Does Practice Make
Perfect
Summary
“Practice
makes perfect”, is a cliché that everyone has heard, but is it really true? In
Chapter 13 of e-Learning and the Science
of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia
Learning, by Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer, the authors discuss
whether practice makes perfect. The authors explain five principles to
correctly address this statement and they are; Principle 1: Add sufficient
practice interactions to e-learning to achieve the objective, Principle 2:
Mirror the job, Principle 3: Provide effective feedback, Principle 4:
Distribute and mix practice among learning events, and Principle 5: Apply
multimedia principles. Clark and Mayer (2016) point out that practice alone
does not achieve perfection, but practice with effective feedback does.
Having
students practice problems and indicate their comprehension of material,
repeatedly, is a must according to Clark and Mayer (2016). In Math, when
learning multiple concepts, it is best to present examples of all concepts and
then assign students practice problems that mix the concepts up, instead of
grouping all practice problems with individual concepts together. The authors
recommend this practice, which they refer to as mixed practice. Clark and Mayer
(2016) define grouping problems with the same concepts together as block
practice.
Clark
and Mayer (2016) believe that effective feedback is vital. They recommended using
different types of feedback. All feedback should allow for improvement over
time. Feedback should provide explanations to students who answered questions
incorrectly. Clark and Mayer (2016) warn educators to stay away from praise
feedback, such as “Well Done!”. The authors feel that this type of feedback
draws attention away from the task and puts it on the ego. The authors also
encourage self-monitoring that is related to the task and assigning peer
feedback.
Reflection
Providing feedback is very
important. As educators in order for our students to improve we have to explain
what they did incorrectly and how to correct the problem. The problem could
actual be a math problem that they had to solve or an undesired behavior. I
agree with the authors that feedback should be effective. I know that I perform
better on an assignment when I have been given feedback on what I have done
wrong on the previous assignment. It bothers me when I do not get a perfect
score on an assignment and there is no feedback. The average student would like
to know why they missed the mark. Showing how to solve a problem correctly or mirroring
the steps needed to take to achieve a desired goal are important when providing
feedback.
I do disagree with the authors when they say to
stay away from praise feedback. I think boosting a student’s confidence is
helpful. If the student believes they can they will try their best to achieve
and pass. If they are not told “Good Job!” or “Well Done!” and only hear
feedback when they need to be corrected, then their confidence level may
decrease. Educators should try and build students’ confidence and at times that
may require praise feedback. In online learning most feedback will not be given
face to face. Whatever platform is used to provide feedback; educators must be
mindful of misinterpretation of tone. If an email starts out with “Great Job”, I
believe that feedback that is given is better accepted.
In my opinion practice does make
perfect. Sometimes there will be no or little feedback. Some concepts are not
like riding a bike. A person may need to go practice concepts over and over
again until they grasp the information or skill. It is important that while
students are practicing they receive feedback so that over time they become
better and more accurate. Overall, I can agree that practice does make perfect
with effective feedback.
References
Clark, R. C.,
& Mayer, R. E. (2016). e-Learning and
the science of instruction: Proven
guidelines for
consumers and designers fo multimedia learning. (4th
ed.). Hooben, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
