For this report, I decided to read and reflect on the book, Talent Is Overrated, by Geoff Colvin. The main focus of this book is answering the fundamental problem of what makes a performer great. The scientifically supported answers this book provides reaches beyond what the typical population and I were socially programmed to believe. These belief issues, Geoff Colvin explains, is a major problem because it inhibits “average” people to ever reach the great potential we are all capable of (Colvin, 2008). The main belief Geoff Colvin is trying to eliminate is that only innate talent can excel us to the levels of greatness. He does this by debunking engrained stories of child prodigies such as Tiger Woods, Mozart, Warren Buffet, and many others. …show more content…
Most great performers, due to the massive amount of time it takes to become great, have to start at a very early age. For the most part no child really desires putting in hours of deliberate practice, so according to Geoff Colvin most parents have to initially force them into that specific activity (Colvin, 2008). Both readings agree that extrinsic motivation detours the amount of motivation, creativity, and performance later on, but according to Colvin parents of future great performing kids made them practice. This often came via threats, but instead of taking away extrinsic motivators like allowance, they would take away things that would intrinsically motivate them (Colvin, 2008). This brought about eventual good feedback through competitions, which for high achievement kids is very motivating. Colvin also writes about how this intrinsic nature of the feedback the children are getting from doing well in competitions, achievement and competence (Colvin, 2008). In addition they were also receiving instructional praise from the handpicked coaches and teachers. This allowed the child to progress from extrinsic to intrinsic goals. I relate this to our textbook when it talks about regulation and internalization. This is because I see all three stages of regulation in play: introjected, identified, and integrated. The child is originally forced into going, to seeing the importance of practice, to making his own goals. As I discussed before, deliberate practice is over many years, and is going to take more than extrinsic goals to accomplish. According to Colvin, there is a moment in the child’s life where the intrinsic motivation clicks in, and he internalizes the value of practice, the high need for achievement, and competence(Colvin,
Children fail multiple times while they are participating in drills, practices, and competitions in soccer. In the face of failure children make attributions, otherwise defined as explanations (10/11/17). Coaches can help the children with the attributions about failures because they are able to provide a social scaffolding on why the failures may have occurred and how to motivate the children to not give up in the face of failure. The primary attribution that coaches can aid children in is the unstable attribution. An unstable attribution is due to things that are likely to change in the future (10/11/17). In the face of failure children make these attributions, soccer coaches are able to help the children through these failures and attributions because they can alter their coaching style to tailor to each child. They can design more drills to help the children learn in new ways and they can also give more positive feedback to the children during practices and competition to increase the children’s success. Coaches can allow practice of new skills on a daily basis to help with the unstable attributions because they can help control what is likely to change in the children’s performance in the future. They can help encourage children to continue to practice on their own outside of practice to improve their success in practices and competitions. There are two patterns of motivation in response to failure,
In It's Not Talent ; It's just work Annie Dillard's is trying to inform us that life is not as bad as we think it is . Dillard's explain " you do it for love and respect , for your your own life ; the world ; and you do it for love and respect for task it's self . I do alot of things to get to get my respect so I felt that would be something similar to what's going on in It's Not Talent ; It's Just Work . You do it for love and respect for your own life .I do alot of things helpful to get my respect " I didn't like it at first , but now I do ".
Parten’s idea of child lead stages of play would support JNTCP ‘behaviour that is freely chosen, personally directed’ as when the child is ready to progress they make the personal decision. It could be said that Parten’s job would have influenced the way she views play. Being a psychologist may have led her to believe that child led play is more beneficial for the child’s development as they are able to figure it out for themselves, thus making the child more independent. A teacher idea of play however, would be the opposite to that of a child psychologist, as a teacher would believe that adult led play is more beneficial for a child, as it can have a planned outcome and consequently better the child’s social, emotional and physical development. The Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY, 2002) research clearly states that there becomes a point where children need to be supported by an adult in order to further their thinking. Vygotsky theory of proximal development would support the teacher’s idea of child lead play. Proximal development represents the gap between what a child can accomplish alone, and what they can do with the guidance of an adult. Similarly, Bruner’s theory of scaffolding mimics the same idea as Vygotsky, the adult giving a helping hand to the child’s play to better their learning and
That being said no matter what size you are the skills you possess is where talent is born for athletes. The first main component in this book that I will discuss in my paper is deep practice. Deep practice challenges the intuition of talent and tries to go against it. Our thought process
There is no doubt that conformity is essential to the harmony of society. It allows for individuals to work together under a uniform set of rules and norms. In childhood and adolescence, the time during which students go to school, children begin to learn these basic rules of civilization. They socialize with others, learn respect and become well-rounded individuals. This requires students to not only develop their talents but also their weaknesses. This Achilles' heel may be academic, such as math and science or more artistic, like vocal music (Source F). Although students may not be pursuing a future in these areas, learning them is part of becoming a balanced person academically. Only strengthening and focusing on a student’s specific talent could create an image...
Statsky also makes another faulty assumption, which is that competition is an adult imposition on the world of children’s play. She says in her article, “The primary goal of a professional athlete – winning – is not appropriate for children” (629). Children compete to win in the same way that adults do, and they do so on their own without any adult pressure. Common playground gam...
talents in music and sports; although, we have been taught the impact of individuals like
As children grow and develop, their actions become more self-directed and less subject to outside regulation by others (Poulsen, et al., 2006, p....
The theory that the more one practices the better one becomes. To follow the dream of excellence you must practice your assignment for a total of 10,000 hours or more. “The students who would end up the best in their class began to practice more than everyone else: six hours a week by age nine, eight hours a week by age twelve, sixteen hours by age fourteen, and up and up, until the age of twenty they were practicing well over thirty hours a week” (39) in a sense this excerpt confirms what society has told people for years, that practice makes perfect. Of course some people are born with raw talent, however how does one expect to improve their abilities if they do not rehearse. Anyone can be mediocre without practice, but in order to make it in the big shots one must give their one hundred and ten percent to beat out the competition. It’s all about how one distinguishes themself from another and the only way to do that is to show off that skill that has been practiced repeatedly. Preferably 10,000 hours
Have you ever wondered how people became great and what it took for them to become great. People used to think that you were born with greatness. Author Geoff Colvin wrote an article called, “ What It Takes To Be Great”, that explains what you need to do in order to become great or talented. Colvin says in the article that it takes deliberate practice. For example you can practice dribbling a basketball for 30 minutes everyday for a month.
He mentions that practice isn’t something you do once and you’re good, but it’s the thing that makes you good. He goes on to describe the stories of other prodigies or well known people and connects them with having over ten thousand hours of practice and experience in their specific
With more and more children participating in some sort of organized sport than ever before, there is a constant concern regarding the pressures kids are brought into to excel. Emotionally over-involved parents often think that it is their responsibility to persuade, push, or support the children's fantasies or sporting objectives, even if the kids themselves do not share the same aspirations as his/her parents. Part of growing up is learning what interests you the most. It's how one becomes familiar with who they really are and what they enjoy doing in life. Unfortunately, for many young children, his/her parents seem to take his/her own lives into their own hands. Most parents want their kids to grow up to be "superstars", make it big after the college scenario, and perhaps go on to play professionally or succeed in the Olympics. We all know that there are the few that make it professionally, and having your parent paint a picture for you as you're barely going into grade school is unethical. Yet for the unfortunate, these kids are helpless to the pressure that is put on them at such a young age. Take Todd Marinovich, for example. For the child's entire life he was exercised, fed, schooled, and drilled with his fathers' one g...
In Lisa Strick essay, “So What’s so bad about Being So-So? Lisa talks about our competitive nature and the need to be the best. Sometimes competition gets in the way of us being able to following through on a hobby, sport or activity without being given the side eye because we aren’t great that activity. Stick feels as though she let her son down because she didn’t start him in soccer at an early age like the other kids. She states, “ I’m sorry, son, I guess I blew it” (p. 204). She states this after the other kids made fun of her own son; “We don’t want that dodo on our soccer team… He doesn’t know a goal kick from a head shot” (p.204). Kids can be ruthless and not care what they say. Hearing someone say that we suck can make you not want to continue to try.
“Children and youth with outstanding talent perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.
That is, children and young people determine and control the content and intent of their play, by following their own instincts, ideas and interests, in their own way for their own reasons.’