Practise a skill in the real situations you will meet

Practise a skill in the kinds of situations you will actually meet, not only the one where you first learned it.

Por que funciona

Lectica states that skills do not typically transfer well from one context to another, and that learners need to practise in contexts similar to the ones they will encounter in life. Practising in the situations you actually meet follows that advice. Lectica’s recommendation is for similar contexts, so this page does not extend it to unrelated settings.

Como fazer

1. Name the situations you will actually meet where you need this skill.
2. Practise the same task once in each, keeping the task itself the same.
3. Note what changed in your performance from one setting to the next.
4. Repeat in the setting you find hardest, and compare it with your first setting.

Evidência

Lectica states that skills do not typically transfer well between contexts, and that learners should practise in contexts similar to the ones they will encounter. The transfer claim is Lectica’s; the practice is this page’s application. (mechanistic)

No training study of this practice was checked for this page; the benefit is this page’s inference from Lectica’s transfer claim.

Fontes

• Lectica. Skill theory: Kurt Fischer [web page, a secondary summary of the theory]. Accessed 2026-10-14.

Erro comum

Assuming that because you can do something in one setting you can do it everywhere, and being surprised when a new room undoes it.