• Goals
  • Describe analysis in the context of learning.
  • Skillfully apply analysis to your own learning or teaching.

Analysis (What)

In the context of learning, analysis is the process of breaking down the information and journey down into smaller parts and steps in a way that makes learning easy, enjoyable, effective, and rewarding.

Examples

1. Piano. Breaking down the learning of songs, scales, chords, rhythms, ear training and so on into small parts and steps so that things are easy, enjoyable, effective and rewarding for the learner.

2. Critical Thinking. Breaking the learning of arguments, logic, fallacies, persuasive techniques, and so on into small parts and steps such that the learning is effective and straightforward for the learner.

Rationale for Analysis

Here are some reasons why skill with analysis is useful.

1. Make learning easy and rewarding for yourself and for those you teach.

2. Equips you to apply things as you go; learn by doing.

Here are some concerns:

1. Skilled analysis is uncommon.

Analysis (How To)

Principles

1. There is a natural order in learning that progresses from novice to beginner to intermediate to advanced to expert.

2. Analysis involves information and goals. Both of these are broken down into parts.

3. Working memory is limited to 7ish things.

4. Attaining a big goal involves attaining many subgoals.

What

Analysis is the process of breaking a topic down into right-sized subgoals.

Why

Make learning easier; step-by-step.

How

When the learning task feels overwhelming, break it down into smaller parts. Sequence these parts into a natural order that aligns with the level of the learner.

Relationships

Analysis–breaking learning goals down into subgoals, is one of the empowering fundamentals of Deliberate Practice.

Analysis (What)

Analysis

In general, analysis is the process of breaking something down into its component parts or elements and figuring out the relationships between these elements.

Analysis in learning.

In the context of learning, analysis is the process of breaking a big learning task down into small parts and sequencing these small parts into a natural progression (e.g., novice-beginner-intermediate-expert progression).

Examples of Analysis

Engineering

Goal State: Excel at engineering.

Analysis: Break this down into small subgoals.

Examples: Here are some examples of subgoals for learning engineering.

• Describe engineering.
• Make sound estimates.
• Apply the equation of mechanical equilibrium.
• Apply Ohm’s law.
• Work effectively in teams.
• Design high-quality technology products.
• Apply statistics.

When a subgoal is too big to be learned, break it down into finer subgoals. For example, here is a breakdown of the design goal.

• Design high-quality technology products.
  • Describe design
  • Explain how to design any product (good or service)
  • Describe codes and standards
  • Create a portfolio that showcases 5+ products that you have played a major role in the design.
  • Test hardware and software products.

Statistics

Goal State: Excel at applying statistics (given that the learner has had one class at the university level).

Here are some of the subgoals.

• Create good histograms.
• Skillfully use the mean, mode, and median.
• Describe the spread of data using the standard approaches: range, standard deviation, variance, coefficient of variation, percentiles, and so on.
• Skillfully use the binomial distribution.
• Conduct hypothesis tests.

Rationale

Here are some reasons why skilled analysis is worthwhile.

1. Makes learning anything easy.

2. Allows the learner to apply what they are learning today, not in some distant future.

3. Naturally progresses the learner from novice to expert.

4. Eliminates information overload and feeling overwhelmed.

5. If a learner has only a tiny amount of time to learn, say 10 hours, analysis leads to learning the most important things. Later on, this learner can review their documentation and build on this foundation.

Here are some concerns

1. Analysis is a hard skill to learn.

2. The breakdown that a learner needs is strongly dependent on their background and their uniqueness. Thus, if one is skilled, analysis is easy for self or for a mentee, but it may not be possible for a group of 60 students because of individual differences. However, analysis can work for many or most of the students in a 60-person group.

3. Sequencing information in a natural order is straightforward in some subjects like swimming because there is a natural progression. However, in many academic subjects that are content-rich, there is not a natural order to the topics and the sequencing requires higher levels of skills.

Analysis (How To)

Here is how analysis fits into the Deliberate Practice framework.

• Goal State: Envision the goal state for the learner.

  • A goal state is a description of the conditions that will apply after the learner is finished learning. Here is an example.
    • Goal State: Excel at calculus at a level appropriate to the completion of a 2-semester sequence.

• Outer Repetitions: While attainment of the goal state is in progress, do the following.

  • Analysis: Break the goal state down into appropriate subgoals.
    • If you are learning, all you need to figure out is the next few subgoals.
    • If you are teaching, do this super fast and do this often. Over time, you’ll get the right breakdown.
  • Subgoal Attainment: Progressively reach subgoals by engaging in repetitions structured with the fundamental elements of Deliberate Practice: feedback, imitation, research, reflective thinking, and such.

Tip: Anytime learning is too hard or feels overwhelming, break it down into small subgoals.

Quality in a Subgoal

A subgoal has a high level of quality when the following criteria are hit.

1. Sequencing: The subgoal provides the next most useful thing to learn for the learner.

2. Scope: The subgoal is right-sized for the learner. Seems easy to attain but has some level of challenge. A good rule of thumb is that the learner can understand the associated information with about 10 minutes of reading or listening.

3. Focus: The subgoal is focused on one main thing.

4. Results Oriented: The subgoal has a well-defined goal state, typically one that describes performance and knowledge.

5. Rewards: Attainment of the subgoal typically feels rewarding for the learner.