Abstract
This chapter briefly reviews the literature that explores the training technique of deliberate practice and the related constructs, training outcomes of achievement goal orientation, self-efficacy, perceived instrumentality, and reflective practice. This work explains how educators can use and measure these variables to enhance current training methodologies. As part of creating more effective training, the TARGET model, developed by Ames, will be utilized to discuss potential ways to enhance training outcomes in a post-COVID-19 world. Specifically, suggestions are offered for enhancing online training using deliberate practice combined with the TARGET model within a medical setting where there are limited resources.
TopBackground
Ericsson derived the idea of deliberate practice from his work on expertise, or developing the characteristics, skills, and knowledge that distinguish experts from novices or less-experienced individuals (Ericsson, 2018) across a variety of domains, including music (Ericsson et al., 1993), sports (Shea & Paull, 1996), and medicine and surgery (Norman et al., 2018). Ericsson’s research suggested that experts are made through hard work and diligent practice, rather than by innate talent. He defined the work needed to become an expert as deliberate practice, the individualized training activities designed to improve specific aspects of one’s performance through repetition and successive refinement (Ericsson et al., 1993). By engaging in these effortful and relevant tasks, and by utilizing feedback from an instructor or coach, a student can incrementally increase their skills, which will eventually lead to superior performance (Ericsson et al., 1993).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Self-Efficacy: Beliefs regarding one’s capability for a particular task or endeavor.
Achievement Goal Orientation: Cognitive representations of an end state involving an interpretation of one’s competence with a specific task.
Remote Learning: Learning taking place in any format where the learner is not in person with the instructor.
Deliberate Practice: The measured and focused repetition of a task paired with feedback from a standard aimed at improving one’s performance.
Mastery-Approach Orientation: An end state focusing on general self-improvement, developing competence, and achieving task mastery.
Perceived Instrumentality: A perception of the usefulness of a given task/training toward the user’s future goals.
Reflective Practice: Reflecting on clinical experience with the intention to utilize knowledge, cognitive skills, emotional reactions, attitudes, or beliefs to make meaning of information obtained in a session.