Through studying the unit ‘research through practice’ I wanted to focus more on my practice rather than following the usual quantitative and qualitative approach to research, which I think comes a little more naturally to me because there are often rules and protocols to follow. But by focussing on my own ‘practice’ and deliberately using studying this MA as an opportunity to develop my own skills, I have come to realise research through practice isn’t as always clear cut, for me, this means I need to think more creatively and outside the box in terms of what I am researching, and I often find the concepts a little harder to grasp.
From research around the area of practice as research the term tacit knowledge comes up a lot, and a term I have come to appreciate, as tacit knowledge is defined as the knowledge, skills and abilities an individual gains through experience, which can’t necessarily be documented verbatim (Oragui, 2020). An example I can share of not inhabiting the ‘know-how’ or having the experience to respond appropriately is from my recent horse-riding lessons. I have been learning a specific movement called Shoulder-in, which is when you ask the horse to walk on 3 tracks, with their inside shoulder off the track moving on an inner track (see Figure 1). Even though my instructor explains to me the aids I should be asking – the explicit knowledge (See figure 2): knowledge which can be easily documented and replicated (Oragui, 2020) – I don’t behold the tacit knowledge to tweak my own body movements or know what I should be feeling beneath me because I don’t have much experience in performing this movement. Therefore, this proves the importance of practice, to inhabit a skill, hours of experimentation, understanding and coming across different obstacles helps to embed the skill, which is trying to be learnt.
(Image taken from http://artfulriding.com/why-do-we-need-the-shoulder-in)
Denning and Dunham outline a “skill is not the same as a practice – the practice is the context of the skill” (2012, p. 21), so in my example, the practice would be horse riding but the skill would be performing the movement shoulder-in. Denning and Durham believe practice is the exercise of a profession or discipline with the development of a skill by repetition (2012, p. 18). Through practice of the skill the tacit knowledge advances, learning the little nuances of the practice, tips and tricks, and troubleshooting, which is the unknown of which Donald Schön refers to, as he frames practice as something that is not always known and constant (1984, p. 17).
Tacit Knowledge also relates to your working memory, Denning and Durham (2012, p. 4) describe this as ‘embodied skills’ developing those automatic habits or muscle memory to perform an action, gaining those automatic habits, gives the individual greater capacity for their working memory to think about the task at hand. While I have been learning the movement shoulder-in my working memory has been on overdrive, as before I even think about asking for the movement, I need to ensure I have the horse going in a nice outline, the rhythm is good, as well as plan-ahead what I am about to do and ask the correct aids to hopefully feel what I’m supposed to feel. David Oragui (2020) highlights in his piece that individuals “don’t know what they don’t know” often when learning we are too afraid to ask the question in fear that we will look stupid or worse be embarrassed because we should already know that!? As the teacher or the expert, we often take for granted our previous knowledge and omit this when delivering, making assumptions the students or individuals we are sharing knowledge with already know what we are talking about. So, I think collating some of these thoughts from these 3 pieces, it is important to ensure your own understanding and ask the question to help fully grasp the concept, after we have all the information, then further practice will then aid in our development of tacit knowledge and embedding that muscle memory to give us more space to advance further and innovate.
This piece of writing perhaps took a different route than I first anticipated but is still equally important. Although the new skills I am learning for my MA are nothing to do with horse-riding, writing this allowed me to highlight the importance of understanding first and then the tacit knowledge will arrive with further practice and collaboration.
References
Denning, P.J. and Dunham, R. (2012) The Innovator’s Way: Essential Practices for Successful Innovation. The MIT Press.
Oragui, D. (2020) Tacit Knowledge: Definition, Examples, and Importance, Helpjuice. Available at: https://helpjuice.com/blog/tacit-knowledge (Accessed: 1 March 2022).
Schön, D. (1984) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action. 1st edition. New York: Basic Books.