Is Drill Worth It?

My son has this vision about being a professional basketball player. So I'm reading Why Don't Students Like School and once again come across the 10,000 rule. If you are unfamiliar with this, psychologists have done extensive research around the amount of hours it takes to reach a level of professional from performing arts to sports to computer programing. What the studies have found are staggering. If you want to be an expert, I mean real professional, you'll need to dedicate the equivalent of 10 years of practice for 3 hours a day, everyday day to reach the 10,000 hours mark. Bill Gates did when he was young. David Garrett did. Jordan did.

When I showed my son this research and graph (he's in 6th grade) it hit home. He realized that's a lot of hours to practice, hence the chapter from the book about drill in school and here's what the research says: "It is virtually impossible to become proficient at a mental task without extended practice."

Makes sense right. We know this intuitively as teachers. Keep in mind that working memory has limited space so we can't cram a bunch of stuff in there and expect it to stay in long term. It takes repeated practice. This is especially true in math.

There's more to come on this though, so look for further blog entries.