Making Deliberate Practice a Reality: Year Three of the Collegiate Leadership Competition

• In Event: Making It Real: Using Experience to Enhance Teaching and Learning

Short Description

In its third year, Collegiate Leadership Competition focused on three areas: operationalizing "deliberate practice," perfecting the use of skill sheets, and collecting empirical data on how the experience impacts participants’ leadership self-efficacy and motivation to lead. This engaging and fast-paced presentation is designed to spark debate, dialogue, and new insights.

Detailed Abstract

The Collegiate Leadership Competition (CLC) was founded to disrupt current approaches to leadership learning and education. The organization is committed to creating a world filled with men and women who are ready and willing to lead - especially in these turbulent times. We provide the space for practice and a place to compete, experiment, and grow. In addition, we stretch students and coaches to the boundaries of their leadership knowledge, skills, and abilities. In its third year, the Collegiate Leadership Competition continues to explore the role of deliberate practice in leadership education.

Theoretical foundation of CLC

K. Anders Ericsson and colleagues (2007), highlight several requirements for an educational intervention to be considered “deliberate practice.” It’s interesting to benchmark these with current approaches to leadership education, because one could say we have a long way to go – there is a lot of opportunity to explore, create, and innovate.

In 1993, Ericsson et al. (1993) concluded that it is deliberate practice that separates world class performers from novices. The authors concluded that deliberate practice involves components such as motivation to learn, access to coaching and feedback, a structured curriculum, considerable time (upwards of 4-5 hours each day), and engagement in activities outside of one’s current ability level. In 2016, Ericsson & Pool published several criteria for an intervention to be considered “deliberate practice.” The following is sample text from their book “Peak.” There are about seven more hallmarks which are just as provocative when viewed through the lens of our current approaches to leadership learning and education.

1. “requires a field that is already reasonably developed – that is, a field in which the best performers have attained a level of performance that clearly sets them apart from people who are just entering the field” (p. 98). Ericsson & Pool also emphasize the need for objective criteria upon which superior performers can be judged.
2. “requires a teacher who can provide practice activities designed to help a student improve his or her performance…in particular, deliberate practice is informed and guided by the best performers’ accomplishments and by an understanding of what these expert performers do to excel. Deliberate practice is purposeful practice that knows where it is going and how to get there” (p. 99).
3. “develops skills that other people have already figured out how to do and for which effective training techniques have been established” and has “teachers to provide beginners with the correct fundamental skills in order to minimize the chances that the student will have to relearn those fundamentals skills later when at a more advanced level” (p. 99).

The use of skills sheets as one component of operationalizing deliberate practice

One approach to displaying growth and progress in multiple domains (e.g., karate, firefighting, medical education) is the use of skill sheets. We have developed 5 CLC Skill Sheets that help us operationalize the notion of deliberate practice around the topic of ethical decision making, problem solving, leadership, presentation skills, and navigating difficult conversations. The skill sheets are aligned with the curriculum and are used during practice and at the competition. Skill Sheets provide a clear benchmark for students and the use of expert raters and videotaping student performances helps participants "see" where their areas for growth exist. In the context of the session, we will share our skill sheets and explore how they could be used in other contexts.

Our empirical findings - student motivation to lead and leadership self-efficacy

In Spring 2017, we conducted research (time one/time two research design) on CLC participants. We measured their perceived efficacy on multiple CLC curricular topics (e.g., ethical decision making, presentation skills), their motivation to lead, and their leadership self-efficacy (Chan & Drasgow, 2001). The goal was to see if the intervention of deliberate practice affected students perceived abilities. We will share our data and discuss the implications of what we found.

In essence, the session moves from a theoretical model (deliberate practice), to a description of one tool for development (skill sheets), to empirical research on the efficacy of our methods. The session concludes by exploring four key questions that we continue to grapple with as we work to disrupt, innovate and create the future of leadership education.

Session Description - We will set the stage with some content and focus most of our time on 4 critical questions listed below
1. Background of CLC - 5 minutes
2. Theoretical foundation of CLC - Deliberate practice and the expertise literature - 10 minutes
3. The use of skills sheets as one component of operationalizing deliberate practice - 15 minutes
4. Our empirical findings - student motivation to lead and leadership self-efficacy - 15 minutes
5. Discussion and dialogue around four key questions - 45 minutes (working in small groups/priority is great dialogue in this segment)
- How do we, as a field, move closer to a true sense of deliberate practice in leadership education? (all dimensions of deliberate practice will be shared in the session - because of space, I did not include them above)
- Which dimensions of deliberate practice require the most innovation and work on the part of educators?
- Other than skills sheets, what additional methods can help us truly measure progress and growth?
- Other than leadership self-efficacy and motivation to lead, what other dimensions may be of interest for scholars?

Participants

• Scott J. Allen, Collegiate Leadership Competition

• Daniel Jenkins, University of Southern Maine

• Bela Krizanovic, Collegiate Leadership Competition