e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning

11.2. The Paradox of Practice

We've all heard the expression that "practice makes perfect." But how important is practice to skill acquisition? Studies of top performers in music, chess, and sports point to the criticality of practice in the development of expertise. Sloboda, Davidson, Howe, and Moore (1996) compared the practice schedules of higher-performing and lower-performing teenage music students of equal early musical ability and exposure to music lessons. All of the students began to study music around age six. The higher performers had devoted much more time to practice. By age twelve higher performers were practicing about two hours a day, compared to fifteen minutes a day for the lower performers. The researchers concluded that "There ...