Training and Learning Style -- HRDNotes.htm (Wilf Ratzburg)

"...learning... You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way".

Doris Lessing

...thinking is initiated when a person perceives a problem...

...learning has occurred if the problem is solved...

Learning...

...a relatively permanent change in behavior...

...an altered disposition (attitude, interest or value)...

...the acquisition of additional information, skills or attitudes...

...the unlearning of bad or ineffective habits...

...as people mature they develop individual learning styles

Trainers can no longer afford to assume that trainees will learn through whichever training strategy is used. Trainees can be given information by their trainers, but unless these trainees are actively engaged in analyzing an issue or using the information in a problem solving activity, the learning is sterile.

For example, according to Dewey, thinking is initiated when a person perceives a problem and then tries to clarify the exact nature thereof in order to determine possible solutions. Understanding of the problem is thus first sought through the use of prior knowledge. Then, hypotheses are stated with a view to testing them through some active experimentation. Learning has occurred if the problem is solved.

Through our systems perspective, we ought to consider the nature of training's inputs with a view to ensuring a more effective throughput and, finally, a more successful output. To this end, we have already examined some general characteristics of adult learners. We are now going to look at another characteristic of trainees -- their learning style.

First off, we've considered that adult learning is generally differentiated from that of children and adolescents by the tendency to be "life-centered", with a greater interest in practical applications and a capacity to be critically reflective. However, beyond these general characteristics of adult learners, discussed in previous sections, we now look at learning styles.

Learning Styles

Research indicates that as people mature they develop individual learning styles that reflect personal needs and goals. One conceptualization of learning styles (developed by Kolb) suggests that some adult's learning styles rely more on concrete experience, while others focus on experimentation or observation or abstract conceptualization.

These differences in style have implications for how training activities and environments should be structured for adults. For example, the prevalence of experiential learning styles among adults suggests that formal classrooms ought not to be the only environments to be considered by organizations when designing training.

Learning styles are generalized habits of processing information

Concrete Experience
Reflection and Observation
Abstract Conceptualization
Active Experimentation

learning cycles start with:

sensing and feeling,
then watching, next
thinking, and finally
acting.

Kolb's Experiential Learning Model (ELM)

Kolb posits that learning styles are relatively stable attributes or preferences in the way individuals process information when solving problems. In other words, learning styles are closely interrelated with what we generally call personality. Learning, according to Kolb's conceptualization, is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.

Kolb's ELM is a simple model that summarizes learning as a four-stage, cyclical, problem-solving process. In this process, Concrete Experience is followed by Reflection and Observation. This, in turn, leads to the formulation of Abstract Concepts and Generalizations. The implications of the Abstract Conceptualization or Generalization are then tested in new situations through Active Experimentation.

This learning cycle is assumed to be continuous. Consistent with observations made about the characteristics of adult learners, previous learning influences current learning and current learning influences future learning in the training process. Further, because the learning process is cyclical, it is possible to begin new learning at any stage of the process.

According to Kolb, there are two major differences in how people learn. The first is how they perceive, the second is how they process experience and information. How one perceives information may be placed on a continuum somewhere between to polar opposites of Doing and Observing. Similarly, one's preferred way of processing information is located on a continuum between Thinking and Feeling. Finally, because people prefer different parts of the cycle over others, they have different learning styles.

.	To determine your learning style, check out this link.
.	Check the graphic above (click on the Hotspots) for definitions of Accommodators, Divergers, assimilators, and Convergers.
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