Strive to develop Automaticity in your learners

Automaticity can be defined as “the status of any knowledge or skill that has been used so many times that it can be activated from long-term memory and applied using minimal working memory resources.” (Clark, Nguyen & Sweller, 2006).

Skills become automatic after repeated rehearsals of the activity. Multiple instances of performing a task helps learners develop automaticity with tasks and skills. Research indicates that a task such as matching letters can take as many as two thousand practice sessions but that the result can be significant. For example, when a problem was presented to students in a form that permitted them to use automated information, on average, the problem was solved sixteen times faster than an identical problem that required the use of non-automated information (Clark, Nguyen & Sweller, 2006).

In other words, Drill and Practice actually works. In our world of “accelerated elearning” and “faster is better”, we often forget that it takes time, as many as two thousand times to actually “learn” to do something effectively and without thinking. So the next time you are wondering whether or not you should add a little extra practice time in your learning design…the answer is yes!

Why do we think that athletes need practice to reach peak performance but that sales people, auditors, bankers, retail employees and others don’t. We are only kidding ourselves if we don’t provide practice opportunities for our learners.

Practice, Practice and more Practice turn novices into experts…and, by the way, it should be diverse applications of a skill or concept, not the same practice over and over again.

Source:
(Clark,R., Nguyen, F., & Sweller, J. (2006) Efficiency in Learning: Evidence-based guidelines to manage cognitive load. Pfeiffer.