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Camp Counseling: Verbal Instructions and Demonstration

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Camp Counseling: Verbal Instructions and Demonstration

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For the past two summers, I have been a children's camp counselor, and this past summer I was a counselor for the Rec Sports Camp at the Natatorium. Working with children is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done, but absolutely takes a lot of work. The main goal of the sports camp was to teach the children different games (not always a classic sport) that involved active movement and exercise. Thinking back to the first few weeks of summer, I thought I had chosen the wrong job because teaching young kids is much more difficult than I thought it would be.

As the weeks went on, I was able to implement effective verbal instructions to help the children learn new patterns of coordination. The most important thing I learned as a camp counselor when giving instructions or demonstrating a new game was to minimize the amount of information I gave (focus on critical elements) and use previously learned skills. For example, if we were learning how to play lightning or shoot a basketball I would focus the children in on "keeping their eye on the basket." This is an essential tip to making a basket and is more important than other elements of the task, like dribbling before taking a shot. Also, if we learned how to play kickball the week before, I would use some of the same strategies learned in kickball to teach the kids how to play soccer. This overlap in skill helped the kids retain more information, and made my demonstrations and verbal instructions more clear.

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If you can ski you can snowboard: Positive and Negative Transfer of Learning

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If you can ski you can snowboard: Positive and Negative Transfer of Learning

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Skiing is one my favorite winter sports, and actually is one of the only parts of winter I actually enjoy. There are a few nearby ski hills I go to here in Madison, and Hoofers ski and snowboard club puts really fun ski events together. Whenever I go skiing in Madison, more than half of my friends that go with me snowboard. I have always been very intrigued by snowboarding, but have never actually tried. A lot of my friends ski and snowboard, and say that although they are very different, it is easier to learn how to do one after learning the other first. This excites me because I would love to give it a try!

There is probably some type of positive transfer of learning, or beneficial effect of learning how to snowboard due to previous experience with the techniques of skiing. The identical elements theory supports this in that there are similarities between skiing and snowboarding, such as the ability to balance  when in motion down a slope. Skiing and snowboarding are performed in the same environmental context too. The transfer-appropriate processing theory also emphasizes a positive transfer in learning for skiing and snowboarding because there is a similarity in the processing requirements for turning and stopping on the slopes.

With this being said, I don't expect snowboarding to be significantly easy because I have experience with skiing. Negative transfer of learning could also occur because the environmental context characteristics (slope, snow) of skiing and snowboarding are similar, but the movement characteristics are different; snowboarding is on one board facing sideways and skiing is on two "boards" facing forwards. I am nervous, but am hoping to give snowboarding a try, and eventually practice enough to get good at both winter sports to make winter go a little faster!

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Newest Italian resident: Whole and Part Practice

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Newest Italian resident: Whole and Part Practice

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This summer, for 6 weeks, I am studying abroad in Rome, Italy! I am so excited and can't wait to learn more about Italian culture because my family is 100% Italian. My only worry is that I know how to speak zero Italian (besides the usual- pizza, spaghetti). I constantly wonder how I am going to order at a restaurant or even ask questions if I'm lost without knowing any Italian. I thought the best idea would be to start to practicing now. I also signed up to take Italian while I'm there.

First, I assessed the degree of complexity and organization of speaking Italian, and I came to the conclusion that it involves both high complexity (a lot of information processing) and organization (every component of the language most flow together to make sense). My plan is to start practicing now using the strategies of segmentation and simplification. If I start out practicing the basic words, then I can start forming short phrases, and eventually form whole sentences. Segmentation allows me to practice one part (one word), and then practice the next part with the first practiced part (using the words in short phrases), etc. Simplification will be a helpful strategy in that I will start out by reducing the speed at which I communicate, and reducing my attention demands by beginning with an introductory Italian class.

With these strategies part- task strategies, I should be speaking Italian in no time (hopefully). The most important part is to eventually transition from part-practice into whole-practice so I can communicate smoothly with the locals.

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Feedback makes you faster!: Augmented Feedback

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Feedback makes you faster!: Augmented Feedback

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One of the most inspirational people I have ever met was my track and field coach from high school. Specifically, she coached me in long and triple jump, which I soon realized had way more technical components to it than I thought when I first began competing. The only way to improve in long jump is to take time and analyze what errors you made to improve performance. Augmented feedback, or information provided about the task (in this case from my coach) was beneficial in enhancing my skill acquisition.

The most useful form of augmented feedback I received was from video knowledge of performance. Long and triple jump require a specific series of movements that happen so quickly, it is almost impossible to pinpoint what inherent (natural) feedback is available. Video feedback game me the opportunity to observe both the good and bad technical components of my jump. I was able to pause the video and observe specific positions my body created. My coach then verbalized what these positions meant, and therefore gave me more feedback to analyze my skills. Without this feedback, I wouldn't know what I was doing wrong because of how quickly the movement occurred.

My junior year of high school, I was able to go to state in three events; long jump, 4x100 m relay, and the 4x200 m relay. I owe to my coach and her excellent feedback for such an incredible opportunity!

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I have been participating in competitive dance since I was three years old, and one of my biggest fears while performing on stage is forgetting all the moves to a routine in front of an entire crowd. So far, I have not managed to forget a routine in its entirety, but there have been moments where my memory has blanked and I have had to improv a few steps. Even after practicing a routine for almost a year, I wondered how I managed to a forget the steps.

As I practiced the routine throughout the year, I began to transfer from novice learner to expert at performing the moves. In the beginning when I first learned the routine, I was dependent on my declarative memory, which stores conscious information about "what to do" and general knowledge. As I became more of an expert with the steps, I began to revert to my procedural memory instead of declarative, which is a nonconscious, automatic memory system. I was able to spend less time focusing my attention on the steps as they became more solidified in my long term memory.

The problem I had when I forgot the steps on stage had to do with retrieval problems from my long term memory. I "choked under pressure" because it was difficult to harness declarative memories of the moves that had long since been encoded in procedural form. From now on, I plan to take time to go over my routines before I forget a dance move in front of an entire crowd!