Determining Your Learning Style
Feelers are very people-oriented. They can be expressive and focus on emotions and feelings. They enjoy effective learning and gravitate toward learning experiences that research emotions and individuals’ attitudes. Feelers appreciate the opportunity to work in groups and like actions in which they can share views and experiences and flourish in an open, unstructured learning environment.
Visual people like to watch. They certainly will take their time before acting or participating in class and have a tendency to be reserved and quiet. They’re usually right on target, when they do decide to give an opinion or answer a question. They love learning experiences that enable them to contemplate various ideas and views, and they appear to flourish on learning through discovery.
Thinkers rely on sense and reason. They enjoy the opportunity to share thoughts and concepts. They favour activities that require them to examine and assess. They certainly will challenge statements they perceive to be overly general or without substance and will question the reasoning behind activities. The thinkers prefer to work independently and question the relevance of simulations and role plays.
Doers like to be actively involved in the learning process. They will take charge in group tasks and tend to dominate discussions. They like opportunities to practice what they learned, and they are especially interested in understanding how they’re going to apply the things that they learn in real life. They enjoy information presented clearly and concisely and become impatient with drawn-out conversations.
Bear in mind that no one learning style is much better than another. The purpose is that each person learns differently. A variety of education styles will probably be represented in any training session. Trainers must design their systems to adapt fashion differences to work. Predictably, trainers use the styles they prefer. Though it’s normal to utilize the style with which one is most comfortable, the most effective trainers will learn just how to adapt their styles to satisfy the needs of all participants.
In addition to learning styles, an effective trainer should have the ability to understand the different perceptual modalities. According to M.B. James and M.W. Galbraith (1985), a learner may favor one of the following six perceptual modalities, ways in which one takes in and processes information: Visual Videos; slides; graphs; photos; demonstrations; methods and media that create opportunities for the participant to experience learning through the eyes Print Texts; paper-and-pencil exercises that enable the participant to absorb the written word Aural Lectures; audiotapes; approaches that permit the participant to simply listen and take in information through the ears Interactional Group discussions; question-and-answer sessions; means that give the participant an opportunity to speak and engage in an exchange of thoughts, views, reactions with fellow participants Tactile Hands-on tasks; model building methods that require the participant to manage items or put things together Kinesthetic Role plays; physical games and activities that include the utilization of psycho-motor abilities and movement from one place to another.
Research suggests that more adults are visual learners than every other perceptual fashion; however, a good training layout includes all six modalities to ensure that all participants’ needs are being addressed. Alter activities to generate multi-sensory learning that will raise the chances of appealing to every participant’s style. This multi-sensory approach helps each participant bolster the knowledge or skills developed through the preferred modality. Learning ought to be shown in ways that complements each person’s favorite modality.
For example, let us look at a design for training several people in a group setting to employ a personal computer. The trainer contains images of the computer screen, exemplifying what the individual ought to see when she or he strikes a certain key. The trainer also presents the way to perform certain functions on the computer (visual). The training design comprises print materials like a manual and short program-oriented quizzes (print). For review and reward, the trainer prepares an audiotape (aural).
During daily instructional sessions, the trainer provides many chances for the trainee to answer in addition to ask questions (interactional). Naturally, the layout includes multiple opportunities for hands on exercise (tactile). Finally, the trainer will create simulation tasks in which the trainees will be asked to create “real-life” work-related documents for example spreadsheets, reports, graphs, etc. (kinesthetic). Another important concern is that individuals normally learn by doing, not by being told how to do something. For instance, someone learns more immediately how to reach a fresh place by driving the car rather than by observing as a passenger. So the more opportunities a person has to “try out” or use the abilities, the more likely he or she is to learn the skills. Telling is not teaching or training. Exactly how many times have you said to yourself, “I Have told him and told him how to do it, but he still gets it wrong”? Only because you tell someone how to do something doesn’t mean he or she understands it or has deve1oped the skill to do it. Still the Speed at which folks learn is affected by other factors.
Emotional. Some people favor the “large picture,” while others desire a step by step procedure.
Environmental. Light, sound, temperature, and seating all really can influence learning. For instance, sitting in a hard seat for several hours will place pressure on the entire body, interfering with a person’s ability to focus.
Emotional. Participants’ motivation for attending the session will determine the learning procedure. People who attend since they want to are more prone to really have a positive learning experience than those who are there because their managers required them to attend. Sociological. Folks are by nature social beings. Though some folks do learn better studies reveal that the majority of folks learn better and experience greater satisfaction with all the learning encounter when they’re in small groups or pairs.
Physical. Individuals’s physical state, including general health, eyesight, hearing, and energy level, affect their ability to learn. Many individuals have less energy in the afternoon. Trainers should bear this in your mind when designing and developing their systems.
Intellectual and Experiential. Individuals in your sessions will vary considerably in educational history, life experiences, natural wisdom, and abilities. That’s why it’s important before they attend training sessions to find out as much as possible about your participants. Age. One of the regular problems that comes up in prepare-the-trainer and coaching lessons relates to the effect of age on the learning process. Trainers, supervisors, and managers often say that elderly workers are slower and harder to train. Researchers are somewhat split on the problem of age and one’s skill to learn, depending on one’s interpretation of education to set the record straight. Generally, research on pornographic learning shows that adults continue to learn throughout the years; however, they may take longer to learn new things (Stalks 8: Doverspike, 1988). Although younger folks appear to be more efficient when it comes to memorizing Tips, elderly individuals are able to evaluate and employ information.
Research findings demonstrate that change in adulthood is a procession of critical periods during the fifty plus years following youth and childhood. These intervals contain experiences and noticeable changes during which a number of the most meaningful learning may occur. Adults have a possibility for inquiry and continuing learning that conventional wisdom has sometimes failed to comprehend. Researchers, however, do understand that physical changes play a part in the learning procedure. As we age, we may experience lower energy levels, some hearing loss, and slower reaction time. These factors ought to be taken into consideration; they must not be thought of as proof that adults are slower or have greater difficulty learning yet. By detecting adult learning principles along with fundamental concepts of individual differences and accommodating them so, a trainer can effectively train any adult.
Our minds are like sponges as we soak up information and knowledge. Any added water will run right through, when sponges are saturated. A learner can experience cognitive overload of their working memory as the sponge is overloaded. This working memory-the center of conscious thinking-has an estimated small capacity of seven “balls” or pieces of advice. The limits on our working memory depend on the knowledge we have stored in long-term memory. Someone who is fairly comfortable with and knowledgeable about a theme can easily overwhelm people who are less knowledgeable about the advice. The challenge to the trainer will be to present information in such a way that the participants do not experience overload.
Preventing Cognitive Overload
To prevent cognitive overload, use the following strategies when designing, developing, and delivering your training: Minimize the use of lecture. Boil info down into key learning points, checklists, charts, graphs, or other visuals. Have the participants do the majority of the job. When the participants do the work, they transfer new information into long-term memory, like storing data in a computer much. The working memory is currently free to absorb the next batch of advice. Distribute or communicate it, and Create lots of content or information. Use many different tasks to communicate the content. Design workbooks and other participant materials that present information in an easy-to-follow and easy-to-understand format.
Create job aids to be used during and following the training. Application of Education Principles These concepts have certain consequences for the trainer. The pedagogical or conventional orientation is concerned with content. Trainers are concerned with “covering” material in the most efficient manner possible. In contrast, the andragogical orientation centers on procedure, being attentive to the variables that either promote or inhibit learning. Based on what you understand more about the adult learner and how learning takes place, require those principles and concepts and translate them into practical applications in your training programs.
Think about the following points as you develop a learning experience for your participants: Create a comfortable, non-threatening learning climate in which people are treated as responsible adults. Involve participants in planning their training through interviews, advisory committees, and other up front activities. Allow participants to engage in self-diagnosis by using assessment tools and surveys before and during sessions.
Give participants a chance to establish their own aims by soliciting their input through pre- evaluation tasks and session surveys at the beginning of sessions. Give them an opportunity to appraise their own learning by means of various tasks through the training program. Help them understand the “big picture” by pointing out how the specific training program is related to the business aims and / or problems. Make the learning important to them, that is, show how it is going to help them, by using “real world” examples and activities that connect with their frames of reference.
Use their experience by requesting them to share examples from their own scenarios. Actively involve the participants in the learning process by providing them with many great opportunities to master the content and by using learner entered actions and experiences that are structured. The more you understand about how and why adults learn, the better equipped you’ll be to design training programs that meet participants’ needs and get the results that you desire.