Lecture 12: Developing Talent Flashcards
steps to engaging in deliberate practice
- Figure out what deliberate practice is (in the specific domain)
- Figure out how you can get yourself to do it a lot
deliberate practice in psychotherapy
recording your sessions and reviewing them with a master clinician
deliberate practice in chess
watch Grand Master matches and study what the best next move is
deliberate practice in scrabble
memorize all of the 2- and 3-letter words and make index cards with anagrams
deliberate practice in taking notes
- Try to take notes so well that you can teach it as a lecture
- Helps improve focus
deliberate practicing in teaching
recording your lectures and reviewing them with a master lecturer
ego involvement
a task that one’s self-esteem rides on
task involvement
a task that is mastery-oriented
Mike and Ryan Sullivan, 1996
- Not the worst relationship
- Both are under the impression that the goal is (mostly) autonomously coming from the son
- The son is repeating the father’s goals/ plans for himself
- He seems to have internalized the father’s wishes
- The dad is showing some awareness that the goals are coming from him
- Ryan seems to genuinely enjoy hockey
individual skills ->
compound skills
Athletic family system
if someone from another planet spent a week with this family, they would say that they are about sport
Benjamin Bloom’s development of expertise study method
- Retrospective study about the development of expertise
- Involved extensive interviews of 120 young people and their parents and coaches
- All were identified as talented (top 25 in the U.S.) in arts, athletics, or academics
Benjamin Bloom’s development of expertise study findings
Found that there were similar types of parenting that resulted in high-level achievement
what types of parenting resulted in high-level achivement?
Child-oriented
Achievement-oriented
Responsibility-oriented
typical stages of involvement
- Exposure and playful interaction
- Moderate skill building
- Intensive preparation toward expertise
Tiger Wood’s dad and responsibility orientation
Tiger Wood’s dad made him pack his own clubs since he was 2.5 years old
exposure and playful interaction
- Ages 2-5
- The kid is generally interested in the activity
- The parents decide what to expose the kid to
- The parents will sometimes hire a coach or an instructor, but it should be someone who the kid likes interacting with, not necessarily the best teacher
moderate skill building
- Involves building the foundations of practicing
- Parents have an important role in this
- Parents help you see the value in practicing and the best way and time to do this
- This results in internalization
intensive preparation toward expertise
- Involves finding the best team and coach
- The child has to begin to specialize
- Disengagement from other activities
- The parent has to step back and allow an expert in the field to guide them (ex. A coach)
Michelle Wie West
her career flamed out because her dad would not give up control
Adrien De Mello
- Graduated from university in computational mathematics at 11 years old
- He went back to high school at age 16 because he wanted to get as far away from his father as possible
- His child bordered on abuse
- His father pushed him very hard academically
- His mother divorced his father, largely because they disagreed over how to raise Adrien
- He often felt lonely and didn’t have friends his own age
Brooke Raboutou
- Was coached by her mother
- There was no separation between “mom” and “coach”
- Both her parents were rock climbers and pushed her into it at a young age
- Both Brooke and her mother believe her goals were autonomous, but it seems that they were her mother’s internalized goals
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talent study methods
- Prospective longitudinal study of 9th graders identified as talented in 2 areas
- Used an experience sampling method for 1 week
- Followed up in grade 12 to see if teens developed their talent areas
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talent study findings
- Only 25% of students were still doing the activity and planning to continue to do it in university
- 9th graders who experienced more flow in a week were more likely to continue in their talent area
- Specifically, those who experienced flow during their activity were more likely to continue in their talent area
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talent study conclusion
a talent will be developed if it produces optimal experiences
Ryan Sullivan’s Hockey Career
- He is 35 years old now
- He didn’t make it to the NHL or to the high school his dad wanted him to
- But, he went to university, had a 4.0 GPA, and was the best student-athlete
how can you help children sustain deliberate practice?
through flow
the flow method
- Overall goal + as many subgoals as possible
- Find ways to measure progress
- Concentrate & make finer distinctions regarding challenges
- Develop new skills
- Keep raising the stakes when it becomes boring
example of the flow method
Koestner’s masters swim class
Ericsson’s misunderstanding of flow
- Ericsson thinks that flow is incompatible with deliberate practice
- He argues that training activities aren’t fun and require feedback and repetition
Ericsson vs. Csikszentmihalyi similarities
- Goal-oriented
- Requires complete attention
- Find ways to measure progress
- Beyond the comfort zone
Ericsson vs. Csikszentmihalyi differences
- Csikszentmihalyi: Play at the edge of our capabilities;
- Ericsson: Suffer at the edge of our capabilities;
- Csikszentmihalyi: Carried by a current?
- Ericsson: Slip-sliding in rapids?
- Csikszentmihalyi: Mastery focus?
- Ericsson: Performance focus?
