Burton, Brown, and Fischer 3 Skiing as a Model of Instruction
The ICM Paradigm
The acquisition of a complex skill is difficult when the starting state and the final state are far
apart. Good learning environments, structured according to the ICM paradigm, provide stepping
stones or intermediate levels of expertise, so that within each level the student can see a
challenging but attainable goal (VanLehn & Brown, 1980). In skiing, technological advances and
the methodologies built around these advances make it easy to get started. This means that
practice, or a task' within an intermediate level, is satisfying in itself and not just something that
must be endured before the learner can enjoy excellence.
An example of the ICM paradigm is a novice learning to ski. The student begins on short skis
over gentle terrain. The short skis make it easier to turn and therefore allow the student to work
on higher-level tasks, such as developing a rhythm over a series of turns. Also, since it is easier
to get up from a fall, short skis encourage a student to try more difficult maneuvers. The gentle
terrain limits her speed and reduces the danger of injury. As the student gains ability within these
constraints, she is given slightly longer skis and steeper, more complex slopes, until she is using
full-length skis on uncontrolled slopes. At each step, the microworld in which she must perform
is made increasingly complex.
The ICM paradigm may be applied to sports other than skiing. A large body of knowledge about
skill acquisition is available in the literature of different sports. Textbooks for these sports supply
a great deal of knowledge about the critical components and essential stepping stones for the
complex skills they describe. They also identify the most common problems and suggest special
exercises to eliminate those problems. However, these texts often lack a conceptual framework
that would allow them to generalize their knowledge or to structure it according to different
criteria. In this study, the process of learning to ski is analyzed within the frame- work of the
ICM paradigm, with the goal of expanding the paradigm. Austin [Austin, 1974] who analyzed
the skill of juggling in terms of a computational metaphor, used the resulting analysis to develop
novel methods of teaching juggling.
Manipulating the Learning Environment
One of the major design decisions within the ICM paradigm is choosing or generating
appropriate microworlds. The primary method of generating alternative microworlds is the
manipulation of equipment, physical setting, and task specifications. A taxonomy of knowledge,
methods, and heuristics serves as a basis for evolving a theory of learning environments.
The equipment given a student is changed to create different microworlds. The best-known
example of this in skiing is the variation of ski length. In the “graduated length method” a
beginner skier is started on short skis. As the student becomes proficient, his skis are gradually
lengthened to full-length skis. Short skis are used as transitional objects in the learning process.
They make it easier to get started and make early success more likely. Short skis allow the
student to focus on and learn the fundamental elements of skiing before going on to more
difficult tasks. For example, short skis are easier than long skis to maneuver. Therefore, a student
can try different maneuvering techniques to find out which ones are effective. At the next level,
when the student has learned the fundamentals of maneuvering, he can go on to longer skis,
which give him greater power and hence more speed.