EDUCATION
St Swithuns, Winchester 10,000 hours of purposeful practice or of unstructured dabbling. Which is most likely to make your child successful? Who will be more successful, the child who dedicates herself to at least 10,000 hours of purposeful practice on, let’s say, the piano from an early age or the child who dabbles with a range of instruments? Which is more likely to become a professional musician? It turns out that the answer is significantly more nuanced than I would have thought before reading Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. Books like Bounce by Matthew Syed and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell have popularised the notion that at least 10,000 hours are required to become an elite musician or sportsperson. Epstein agrees that this is true in some fields, those he calls ‘kind’ learning environments. These are ones, such as chess or golf, where patterns repeat, feedback is immediate and clear, and similar challenges occur repeatedly. However, most domains are ‘wicked’. In these environments, feedback can be confusing and patterns are either non-existent or difficult to spot. It turns out that in these domains, varied experience is far more useful than a large amount of practice focused on one area. For many parents, it feels counterintuitive
to suggest that it is at best pointless and at worst harmful not to get their children ahead by starting them early on music, sport, Mandarin or whatever is the hobby of the moment. Contrary to popular belief, most top sports players were not ruthlessly channelled into one sport from an early age. Rather, they played a wide range of sports before specialising relatively late. And yet, most parents, understandably, imagine that concentrating on one activity will bring more success more quickly to their offspring. In school, we similarly assume that rapid progress is the best sort of progress and that getting lots of the answers right in class indicates successful learning. David Epstein tells us that actually we don’t want our pupils to get things right all the time. We want them to struggle to make connections for themselves rather than mindlessly following patterns. Alarmingly, research has shown that although a significant percentage of questions in class start out as making-connections problems, in some countries well-meaning teachers give so many hints that not one of these questions end up as making-connections problems. The educational culture in countries such as the US, and indeed the UK, is such that pupils don’t expect to struggle in class without the teacher intervening. Teachers whose pupils get questions right in class are highly ranked by their pupils. The pupils feel as though they are making good
progress. But when they came to take tests a few weeks or months later, they performed worse than pupils who had struggled more in class on the same topic. Why? Because, amazingly, struggling to generate an answer on your own, even a wrong one, enhances subsequent learning. What can we do as parents? Explain to our children why we are not going to help them with their homework, make them a healthy snack and encourage them to come to find us when they have solved the problem themselves. Will this work? There is a good chance if your child’s school encourages the same approach. What can we take away from Range, which I thoroughly recommend you read? That we shouldn’t worry whether our child is the first to master a skill, that we should encourage them to try a range of activities, that desirable difficulty is important in the classroom and that we accept that real, sustainable progress may look more like zigzagging than we had ever imagined.
A leading independent day, weekly and full boarding school for girls aged 11-18
It’s who we are. Join us at one of our open events: Saturday 13 March (Online) Saturday 24 April (Strategies for success conference, for parents of Year 5 children) Saturday 12 June (Sixth form)
Please contact us to book your place: www.stswithuns.com | 01962 835700
A leading independent day school offering outstanding education for girls (4–11) with a co-ed nursery Jane Gandee, Headmistress of St Swithun’s school
Making a happy start to school Insider secrets from the experts at St Swithun’s Prep Thursday 25 March, 7pm
This online mini conference includes: 1. Thriving in preschool and reception 2. Practical tips to practise at home 3. Making the most of the outdoors 4. Promoting a healthy mind and a healthy body 5. Live Q&A session with experts from St Swithun’s preschool and reception
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Booking essential: vwww.stswithuns.com/happystart | 01962 835750
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