Rethinking Assessment, functional skills & more
How assessment shapes behaviour and what it really means to develop skill
Research Insight: Understanding the Dynamics of Skill Acquisition
Podcast Snip: How Assessment Shapes Behaviour
Putting it into practice: Rethinking the Fundamentals
Research Insight:
Understanding the Dynamics of Skill Acquisition
Recently, I’ve been going back over some of the key chapters from books that have influenced my understanding of skill acquisition and how it can help us as coaches. This chapter, Understanding the Dynamics of Skill Acquisition, is Chapter 5 in one of the most influential books in this area, Dynamics of Skill Acquisition: An Ecological Dynamics Approach, and it contains lots of nuggets that are really useful for coaches.
It frames skill as something that emerges from the interaction between the performer, the task, and the environment. That shift has real implications for how we design practice, how we assess learning, and how we view our role as a coach.
Here are five key insights that stood out for me this week.
1)Degeneracy is the ability for performers to solve the problem using different solutions. It has adaptability at it’s core as the learners are able to adapt the solutions they use based on the specific context they are in. As the constraints are changing they can adapt to solve the problem which challenges the technique first approach to skill acquisition.
Degeneracy provides a high level of robustness in neurobiological systems where various synergies can achieve similar functions under certain conditions yet perform distinct functions under other conditions (Riley et al., 2011; Whitacre, 2011).
2)Assessing learning requires us to understand which constraints are shaping behaviour. Observation becomes crucial because assessment is not a one-off event but an ongoing process. In education, this is often referred to as formative assessment or Assessment for Learning. Once we recognise the key constraints influencing performance, we can manipulate them to challenge the learner appropriately. Those changes should guide the learner’s search toward more functional coordination patterns. We can then start to view assessment as part of the design process rather than something separate from it
Assessment of learning requires nonlinear pedagogists to be familiar with the influential constraints that shape behavior. In structuring an effective learning environment, these constraints should be manipulated to facilitate the learner’s search for more effective coordination patterns
3)From a CLA perspective, movement variability is not simply error. It can be a sign that learners are exploring and adapting to the constraints they face. Changes in constraints can increase variability, which may help new coordination patterns emerge. Rather than trying to eliminate variability too early, we can use it deliberately in our practice design to encourage exploration. The amount of variability we use is going to depend on the levels of the players and our intentions for the activity as a coach.
However, we are now beginning to appreciate that movement variability may be viewed in a more positive light. In the motor system, variability is omnipresent and unavoidable and might even provide a useful signpost for exploratory behavior in learners; in fact, a change in constraints can act as a catalyst for a new movement pattern by helping to induce more variability in the learner.
4)Movement variability can be used intentionally to help learners move away from stable but less effective solutions and discover more functional ones. Sometimes there are solutions that players are using that are working ok, but we know they may not work well as the conditions get more challenging. By manipulating constraints, we can increase variability and gently destabilise these patterns. This creates space for learners to search for more functional solutions. Rather than correcting the movement.
Further, we have described how movement variability can be viewed positively as a medium or platform through which transitions from one action to another lead to the emergence of a more functional pattern. Practitioners can emphasize movement variability during practice to weaken stable states of coordination that are mildly dysfunctional and that learners can use to seek alternative and more appropriate solution
5)Effective coaching sits between guidance and discovery. The CLA is sometimes criticised as being too hands off, but this is a big misconception in my opinion. Feedback, modelling and instruction etc. can still have a place. The key is knowing when to step in and when to step back. Too much input can reduce exploration, while too little can leave learners stuck. Our role is to provide enough support to guide learning without taking control of the solution
Striking a balance between insightful input and discovery learning is essential for optimal skills retention and transfer. Tools such as feedback, modeling, and hands- on instruction still exist within the constraints- led framework; however, knowing when to be hands off is equally important.
Reference
Button, C., Seifert, L., Chow, J. Y., Araújo, D., & Davids, K. (2021). Understanding the Dynamics of Skill Acquisition. In Dynamics of skill acquisition: An ecological dynamics approach pp (. Human Kinetics Publishers
If you’re interested in learning more about the ideas in this fantastic book you should check out Chris McCosker’s newsletter ‘Learning in Design’ where he’ll be exploring the book chapter by chapter
Podcast Snip
How Assessment Shapes Behaviour
I always pick up so much from any podcast episode that Jia Yi Chow is a guest on, and this was no different. The idea that really stood out in this episode was the impact that assessment has on behaviour in practice. The focus in the episode was on coach behaviour, but it will inevitably shape learners’ behaviour too. If our assessment focuses on ideal movement form, then our coaching will naturally shift towards producing that form. Even if a coach values exploration, they can become constrained by what the organisation requires them to assess. In that sense, assessment becomes a constraint acting on the coach, which then shapes the learning environment.
If we believe skill is about adaptation and exploration, then assessment needs to reflect that. This can feel like quite a big shift. A helpful way to frame it is: can the player adapt this skill under changing conditions? As a coach, we can then make small adjustments to the constraints and then we’ll need to use the key observational skills we discussed in the last newsletter to assess how learners adapt.
Putting it into practice
Rethinking the fundamentals
Assessments used for sports skills often focus on the technical “fundamentals” of the movement. The assumption is that unless performers can display these fundamentals in isolation, they won’t be able to perform the skill effectively in context.
For example, here’s the assessment criteria for performing the stationary dribble in basketball from the Test of Gross Motor Development, which is used to assess ‘Fundamental Movement Skills’
This would be quite a ‘linear’ assessment method (technique first, context later) and inevitably impact the way we were teaching the skill. I would also argue that it doesn’t assess ‘skill’ effectively (this is something I will dive into more in the future)
If we have a different view of what the fundamentals of a skill we can then design more meaningful assessment tasks to measure skill learning. From a CLA perspective, rather than looking at the fundamentals we would look at if a skill is ‘functional’ or not. Functional simply means the movement helps solve the problem the player is facing in that moment.
For skill learning, the functional skills we would be looking for would be more like this:
Coordinating the body toward a goal: Learning to softly assemble movement solutions that work for them.
Perceiving specifying information: Becoming more attuned (or sensitive) to the information that actually guides effective action.
Staying adaptable: Being able to adjust as the problem, pressure, or environment changes.
Finding more than one way to solve a problem: What we talked about with degeneracy earlier: Being able to achieve the same outcome in different ways.
These are the kind of abilities that truly underpin skilful performance in any sport.
If we were to redesign how we assess the dribble, we might look at things like this instead:
Change the ball size: Can the player reorganise their dribble when using a bigger or smaller ball?
Change the opponent: How do they adjust their dribble based on the opponent they are facing?
Change the starting position: Can they adapt if we challenge them by starting in a different position, facing another way, or changing how close the opponent begins?
Change the distance: Can they dribble effectively over both shorter and longer distances?
As coaches, this would give us far richer information about how skilful a dribbler the player really is.
That’s all for this week
See you soon
Philip O’Callaghan
A Simple Place to Start
If you are new to the Constraints-Led Approach or still figuring out how it all fits together, the CLA Crash Course is a free seven-day introduction designed specifically for coaches.
It breaks down the key ideas in clear, practical language and gives you the minimum effective dose needed to begin thinking differently about practice design.
You can check it out here: