to the point that it may be impossible. For the most part, reflection is discussed more than it is taught. Discussed far more than it is genuinely practiced. I have to confess, I hear an awful lot of talk about being reflective but I hear very few people talking about how to reflect. And I hear even less people challenging one another on their reflection. Not to encourage impolite behavior or being impolitic, but it is necessary that we seek a common understanding of practices that will save our professional lives.

What is it? Is it a unified concept? That is to say–does it mean the same to everyone? Have we reached consensus?

If we are to develop as professionals through the use of reflection in a meaningful way,
then reflection must be a singular sensation.

Ishi — Quick, what's the square root of a gross?

Think about it. If green is not green to you, but it is green to me, is that a problem? Really? You see, if you are color blind, green is still not a problem. We tend to think narrowly about that, do we not?
We think–how will you know whether to stop or go at an intersection?
But then we realize that knowing the color doesn’t affect whether we know the light on the bottom from the light on the top.
Color blindness does not make one less capable despite what fashion decisions may be made.

If we are going to engage in reflection, we have to take purposeful steps to take myth out of the process. Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Plan ahead based on the type of activity.
You need a point of departure. Write a list of hypotheses, questions, or even opinions you have about your own approaches to teaching. Select which ones belong in each context. This will become your Inquiry Checklist. If you are introducing new material you may have different items than a session based on exploration or review for a larger project or assessment. Do you think that you are great on your feet? A whiz on the fly? What are some of the things that would support that belief? Some teachers think that they are very positive in class–do you? Are you? Maybe you’d like to know how many positive or negative statements you make in a session. Are you a great facilitator? What do you do that supports that belief?

2. Keep your scope narrow and rare.
Answer just a few questions per session. You will find that you could be overwhelmed with your actual performance. I also recommend that you do this full process, at most, four times each school year. Aside from the amount of time it will take to do this responsibly, altruism is at a premium.

3. Bring a friend.
There is no way to do this while you are teaching. However you choose to assess, recalibrate, and redirect activities in class is simply your teaching practice. It is your professional activity–do not let this become your only indicator of your success. Act natural and do your thing. Set up a camera in a hidden place with a good view of the room. Do not tell your students about it. Want to add to the excitement? Have a colleague do a walkthrough with one, two, or all of the items from your Inquiry Checklist. Invite them to stay for a set period of time or the whole period but decide that ahead of time.

4. Document before the big reveal.
As soon as you are able, debrief alone. Respond to your prompts as honestly as you can. Do this before you view the video. Do this before you schedule time to listen to your colleague. This is an important step in the process because it will allow your reflective process to calibrate–helping you to develop some inter-rater reliability with your subjective mind.

5. Prepare to be non-plussed.
When you have your own reflection completed, sit down with your colleague and listen. Let them tell you the story of what they saw in your classroom. Allow them to tell you what they think you were trying to accomplish and their impression of good, bad, and neutral activities by you and your students. Did you add to learning or confuse? Did you jump in or change gears too soon? Was it paced well? It is important that you create the type of atmosphere that allows your colleague to be honest. Some of their input may be challenging. Do not allow yourself to explain or justify. For the colleague, this is the second time through but for you it is the first. Let it sink in and settle.

6. Make decisions.
When this whole process has run its course it is time to make decisions. My advice is to limit yourself to one or two changes that you think are most important to the classroom. Some suggestions that I have made or heard from colleagues:
Let information breathe–do not jump in too soon;
Give students more time to think before you speak;
Model risk taking and mistake making;
Sit on the floor–change levels, not just placement in the room

The greatest myth of reflection is that is can happen alone.