My latest educational read is The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle. The book explores hotbeds of talent development from Brazilian Soccer, to virtuoso's on the tennis court and within orchestra camps. What is fascinating about the book is that it focuses on the stimuli that drive learning rather than proposing that genius is the result of some inbred genetic disposition. Translated, the book's premise is that genius can be taught and developed through practice.
Coyle explains that for far too long we have thought about the brain and memory as a "tape recorder, but that's wrong. It's a living structure, a scaffold of nearly infinite size. The more we generate impulses (nerve signals), encountering and overcoming difficulties, the more scaffolding we build. The more scaffolding we build, the faster we learn."
So what's the big deal?
The big deal is that there is a substance that wraps itself around nerves in our brains called Myelin. As Coyle describes, "Every human movement, thought, or feeling is a precisely timed electric signal traveling through a chain of neurons - a circuit of nerve fibers. Myelin is the insulation that wraps these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed and accuracy. The more we fire a particular circuit, the more myelin optimizes that circuit, and the stronger, faster, and more fluent our movements and thoughts become."
Coyle introduces researchers who demonstrate that a type of practice, called deep practice, causes myelin production to speed up and accumulate around the nerves being used for that practice. In other words, if you "deep practice" the violin, you'll speed your learning and mastery of the violin, but there's a catch and that catch is in understanding what deep practice is. Simply picking up the violin and going through a dull, unchallenging routine does not begin to even scratch the process of "deep practice." Similarly, trying to conquer a piece or fundamental that is too far beyond one's level of skill removes one from "deep practice."
So, if this were an old-fashioned book report I'd stop here and make you read the book but because I REALLY want you to read the book I'm going to sweeten my anticipatory setup.
What is Deep Practice? It sounds like some sort of 'goldilocks' zone where amazing things happen.
Coyle describes 'deep practice' as being "built on a paradox: struggling in certain ways - operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes - makes you smarter. Or to put it a slightly different way, experiences where you're forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them - as you would if you were walking up an ice-covered hill, slipping and stumbling as you go - end up making you swift and graceful without your realizing it."
So here's just one of my a-ha moments. (I'll share more in subsequent blog posts.)
As a hobby, I work with my son's baseball team and I constantly remind them that if I do the best job a coach or teacher can do, I will have taught them to love practice as much as they love games. You see one of the other conditions of "deep practice" is deep engagement by the learner to scrutinize, dissect, and replay their mistakes. Coaches cannot artificially give deep engagement, it has to be an investment made by the learner. Students, athletes, and musicians who have an aversion to attending to their mistakes in this way do not enter the "deep practice" zone and while they will increase their skill, they will not accelerate at the same rate as a learner who truly becomes a student of practice!
In next week's post I'll discuss the implications for teaching from this science and in two weeks I'll share more about the implications for learners.
Have a great weekend and if you're 'trick-or-treating' please have a safe Halloween.
Mike Klugman
End of Week Notes
BCMS' Costume Ball
Tonight's costume ball promises to be a fun night for our Middle School community and I'd like thank in advance all of our high school and parent volunteers. At the middle school we believe that including our high school students in our volunteer efforts is a win-win. Our high school students engage in service orientation and our middle students have great models to emulate. I also want to thank Mr. Warford and Ms. Canuto who organize our decorating crews, our custodial staff who work around our decorations, and our PE staff run our Haunted House each year. In each of the last three years we have exceeded 900 student participants!
Congratulations and Thank You... to all of our Fall Athletes and Coaches
Our Fall athletics seasons are winding to a close this week and I'd like to congratulate all of our student-athletes on successful seasons simply based on their participation. I'd also like to thank all of our coaches whose commitment teaches so much more than sport-specific skills.
PTO Save Around Coupon Book Sale
Your student was given an envelope with a coupon book that serves our region. All of the proceeds of this fundraiser come back to students from our PTO. For those who may not be aware, our PTO is a volunteer organization that has no administrative fees. When they do fundraisers all of the proceeds from the fundraisers come back to school programming. Thank you for your support of our PTO and our programming!
Eagle Auction
For all of our Eagle Elementary alumni - the Eagle Elementary Auction that supports their PTO's efforts is Tuesday, November 3 (next week)!
Tuesday, November 3 - Election Day
All BCMS students will dismissed @ 11:10 AM.
We also want all in our community to know that the Middle School is NOT a polling place this year.
Winter Athletics Participation Paperwork
All students who intend to participate in a winter sport are reminded that the deadline to submit your paperwork is Friday, November 6!
The Week Ahead
Monday, November 2
- No Late Buses
Tuesday, November 3
- 1/2 day dismissal ALL Students (11:10 AM)
Wed, November 4
- Late Buses
- Board of Education Meeting (High School 7:00 PM)
Thurs, November 5
- Late Buses
- FASS (Friday After School Support) 3:00 - 5:00 PM
- Deadline for winter sports paperwork
