In my four years of classroom training, I have noticed a variety of things that, for lack of a better way to characterize them, just seem to work. I have, only in recent years as an instructional designer and as a participant in this program at ECU, received formal instruction in the processes of learning. So, I will focus on my classroom experience, which, in the interest of disclosure, is exclusively with adult learners.
First, people respond to interactivity—the more, the better. A hands-on approach to learning with ample opportunity to try different tasks in a safe environment set up to resemble as closely as possible to the real thing is what learners consistently rate as a most effective learning experience.
Second, repetition as a form of practice helps reinforce learning—again, the more, the better.
Third, people like to have their prior knowledge acknowledged and respected. Conversely, others in the group do not always wish to hear ad nauseam about the prior knowledge of their peers. This is something that can be a bit delicate to manager, but it generally involved allowing the person to wax about their experience in whatever the context. As a trainer I would then have to bring it around back to the topic and attempt to act as a moderator in keep all on task.
As a trainer, I probably engaged in constructivism most of all. Wherever I could, I would try to draw our customer experiences back to the real-life experiences of my trainees. I would also attempt to use a fair amount of analogies as a way to show my trainees how seemingly complex concepts were really not very different from things they experience in their day-to-day living. On my better days, I would use dual-coding by presenting multiple ways of looking at the same situation.
These days, as an instructional designer, I am more of a behaviorist in that I am more focused on setting very specific objectives. I also attempt to keep my material in check through information processing and keeping my presentation of information in manageable groups, which I have also heard referred to a “chunking.”
I would like to work more with the Anchored Instruction theory by presenting more learning using realistic case studies. Since the audience I design for has to frequently engage in solving customers’ problems, I think that would be very beneficial for building their ability to take given information and guidelines and create empowered solutions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Out of curiosity--what type of learner do you deal with--I may range of ability?
I deal with adult learners in the workplace. Is that what you were wanting to know?
I had to smile when you mentioned people like to talk about their prior knowledge sometimes ad nauseum! As an instructor of adults,this is probably the biggest problem I face in a classroom. People like to get off the track by talking about their experience with something and then I lose everybody else's interest. I'm glad to know that it happens in other classrooms as well :-)
I so agree with the hand-on approach you mentioned. Kids can not sit all day without movement and interaction of some kind. Adults are the same way.
Sounds like you are a very effective trainer. I agree that repetition can be very effective in reinforcing learning particularly in the workplace with adults.
Thank you for the kind words Cheryl. I held hopes that I was effective back in my training days. Now I try to apply my growing knowledge of design theory coupled with my experience in the classroom into my instructional design processes.
@ dawn k: It does seem to be an adult trait, even outside the learning environment. People like to have their past experience validated. When I was in the Navy, conversations would often start with "On my last ship, ..." I guess, by the story I just told in this comment, I've illustrated my own point. :)
Post a Comment