Hoops and Hard Drills

Dave Hopla is the US's top shooting coach and can put 110 out of 111 shots through the hoop. What's this got to do with education? Dave's message is pure => learning is about memory, and skills need to be practiced to be learned.

Most of what we learn fades quickly from short-term memory. To push learning from short to long-term memory, you need to practice, regularly and often. The lesson we have to learn is that the 'sheep-dip' experience is wildly unproductive, unless there is follow-through and practice.

So why this sports analogy?

Recently the Financial Times surveyed 431 business leaders about the US losing its competitive edge to fast-growing economies like China and India. They found that three-quarters of incoming high school graduates were deficient in English writing skills, including grammar and spelling. Thirty percent felt that these graduates could not even write a simple business letter. Over half found high school graduates were deficient in mathematics.

How could this be?

Our graduates have high skill levels in use of technology and working in groups. These goal-oriented, tech-imbedded, multitasking, pro learning, collaborative, natural teamers, and community joiners should make idea workers. They trust parents and institutions, and want marriage, family, community, and work/life balance. Ninety percent of teens agree: “it’s cool to be smart.” along with open, honest communication, they want variety, challenge, diversity, action and to be part of something significant

Isn’t this what our employers have been calling for all through the 1990’s?

Opps, maybe we would have listened to “Mister Hoops.” To be motivated to reach goals is one thing. To put in the immense effort into drill and practice to learn vast quantities of knowledge and complex skills is another.

That is why 52 minutes a week in a computer lab is ineffective. That is why a few computers in the back of the room to run applications are ineffective. That is why laptops alone are not effective. That is why teaching students to use technology is not effective. That is why $100 and a couple of days in teacher training per year is not effective.

When eLearning is judged by these implementations then we expect it to be ineffective. eLearning levels of success can only be achieved when a school is transformed with the right level of digital curriculum, continuous teacher education and professional development, professional level of technical support, and 100% student access to instructional computing and formative assessment.

The drill and practice for reading, writing and arithmetic can be imbedded from K to 12, and our graduates will be able to sink the 21^st Century Workforce basket every time.