How skilful learners practise—and why it matters

In many classrooms, students are doing exactly what we’ve asked. They’re focused. Careful. Trying to get everything right. They’re not rushing. They’re not distracted. They’re doing the work.

But they’re not getting better.

What they’re doing is rehearsing—and rehearsal has its place. It happens in the Performance Zone, where the goal is fluency, accuracy, and consistency. It’s where students refine what they already know. They’re working carefully, trying to be correct, building speed and confidence.

But if we want students to raise the bar—to move beyond what they can already do—we need something more.

That’s where Purposeful Practice comes in.

Two types of practice. Two different goals.

The world’s leading researcher on expertise, Anders Ericsson, showed that great performers don’t just practice more—they practice differently. What sets them apart is their engagement in deliberate practice: effort that targets the edges of ability, is rich in feedback, and designed to provoke improvement.

In Learnership, we call this Purposeful Practice. It happens in the Learning Zone, where students are intentionally stretching beyond their current capabilities.

It’s not about performing perfectly. It’s about getting better. Students are expected to make mistakes—Stretch Mistakes—and use those mistakes to reveal what they haven’t mastered yet.

Where rehearsal improves performance, purposeful practice builds capability.

Rehearsal helps students do what they already know more reliably.

Purposeful Practice helps students do what they don’t yet know, more skillfully.

Why this distinction matters

When students are asked to engage in Purposeful Practice but behave as if they’re rehearsing, problems arise. They try to avoid mistakes. They expect perfection. They become discouraged when success isn’t immediate.

They’re applying the wrong mindset to the wrong zone.

And when students only ever rehearse, even skilfully, they may look engaged—but their learning plateaus. They get better at performing, not progressing. They work hard, but don’t feel like they’re improving. And over time, they start to question whether effort is worth it.

Helping students distinguish between rehearsal and purposeful practice isn’t a technicality. It’s foundational to helping them grow.

Learning is a skill, and it needs a more skillful language

In every field of expertise, learners develop a nuanced vocabulary to describe what they’re doing. Musicians don’t just “play better”—they talk about tempo, tone, phrasing. Athletes don’t just “train”—they distinguish between strength, speed, flexibility.

The same should be true of learning.

Developing Learnership means helping students build a language of learning—so they can make better decisions about when to rehearse, when to practice purposefully, and how to behave in each case.

That’s what allows learners to become more intentional, more reflective, and more effective. It’s how they get better—at getting better.

What skillful teachers do differently

Skillful teachers help students:

Know when they’re in the Performance Zone vs Learning Zone
Use rehearsal to strengthen performance, and Purposeful Practice to build capability
Respond to mistakes differently in each context
Invest effort deliberately, with a clear goal in mind
They don’t treat all practice the same, and they don’t expect students to either.