Strategic knowledge enable learners to choose at appropriate times the procedural and declarative knowledge they will bring to bear on learning, remembering, and problem solving. More simply, strategic knowledge can be viewed as the learner's ability to think about his or her own thinking when solving problems and to actively consider their knowledge base when developing solutions to problems. To accomplish this objective, students need to apply the declarative and procedural knowledge they have acquired to the solution of the problem. Higher quality solutions would be evidenced with instructional activities that applied the principles being taught and that met the unique needs of the learner population. In other words, learning consists of practices of the movement itself, under conditions in which reinforcement occurs, resulting in gradual improvement in the skill.
Motor skills begin with the learning of the sequence of muscular movements that underlies the skill.
For example, in making a tennis serve, the movements required involve shifting body weight to one foot, tossing the ball in the air, bringing the racquet up, and striking the ball with the racquet while aiming in a particular direction. Continued practice results in all the parts of the skill being fitted together and brings about increased quality of skilled performance, observable as improved timing and smoothness. Further practice, resulting in automatization of the skill, is evidenced by the ability to carry on the skill without the need for much attention. The improved timing and smoothness will be exhibited even with the presence of potentially interfering activities. The fifth type of learning outcome is attitudes.