Accelerated learning

Accelerated learning has been studied in many different contexts sports/music, medicine, the military and the business environment. One of the most well-known pieces of research with regard to improved performance relates to targeted practice (Ericsson et al., 1993). Ericsson and Lehmann (1996) observed that targeted practice and not merely experience is required to achieve expertise. Ericsson (2006) re-iterated that proficiency is not gained from routine work but deliberate attempts to improve particular aspects of performance with appropriate feedback provided. In her review of studies on deliberate practice, Pachman (p 2012) claimed that “cognitively, conventional practice does not account for a substantial refining of existing schemas.” She cites, inter alia, research carried out by Plant et al. (2005) which indicated that the amount of time that university students spent on their studies did not predict their academic performance. On the other hand, a model of the quality of their effort, taking into account their prior knowledge and extent of deliberate practice did. Not surprisingly there is a debate currently about the importance of innate talent in achieving expert performance (for example, are some people perhaps intelligent/ more athletic than others). This issue is yet to be resolved (Hambrick et al., 2014). On the other hand, there seems little doubt that an improvement in performance (although not necessarily attaining expert levels) can be obtained through targeted practice which has the result of improving the quality-of-effort.

The format of the tasks used in deliberate practice regimens is important for the consequences of the practice. It is assumed that the learner is motivated to attend and to practice these tasks with the goal of improving performance. Pachman (2012) concluded in her literature search that the format of the tasks practiced was importance in developing expertise. They should:

“1) be well-defined tasks,

2) be challenging in relation to their level of difficulty but achievable (Ericsson, 1996) - the task design should account for a learner’s previous knowledge,

3) be aimed at learner’s weak areas, so that specific goals for improvement can be formulated (Ericsson, 2006),

4) be not always enjoyable,

5) require constant attention and effort. Grape, et al. (2003) in their study of professional and amateur singers found that professionals were more achievement-oriented, applied more effort and perceived the activity as less joyful than amateurs,

6) not last more than one hour without rest (Ericsson, 2006).”

The last of these suggestions is more applicable to tasks that are clearly delineated, e.g. practice in sports and music rather than problem solving activities such as military command. Pachman (2012) also notes that for deliberate practice to work the learner’s knowledge base and areas of weakness have to be established. Measures that can be taken to improve an individual’s performance must be identified. Adjustments to deliberate practice activities will have to be made as performance improves.

More recently Duvivier et al. (2012) defined the deliberate practice that medical students should engage in as:

• repetitive performance of intended cognitive or psychomotor skill (for first year students)

• rigorous skills assessment

• specific information feedback

• better skills performance.

Duvivier et al. (2012) also described the personal skills learners needed to exhibit at various stages in order to develop their skills. Students need to be organized, focus on their studies, practice as necessary and assess their learning. Initially, students need to learn from their instructors but be able to move on to self- assessment. In order to be able to make this move appropriate feedback has to be provided at an early stage. Whilst this research was carried out with medical students, the overall findings indicated the need for students to be motivated, organized and, ultimately, self-reflective.

3.9.1.1.1 Postgraduate education in medicine

A great deal of thought has been given to postgraduate education in medicine where it is necessary to help new doctors become proficient as quickly as possible. Eraut and du Boulay (2000) carried out a lengthy review on how to develop the attributes of medical professionals once they had qualified. Doctors are expected to be professional, ethical and able to deal with people. There is the large body of knowledge that needs to be integrated and many different kinds of skills are required. Good doctors according to Eraut and du Boulay (2000) need to:

• Discern key features of a problem in a complex way

• Go beyond the guidelines

• Use intuition, but rationally checked out expertise

• Make small approximate decisions and readjust as necessary

In their opinion doctors have to develop standard patterns of reasoning and problem solving, quickly recognizing which approach to use and when. There is the requirement to track down and use evidence, being aware that mistakes can be made. Eraut and du Boulay (2000) also emphasized the need for doctors to be able to monitor their expertise. On a wider front, doctors should support the learning of others and share their knowledge with them effectively.

Eraut and Du Boulay (2000) looked in depth at medical training practice. The detail need not concern us but the implications for training are of interest. They believed that the proposals of Rehehr and Norman (1996) were still appropriate. Reasoning skills should not be taught independent of context. Practice is required to help people retrieve information from memory and improve their problem solving practices. Exposure to a variety of cases is seen as helpful for concept formation, categorization and pattern recognition. Doctors also ought to be aware of situations where heuristics might fail.

After graduation, doctors expect to continue their professional development both informally and formally. Informally they might read journals, interact with drug company representatives and talk with colleagues. More formally they will be supervised and mentored on the job, learning from these experiences (post mortems of critical incidents can assist with this). They can also become more specialized, taking the appropriate courses. Doctors are expected to engage in lifelong learning with professional development being learner directed.

New nurses too are expected to continue their learning after graduation. A great deal of emphasis has been placed on educational issues in nursing and the value of experience. Gadamer was quoted by Benner el. (2008) as saying in an interview (Joy, 2005, p. 403) that “Being experienced does not mean that one now knows something once and for all and becomes rigid in this knowledge; rather, one becomes more open to new experiences. A person who is experienced is undogmatic. Experience has the effect of freeing one to be open to new experience … In our experience we bring nothing to a close; we are constantly learning new things from our experience … this I call the interminability of all experience”. _{Experience, therefore is not only necessary to}

improve the practice of nurses, but to make them aware that they will always need to be receptive to new ideas.

Benner et al. (2008, p. 8) caution that “Experiential learning requires time and nurturing, but time alone does not ensure experiential learning.” Years of experience are not an adequate predictor of expertise. Experiential learning, though, is still necessary given the role of intuitive reasoning in nursing. Nurses can face conflicts when asked to conform to checklists, guidelines and standardized documentation which can interfere with their System 1 reasoning.

Finally, Benner et al. (2008) noted the value of using challenging situations such as an adverse event for educational purposes. Such incidents reveal differences in the speed and flexibility of the responses, providing learning opportunities. They believed that performance of nurses could be improved with extensive training (using simulation of adverse events) and the provision of appropriate feedback. There should also be opportunities for reflective learning.

3.9.1.1.2 Accelerated proficiency and facilitated retention in a military context

Two workshops were held for the US military, one in 2008 and the second in 2009 , on accelerated learning A report integrated the findings from these plus a lengthy literature review (Hoffman et al., 2010). It was agreed that experts needed a deep understanding of knowledge and the ability to use it flexibly. To accelerate the necessary learning, it is important “to increase the rate at which highly proficient performance is achieved” otherwise, it can take up to 10 years of experience to become an expert (Hoffman, 1998). This workshop aimed to find ways to try to reduce this time in particular when training the military. The questions that the attendees wanted to answer included the following:

“How can we develop methods for identifying expert mentors and revealing their knowledge and strategies? How can we best design training to promote skill retention and prevent skill decay during periods of hiatus? How can we train for adaptivity and the need to cope with the ever-changing workplace?

How to quicken the training process while maintaining its effectiveness (Rapidized Training)? How to train and train quickly to higher levels of proficiency (Accelerated Proficiency)? How to insure that training has a stable and lasting effect?”

After reviewing the relevant literature, the following findings were reported.

• There are many variables affecting training such as type and sequence of practice, domain complexity, learning styles etc. The interactions between these can be complex.

• Feedback is useful but the provision of this has to be timed appropriately.

• Training should make learning easier and quicker. “In initial, intermediate and advanced levels of training, there must be problems that present "desirable difficulties." (2010, p. 114)

• Mentoring generally benefits the trainee as well as the organisation. It might not be necessary at advanced stages of learning.

• In complex domains, scenario-based training is invaluable.

• There should be training for meta-cognition, often called "reflective training" or "training to learn."

• People can learn more from their mistakes than from their correct actions/decisions.

Overall, they concluded that “Accelerated proficiency can be achieved through the use of case-based instruction and realistic tough cases with a focus on errors and "desirable difficulties." (2010, p. 14). Teaching material must be based on relevant expertise. Training for accelerated proficiency must rely upon meaningful, corrective feedback that is appropriately timed (neither too close nor too distance from the performance being evaluated). The detailed suggestions for scenario based training are listed below (2010, p. 148):

• “The scenarios are tailored to learners (individual and/or group), depending on level of achievement, preparedness, or other factors.

• Scenarios are created from lessons learned.

• Scenarios are created based on empirical knowledge on how highly proficient workers apprehend problems.

• Scenario training assumes high intrinsic motivation of the trainee to work hard, on hard problems.

• For any given level of training, the scenarios are tough. They are novel to the learner, challenging them in ways described by Cognitive Flexibility Theory

• Typically there is some adversary, such as a superior or more capable opposing agent or force.

• The trainee is challenged to learn to think like the adversary.

• The fidelity is as high as needed. (In order: desktop exercises using paper and pen, virtual worlds presented on computer monitors, virtual environments, very high fidelity simulators, simulated villages).

• Scenarios mimic the operational context.

• There is a designed-in ability for observers to measure what happened.

• The observers are experts.

• There are multiple reviews, not one single “after action” review.

• Reviews provide outcome and process feedback.

• Reviews include retrospection and the analysis of decision processes, emotional state of mind, teamwork, mental projection to the future, and other macrocognitive processes.

• The goal is for trainees to acquire strategic knowledge, adaptability, and resilience.”

Andrews and Fitzgerald (2010) also wrote at length about accelerated learning in a military context. The US Department of Defence which is interested in improving battlefield performance has defined the domain independent aspects of accelerated learning generally as “any learning system or environment that attempts to control for time spent versus content learned.” The goals of accelerated learning are the “faster attainment of skill and knowledge, and an increase in on the job performance with better retention of learning” (Andrews and Fitzgerald, 2010).

In their review of the literature on expertise Andrews and Fitzgerald (2010) comment on the often mentioned finding that it can take ten years to become an expert. It is not uncommon, however, in their opinion for a recognized expert to have been working for 20 or even 30 years.” Expertise can only be developed by an individual who has performed many relevant and diverse tasks. It is also crucial that the skills developed are retained. Andrews and Fitzgerald (2010) described the results of a meta-study carried out by Arthur et al. (1998, p. 4) on skill retention. Several factors were identified as playing a role in skill decay:

• “The longer the retention interval, the less retention of the skill is evidenced.

• Natural, physical, and speed-based tasks do not evidence as much skill decay as cognitive, accuracy or artificial tasks.

• Many of the past studies of over-learning suggest that over-learning moderates skill decay. The meta-analysis offers some support for this contention; however, a small number of data points are a limiting factor.

• The similarity of the training task to the actual environment affects retention. Transfer and retention of competence is more likely the more closely the two environments are matched.”

Andrews and Fitzgerald (2010) include in their report a framework for competence developed by Wulfect (See Table 9). Competency factors with their associated learning guidelines are shown in Table 9.

Table 9 Framework for competence (Source: Andrew and Fitzgerald, 2010)

Competent performers know a lot. Their knowledge is highly contextual

Training must provide increasingly detailed knowledge, procedures, and principles, in context, with progressive refinement as expertise develops. Competent performer’s knowledge / skills are

compiled and proceduralized.

Provide sufficient practice for experience to be compiled.

Competent performers tend to work forward from underlying principles rather than backward from the end goal.

Provide underlying principles as part of the knowledge structures. Provide

unstructured end-goal exercises only after principles have been learned.

Competent performers examine a broad range of alternatives rather than explore a single alternative deeply.

Practice environment must provide for many alternatives and must model them correctly.

The learning guidelines relate to the development of competent performance emphasising the need for essential principles in a domain to learned and then practiced in appropriate environments. Andrews and Fitzgerald (2010) define a set of goals for accelerated learning. Following these should enable educators to support the development and retention of expertise. The first goal is to ensure that methods of speeding up knowledge acquisition are not harmful to learning. The second goal is to assist learners (on a spectrum from novice to expert) to acquire the relevant knowledge and the skills. The third goal is to assist people generalize from one situation to another. Rich meaningful feedback has to be provided during learning. Hard, tough, problems need to be tackled with mentors supporting and motivating people during this process.

Andrews and Fitzgerald (2010) discussed other proposals for accelerating learning from the literature. Some of these were particularly relevant to the military but others were more general. Rohrer and Taylor, (2008) suggested that when learning content, the relevant material should be presented at intervals over a long period of time rather than being studied intensively in a short time span. Sufficient repetition should ensure mastery of the material. Another suggestion (Chi, 2000) relates to using self-explanation in order to enhance learning and updating one’s mental model. Active retrieval of material also promotes effective learning (Karpicke and Roediger, 2008).

Finally, the risks associated with accelerated learning were discussed (Andrews and Fitzgerald, 2010). Care has to be taken that when accelerating learning that there are no negative effects. Accelerating learning might impede the generalization process. It is possible that faster training makes people less effective performers.

3.9.1.1.4 Deliberate practice in business

In a work environment, the practice patterns of insurance agents were analysed by Sonnentag and Kleine (2000). Based on interviews, diaries and performance ratings, they concluded that the performance of the agents could be predicted not by the cumulative amount of practice but by the current amount. This seemed to be related to the changing nature of the insurance business.

Fadde and Klein (2010) have written in a business context about accelerating expertise in natural settings, that is in the work environment where people have little time to practice and develop quickly the relevant experience. Ericsson (2006) had previously described the role of deliberate practice to target deficiencies in performance. In the work place, Fadde and Klein (2010) define deliberate practice “as activities that are specifically designed to improve domain-specific skills.” These activities can be pursued as part of their daily routine by people who are competent and not novices. Four kinds of deliberate practice are proposed: estimation, experimentation, extrapolation, and explanation the work place. They note that this is similar to just-in-time training where situations that occur can be used as opportunities for learning. Deliberate practice, though, emphasizes the need to build up tacit knowledge and intuitive reasoning processes in the domain. Such practice has to be linked to varied tasks and should not impact performance negatively. Repetition is desirable with timely feedback provided. Tasks should become more difficult over time.

Estimation exercises were seen as invaluable by Fadde and Klein (2010) whether to calculate the time or resources required to finish a project or to learn about other variables. Comparing actual to estimated values fosters learning especially if the reasons for any discrepancies are identified. Experimentation, trial and error learning is also seen as very important by Fadde and Klein (2010). They describe the three types of experimentation advocated by Schön (1983): exploratory, move-testing and hypothesis testing. Exploratory testing allows people to get a feel for what is happening whilst move-testing gives them the opportunity to take action to see if it produces a particular result. Finally, hypothesis testing enables competing theories to be checked.

Extrapolation according to Kadde and Klein (2010) relates to the way people extract the lessons learned from incidents which could have or did end in failure since “Surprises lead to reflection, and failures lead to the most intense, and therefore most valuable, reflective learning experiences.” The point of extrapolation is not to avoid

making mistakes but see what can be learned from them. Explanation is related to the other three activities which provide opportunities for reflective explanations either internally or with others. Explanations enable people to make sense of what has happened. Unfortunately, feedback obtained this way is not necessarily accurate. Fadde and Klein (2010) conclude that the success of deliberate practice largely depends on the ability to draw the appropriate inferences and make diagnoses based on outcome data. How these ideas for practice can be applied in a specific organization must be worked out by individuals and those responsible for training.