Paul Fitts & Michael Posner

What stage is this skill in — not this child?

The person and the problem

Psychologists whose three-stage account of skill learning still organizes how this path doses a cue.

The deeper idea

Cognitive: figuring out what to do. Associative: refining. Autonomous: automatic enough to notice the game. Stage is per skill. A seven-year-old can be autonomous at running and cognitive at skipping.

Evidence and limits

Do not freeze a child in a stage. Do not lecture an autonomous run and ignore a cognitive skip in the same body.

Teaching application · 5–adult

Match the dose

Beginner: demo, simplify, encourage. Intermediate: vary and give specific feedback. Advanced: problems, not lectures — let them coach a peer.

What to observe

Are you flooding a beginner with corrections, or boring an advanced child with “step with the other foot” forever?

Also

KR is the outcome. KP is the movement. Both have a time.

Start with: Week 3. Three stages of learning on Theories.

Week 3 · Motor learning Three stages of learning More physical education