Phased learning and practice

So what happens if we attend a training course, but never have the need - or have the ability - to practice the skills that we learned? I suspect this often happens with workplace-organised computer or IT system training courses. We go to a course to learn about a new thing, and perhaps we don't have access to the app, or we don't end up needing to apply those skills in our work, and - over time - the skills we learned erode away.

But just how fast do those skills erode? Well, apparently, when we undertake training without the opportunity to practice for extended periods of time, we lose something between 71% and 84% of what was taught... all within 28 days of delivery (Arthur & Day, 2018, p. 9). Ouch. That is QUITE fast.

In addition, some skills we learn in phases. For example, we can see three phases in learning to keyboard as follows: 

"first, the 'Cognitive phase', different movement patterns for keystrokes are learned, relying on declarative mediation and visual feedback of the keyboard. In the second, the 'Associative phase', the movement patterns become more internalized, and [learners] begin to rely more on kinesthetic feedback. At the end, in the 'Automatic phase', [learners] rely primarily on kinesthetic feedback, and can spend most of the time gazing at the screen (Johansson et al., 2009), while allocating minimum attention to the typing process (Trubek, 2011). However, since touch-typing is a complex cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skill (Poole & Preciado, 2016; Weintraub, Gilmour-Grill, & Weiss, 2010), its acquisition requires systematic instruction and much practice (Rieger, 2007)" (Weigelt-Marom & Weintraub, 2018, p. 133).

That's pretty cool to know. And it is not just Weigelt-Marom and Weintraub who have found three stages. Donica et al. (2019, p. 2) also report a similar three phase process with keyboarding: 

"Keyboarding skills develop in a three-step motor skill progression (Stevenson & Just, 2014). Stage 1 uses cognition and vision while addressing letter identification and locating letters on the keyboard through touch keyboarding instruction. Stage 2 uses home keys and the development of muscle memory to select the keys using good technique. Stage 3 involves the mastery of the muscle memory and decreased use of vision to locate the keys. During Stage 3, speed increases and keyboarding becomes increasingly more automatic (Stevenson & Just, 2014)."

So as well as being aware that we need time to build our skills into our automatic memory, we must remember that holding onto our learning needs practice. Or it will disappear like water poured onto sand. 

Disturbingly quickly.

Sam

References:

Arthur, W., & Day, E. A. (2018). Skill Decay: The Science and Practice of Mitigating Skill Loss and Enhancing Retention. In P. Ward, J. M. Schraagen, J. Gore, E. M. Roth (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Expertise. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198795872.013.47

Donica, D. K., Giroux, P., & Kim, Y. J. (2019). Effectiveness of two keyboarding instructional approaches on the keyboarding speed, accuracy, and technique of elementary students. The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 7(4), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.15453/2168-6408.1599

Weigelt-Marom, H., & Weintraub, N. (2018). Keyboarding versus handwriting speed of higher education students with and without learning disabilities: Does touch-typing assist in narrowing the gap?. Computers & Education, 117(1), 132-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.10.008