L15B: Whole vs Part Practice Flashcards
What is Whole Practice?
A practice strategy that involves practicing a skill in its entirety (i.e., as a whole)
What is Part Practice?
A practice strategy that involves practicing of a skill broken down into small units
What is the Goal of
Part vs Whole Practice?
Example of part practice
- First learn the ball release (“snap the wrist”)
- Add a “wind-up” and finish with ball release
- Add full arm rotation and finish with ball release
What are the Three reasons for breaking down whole skills into smaller parts?
4
- Efficiency in practice
- Ease of practice
- Good technique/prevent injury
What is Efficiency in practice?
Learner can spend more time mastering
difficult components of “whole task”.
Ex. Gymnast practicing just the dismount off the bars
What is Ease of practice?
Learner might not yet be capable of completing whole task.
Ex. Novice swimmer learning butterfly practices dolphin
kick independent of arm stroke
What is Good technique/prevent injury?
Learner has risk of injury without “correct” technique
*Ex. Pitcher in fastpitch makes sure they don’t overextend on the follow through
When might part-practice be a useful
method for learning?
- Task complexity
- Low complexity (simple) → Whole
- High complexity (difficult) → Part
- Interaction & timing b/w components (pause?)
- High interaction (more connected/faster) → Whole
- Low interaction (pause/slower) → Part
Part/whole practice decisions interact with the type of skill
(but dependent on timing/interaction between components)
Should I do part practice? Here are some general questioning guides…
Summary for part-whole practice
