MATTERS OF STYLE IN HOW ADULTS LEARN

In this article we explore the issue of IMPOVERISHED LEARNING, how proper use of Learning Styles Theory can extend the return on investment of training, teaching and learning. In this first article we will explore the problems of using the theories. Then, in the following four articles we will explore four key theories that help us understand how people learn.

THE Problem

Almost all teachers, trainers and educators KNOW that every person they are helping to learn has different learning styles. In this new series we explore the basic modern concepts and constructs of this theory.

Learning styles are characteristic strengths and preferences in the ways we take in and process information. What this means is that some learners tend to focus on facts, data, and algorithms; others are more comfortable with theories and mathematical models.

Some respond strongly to visual forms of information, like pictures, diagrams, and schematics; others get more from verbal forms such as written and spoken explanations. Some prefer to learn actively and interactively; others function more introspectively and individually.

Functioning effectively in any professional capacity, however, requires working well in all learning style modes. For example, competent engineers and scientists must be observant, methodical, and careful (characteristics of the sensing style in one of the learning style models to be described) as well as innovative, curious, and inclined to go beyond facts to interpretation and theory (characteristics of the intuitive style in that model). Similarly, they must develop both visual and verbal skills. Information routinely comes in both forms, and much of it will be lost to someone who cannot function well in both of these modes.

The reasoning of learning styles has two outputs for educators. Firstly, people learn faster if we tailor learning to MATCH a persons learning style, or alternatively, we should advance a learners ability to learn by enticing them to learn differently, extending their learning styles to include their non preferred styles.

This fundamental reasoning has problematic issues :

• 
  Whether at school or in an organisational context, helping learners learn though extending their learning style takes time, money and effort and therefore traditionally is ignored. We just don’t help people to learn how to learn.


• 
  Where learning styles are utilised by educators, they are designed to provide learning to match and extend EXISTING capacities, with the hope that this increases or speeds up learning. This has had some success but misses the point.

Initial thinking in this area presupposed that people can learn better by understanding and EXTENDING their style. In other words, work the muscles of NON PREFERRED learning ability, where they are weak, balancing these with areas that they learn well with. David Kolb, who critically started the debate in this area, talked of a sequence of processes to assist learners. This was then extended by others by focusing on elements of the process and realising that we all have a preference for particular parts. Again, the initial thinking was to EXTEND learners capabilities in areas that they were weak in. However, this thinking has tended to be ignored by the learning community and now focuses on presenting information in the PREFERRED style, or worse, to ignore the styles completely and go with the traditional style. How Adults Learn is exactly aboutv this issue, should we learn better in the long term?

Most ‘experts’ in accelerated learning for instance, fail to extend a learners capacity to learn, they just deliver ideas and thinking in different ways to help learners absorb data in their preferred style.

By ignoring or using learning styles in this way, which forgets to help learners extend weaker learning styles, just reinforces impoverished learning and learners.

Here is the dilemma then, if professors, teachers, trainers and educators teach exclusively in a manner that favours their students' less preferred learning style modes, the students' discomfort level may be great enough to interfere with their learning.

On the other hand, if they teach exclusively in their students' preferred modes, the students may NOT develop the mental dexterity they need to reach their potential for achievement in school and as professionals. And to get on in the world needs dexterity! This way of teaching means we do no favours to either the learners or the organisations we are helping to provide the learning for. So then, which is best? Pamper to the style or help a learner to utilise a non preferred style better in the future?

An objective of education should be to help students build their skills in both their preferred and less preferred modes of learning. Learning style models that categorize these modes provide good frameworks for designing learning interventions with the desired breadth of both information and building learning skills. The goal is to make sure that the learning needs of students in each model category are met at least part of the time and provide frameworks for students to work in their NON preferred style in an acceptable way. In Attitudinal Based Learning theory this is called ‘Layering Learning’. By helping learners learn to use their non preferences, we educators help them get more from the future. We grow learners, rather than impoverish them.

Implications for Educators

There are many!

Teachers and trainers should understand that they have a dual role in learning interventions:

1. 
   Deliver the CONTENT, and
2. 
   DEVELOP learners’ learning skills

There are two ways we can do this.

1. 
   Design interventions that do both at the same time (done very rarely) Or
2. 
   Provide stand alone training to extend and develop learning skills - known as learning how to learn (done almost never).

Learning professionals are failing learners and the organisational need in the long term, by not tackling this issue. So called 'blended learning' can create impoverished learners, add short term value only and uses theory in a way it was never intended by allowing learners to work in their preferred style rather than add long term value by ensuring a broad developmental process to extend the learners' learning style.

Better to start a learning career with a ‘learning how to learn’ intervention and then reinforce their balance of abilities throughout their learning career. The chinese proverb seems rather apt:

"Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you will feed him for life"

Educators have forgotten that they should educate, not just teach content, however innovative and clever the way they present information. Perhaps training trainers and teachers how to educate should be high on the agenda for learning professionals?

References
R.M. Felder and R. Brent, "Understanding Student Differences." J. Engr. Education, (2005).
Alice Y. Kolb and David A. Kolb, "Learning Styles and Learning Spaces: Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher" (2005).

It's been a while!

Sorry for those that have followed the blog, been really busy and life has been complex for the last few weeks, but we are back!

» What Everybody Ought To Know About Using PowerPoint for E-learning The Rapid eLearning Blog

This is a really GOOD blog about How Adults Learn and aspects of use of technology etc.

» What Everybody Ought To Know About Using PowerPoint for E-learning The Rapid eLearning Blog

How Adults Learn Theory

http://www.virtuallearning.org.uk/changemanage/pedagogy_practice/Learning%20theory%20and%20e%2339137.pdf

This is really good article on the structure of How Adults Learn, based on the more traditional and older theories.

Chocolate helps learning!

Just the news you were looking for!! You will be delighted to know that chocolate has been scientifically proven to aid How Adults Learn!.

Not only does the glucose within chocolate provide the fuel that your brain needs to function properly, but it also contains essence of cacao. As well as providing chocolate with its great taste this natural substance, encourages the body to release ‘endorphins’, the chemical which is responsible for driving your positive, happy moods.

In short chocolate helps get you into the right emotional state for effortless learning. Chocolate also contains high levels of phenol, a chemical that helps reduce the risk of heart disease, according to a researcher at the University of California It has a number of neuroactive alkaloids – including traces of cannabinoid-like substances or cannabis to you and me)

What’s more, new research from the University of Scranton in America suggests that the benefits may even go deeper than that. They found that chocolate is a more effective anti-oxidant, molecule for molecule, than Vitamin C. Amongst other things anti-oxidants reduce the electrical resistance in your brain, and thus enable the connections between your neurons to operate more effectively – another necessary requirement for learning!

Stick to dark high Cacao (70% or more). Cheaper 'milk chocolate' has lots more additives which are less good for you, and, dilute the postive effects of the chocolate.

So, next time you are feeling self-indulgent tell yourself you are simply improving your learning effectiveness!!!

Taking Stress out of How Adults Learn

‘Since the brain cannot pay attention to everything … uninteresting, boring or emotionally flat lessons simply will not be remembered.’

Launa Ellison in
‘What does the brain have
to do with learning?’



Dr Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi "discovered" that stress and happiness do not just happen. They are not the result of random chance or good fortune. He states that happiness is not something that money can buy or be commanded. In How Adults Learn context his research is really important.

The positive implications of his research clearly demonstrate that happiness does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated and reached individually. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy. However, the opposite is also true and can lead to stress.

His findings became known as ‘FLOW’, which is the state that he found that would best describe how someone is when they reach the pinnacle of what he considered to be ‘Happiness’.

This ‘FLOW State is when we are truly absorbed in what we are doing, we forget about time passing, we don't feel tired, and we experience a kind of exhilaration and intensity, we lose our self-consciousness. In these moments, purposeful activity is more like "play" than "work“, where our behaviour is personally satisfying and socially appropriate, yet requires no rehearsal.

We all experience this from time to time, although, perhaps, not often enough. Indeed, Csikszentmihalyi points out how sad it is that so much of the time adults experience boredom or frustration in their work activities.

Flow is a structure that humans use to construct a focused completely enjoyable experience.

What Csikszentmihalyi found was that we all enjoy a challenge, provided we THINK that this stretch is achievable and possible, as well as perceiving that we have the ability to rise to the challenge. When those conditions are met then FLOW will occur.

Flow is where we perceive a challenge and perceive ourselves capable to rise to that challenge. Conversely, where neither of these are in place then we experience the opposite, unhappiness, anxiety, boredom and the like. Flow is the balance between perceived skills and perceived challenge, whilst the opposite is the major precursor for stress.

The diagram shows the different emotional experiences that we all have in relation to Csikszentmihalyi’s model. In simple terms the greener the box the better, the redder the box the higher the likely levels of stress.

So stress then, is intrinsically triggered by our perception of the world in which we work. Interestingly, the research shows that boredom or a lack of challenge is also likely to create a stressful situation.

trainer who understands the conditions that make people want to learn is in a position to turn learning activities into flow experiences. When the experience becomes intrinsically rewarding, delegates' motivation is engaged and they are on their way to experiencing a self-propelled acquisition of knowledge.

Fortunately, many trainers intuitively know that the best way to achieve their goals is to enlist students' interest. They do this by being sensitive to students' goals and desires, and they are thus able to articulate the pedagogical (teaching) goals as meaningful challenges. They empower students to take control of their learning; they provide clear feedback to the students' efforts without threatening their egos and without making them self-conscious. They help students concentrate and get immersed in the symbolic world of the subject matter. As a result, good trainers allow people to enjoy learning and their students will then continue to face the world with curiosity and interest.

OVERCOMOING THE STRESS OF LEARNING

How Adults Learn utilises the Csikszentmihalyi model we therefore need to ensure that learners perceive that they are in CONTROL of their learning. This can be a delicate balance of invitation to learn by providing positive and useful consequences to learning and advising of the negative consequences of not learning. Organisations have requirements from training, yet our experience is that people ‘sent’ to a course rarely learn, they have no ‘control’ and cannot perceive the use for it. Overly controlled content and process by organisations increases stress, reduces the learning and reduces the effectiveness of the individual, organisation and the learner.

The good learning process includes a positive design intervention to help engender flow state. We also positively design in anti-stress checks.

The process of designing a good learning environment has often been compared to a game, where the delegates happen to learn the technical ideas almost without realising. Asking people to rise to a challenge and rewarding them is a classic Accelerated Learning process that can be used. Whilst it may seem childish asking someone to stand up and do something and offer a cuddly toy as a prize, it really does work and reduce stress. We also consider how our process can be perceived as delegates first arrive on course. It may vary from “this is brilliant” to “OH NO, I hate this stuff”. Simple strategies are employed to help overcome the negatives and enhance the positives. For instance, an explanation of the learning environment set up, really does help, asking whether the delegates prefer to have fun or be bored also helps their perception to move towards ‘this might be enjoyable’.

Trainers must also be alert to the different emotional states in the room and take action when negative states are spotted. Bored delegates don’t learn – they simply need more of a challenge, whilst frightened delegates probably need slightly less of a challenge. The model is a simple way to diagnose the intervention. Our research also indicates that many of the training courses that fail to gain long term learning retention operate a ‘stress’ based learning environment. Paying attention to the challenge and skills construct does improve long term retention.

Dr. Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced :cheek–sent–me–lie) is professor of Human Development and Education at the University of Chicago, where he was formerly chairman of the Department of Psychology and Chairman of Human Development. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Maine, and also at universities in Finland, Brazil, Canada, and Italy. He currently serves on the Child Labour Advisory Committee of the United States Department of Labour and the Centre for Giftedness of the Federal Department of Education.

Laughter increases life and learning!

"He who laughs, lasts." - Mary Pettibone Poole


Did you know that on average a 5 year old laughs 150 times a day however, on average, a 45 year old laughs 5 times a day. How Adults Learn is completely driven by the emotional state of the learner. Unhappy emotions craete bad and hard learning, whilst happy and enjoyable emotions create easy and fast learning. The throury of emotional ststae in learning is a core to accelererated learning and how adults learn.

Laughter is definitely the best medicine! Laughter and uplifts directly increases the number of Immunogloblin A antibodies in your immune system, making your body stronger. It is a recognised medical therepy known as 'laughter therapy'. "Uplifts" is a psychological term that includes laughing, smelling and eating chocolates. In fact choclate is known chemicval to alter your brain imulses to make you feel happier. Make sure you stick to the high quality high Cacao content choclate mind.

Making learning fun is good for your health. There is a direct link between laughter and learning faster. Laughter also has substantial health benefits as you can see below. It produces endorphins in the blood and is directly responsible for improving moods and reducing stress, which in turn increases the brains ability to learn.


Laughter lowers blood pressure.

People who laugh heartily on a regular basis have lower standing blood pressure than the average person. When people have a good laugh, initially the blood pressure increases, but then it decreases to levels below normal. Breathing then becomes deeper which sends oxygen enriched blood and nutrients throughout the body.

Humor changes our biochemical state.
Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases infection fighting antibodies. It increases our attentiveness, heart rate, and pulse.

Laughter protects the heart.
Laughter, along with an active sense of humor, may help protect you against a heart attack, according to the study at the University of Maryland Medical Center (cited above). The study, which is the first to indicate that laughter may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

Laughter gives our bodies a good workout.
Laughter can be a great workout for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. It massages abdominal organs, tones intestinal functioning, and strengthens the muscles that hold the abdominal organs in place. Not only does laughter give your midsection a workout, it can benefit digestion and absorption functioning as well. It is estimated that hearty laughter can burn calories equivalent to several minutes on the rowing machine or the exercise bike.

Laughter improves brain function and relieves stress.
Laughter stimulates both sides of the brain to enhance learning. It eases muscle tension and psychological stress, which keeps the brain alert and allows people to retain more information

Fact:
It takes 42 separate muscles to frown but only 28 muscles to smile.

So watch those funny films, read and listen to jokes and let yourself go when sometihing even slightly fuunny passes your way! Seek out the internet jokes as they do the rounds...it will make your life better and allows adults and choldren to learn faster..what more could you ask for!

More data is at

http://women.webmd.com/guide/give-your-body-boost-with-laughter

Experiential learning articles + critiques of David Kolb's theory

Experiential learning articles + critiques of David Kolb's theory

This is a good summary and lots of resources, well worth a look if you are intersted in How Adults Learn

How The Brain Convinces Itself

Recent research supports the idea that the brain has to be convinced before it ‘Knows what it knows’ or ‘cognition’. Cognition, the understanding of something, is a critical element to rationality and a human’s ability to be judgemental and make ‘valid decisions’. In the world of HOW ADULTS LEARN this research has real importance. This research has defined three basic criteria that the brain uses to accept something as true. These criteria are the brains way of self convincing itself.

1. Mode of input -

the information or concept must be presented and processes in the persons primary thinking mode, either visual (pictures), auditory (sounds) or feelings (either physical or emotional). In addition there are a few people (less than 5% of the world’s population) that literally think in smell or taste.

2. Frequency of input –

depending on the strength of the input between 1 – 20 repetitions

3. Duration of input –

it must last long enough for the brain to validate, typically 2 seconds to 1 minute

When all three criteria are WELL met then a person ‘KNOWS’ the item as being true.

For instance when this criteria based validation does not occur then there is a sense of NOT KNOWING. Have you ever left the house and have that sudden feeling of having left the house unlocked and NOT KNOW? or “did I return that call or NOT?” - More classically “where did I leave my keys?”.

This is not to say that given fully met criteria that the person will make the right decision or actually consider something is true, when in fact it is not. It is simply how someone convinces themselves that something is true for them.

In learning terms then, this research is critically important! All three criteria must be met including repeated exposure to an ideas or ideas. Therefore training must provide new ideas in the preference of the person, do it more than once and take at least 10 seconds on the idea.

In training we call this layering, where we go over the same ground again, in a slightly different way. Layering also means making links to other learning and connecting the two ideas together. In this way we achieve a greater repetition rate, without obvious simple repetition, and, increase the frequency of the thinking on a specific idea. So the phrase “this idea links to the previous exercise we did 2 hours ago” is vital to inducing the convinced state in the learner.

What is interesting in this research is that this ‘convincer’ is more important than memory storage processes, or long term memory aids. In essence recall will still not happen even if all the memory retention processes are put in place, and, if the person is not convinced of the ‘rightness’ of a concept or a piece of data, they simply dismiss it out of hand. In particular behaviour based training often fails to be embedded in learners as the ‘convincer’ criteria above have not been met. We see this often when we do advanced trainer training where we meet resistance to the new Attitudinal Based Learning ideas in the initial first morning by some trainers. The behaviours that follow are classic in ‘learner resistance’ such as quietness, folded arms, somewhat inappropriate intervention etc. However the layering process does have a dramatic effect as the ideas are reinforced from a number of angles and linked to personal preferences by the exercise design. This has a success factor of well over 90% in our experience, so clearly is successful!

The trick with this ‘convincer’ concept is the design of training – not the delivery. Convincers are designed in and should not be left to trainers or processes to provide. It is NOT about great speeches or fabulous exercises but a very logical and rational design process that consistently layers different processes with the same core messages and making links between the different ideas. P3 use a methodology model called the funnel to mechanise training design structures, to ensure that design consistently hits the three criteria. The structure of training is the single biggest impact on attitude shift in learners.

If you want people to
a) learn
b) use the learning

Then cognitive design theory is for you!

Contact Paul Dunn any time if you want to know more contact@HOWADULTSLEARN.COM

ADULT LEANING AND THE BRAIN

There is general consensus that the brain is the important element of anatomy in our machinery of learning. This magnificent organ is perhaps the most misunderstood part of the human body. There is a whole raft of mystic around what is does, how it does it and indeed why it does it. For many of us it represents the very soul of a person.

However, the brain is a chemical and cellular machine, which functions as one of the most complex and specialist biological machines we have ever encountered.

The brain is made up individual nerve cells, or neurons. These cells do not function individually, in isolation, rather in clusters, or to use an electricians analogy, as circuits. The billions of neurons in the human nervous system ‘work’ by transmitting and receiving ‘messages’ with other neurons. In general neurons are only connected to a few specific recipients. However in some cases an individual neuron can be connected to as many as 10,000 other neurons. These connections break into 3 distinct types of circuits:
1. Hierarchical circuits, which in simple terms are the sensory systems
2. Local circuits, which act as ‘filters within a hierarchical circuit
3. Single-source/Divergent circuits where a single neuron has many
connections, across many hierarchical circuits.

The actual link between neurons is called a synapse, where electrical charge is passed from one cell to another. Actually there is a gap at this site, as neurons do not connect directly. We will explore this site more later on. The learning occurs at the synapse level in our brains. The information is transferred across this gap through Synaptic Transmission. This process is where the transmitting neuron secretes a chemical call a neurotransmitter which carries the message across the gap (about 20 billionth of a meter) to the receiving cell. Where neurons should NOT connect, then the reverse happens and neuroinhibiter is used which stops the message passing across the gap. Again this is a chemical process.

In broad terms learning is the number, speed and strength of the connections of neural circuits. We learn by either adding new circuits, reinforcing circuits or making new links across existing circuits. There divergent circuits are perhaps the most important type of circuits in our brain. Yet today this type of neural circuit is the least researched and understood.
So lets explore how the ‘transmission’ occurs at the synapse level. Firstly a cell is ‘excited’ by an incoming message. This is caused by the transmitting connecting cell ‘sending it’s message. This causes the electrical state of our cell to change, making it more positively charged than it is normally when at rest. This change in electrical charge then triggers gates to open along the cell so sodium can ‘rush’ into the cell. Sodium has a positive electrical charge and INCREASES the neurones positive charge still further. It is drawn into the cell because the cell has a more negative charge and sodium is attracted in. When watched it looks like an express train of positive charge running along the neurone, from the ‘excited end’ to the opposite end of the cell, which will ‘excite’ the next cell.

This ‘excitement’ then causes a neurotransmitter to be released by the neurone into the synaptic gap. The neurotransmitter then ‘locks’ into receptors of the new cell and causes this cell to be ‘excited’. This then becomes a chain reaction until an inhibitor is released.
We are familiar with these amino acid transmitters, such as Dopamine, Serotonin and Endorphins, each has a special function. For instance Dopamine regulates emotions and Endorphin is often considered to make you ‘happy’. Actually Endorphin is very similar to Morphine, from which we get Heroin, and is a way that the brain can ‘suppress’ pain. The reason peole consider it a ‘happy’ chemical is the initial elated feeling, but like Morphine it is actually a depressant, which is why it helps with pain and actually is an inhibitor for ‘pain’ signals in the brain.

So, how does this affect us with ADULT LEARNING? We all have ‘set circuits’ in our brain, for instance, happy, fun and motivated. Learning, then, is making new circuits or reinforcing existing circuits. So in learning we need to provide the brain with a way of connecting electrical signals between new cells, via the synapse, or work more effectively the existing circuits.
Really clever learning technologies then, by design, use existing circuits or (knowledge, skill or memories) and links these to new knowledge, skills or memories. In this way we can hasten the learning the process and reinforce the new learning so make it easier to recall at alter time. So for instance, we use this in to Adult Learning and our finance courses. For most people these are horrible and nasty and as a result people keep away from finance as much as possible, so never really connecting the new circuits in their brain. We on the other hand make them fun and link the circuits for fun with the new learning, so we get more useful neurotransmitters released. We then reinforce this new link with more enjoyment, of a kind that adults uses lots of times, outside the learning, for instance, music, games and fun activity. Add in lots of discussion and simplicity and the brain will self reinforce the new circuits very quickly.

Overview Of HOW ADULTS LEARN

Here is a quick overview of How Adults Learn, which hopefully expand your thinking in the learning game! Shipman & Shipman verified that learning can require many different approaches and that learners perform best when their individual learning nuances are taken into account. In study after study, Carbo, DeBello, Della Valle, Hodges, Shea, Virosko, White, Kolb, Herrmann, research shows that when learners are taught in their own particular style, their motivation, initiative and results improve. In fact Matberry and Sinatra suggest that the choice of learning style actually affects the physical structure of the brain. Just take apause there, learning style afeects the physical development of the brain!

Wlodlowski says that the ideal process is to introduce a topic in the preferred style, and then, for maximum understanding, expose the learner to as many other processes and styles as time allows.

The implications of this research is staggering. For instance 70% of all teachers are sequential, analytical presenters. You may remember this style from school. The issue is that 74% of all students do not do not learn best in this way. Blackman suggested that using all styles was a better way of teaching – so each student had access to their preferred style.

This concept is the Accelerated Learning format approach.

The Digital Application of Accelerated Learning Technique

If you are a teacher as well as interested in How Adults Learn then this free download is really interesting. The Digital Application of Accelerated Learning Technique

Attitudinal Based Learning

Giving Learners the Choices they Need

Abstract

Attitudinal Based Learning uses an individual learner’s choice to learn to provide a more solid foundation for sustained change than can be achieved by simply developing knowledge or skills. This article introduces the ideas on which Attitudinal Based Learning is established, how it works in practice, and provides a simple guide to adding an attitudinal element to training.

Key Learning Points

The Key Learning Points this article aims to provide are:
1. The basic concepts of how Attitudinal Based Learning can improve How Adults Learn
2. The difference in effectiveness between pedagogic and andragogic learning processes
3. The relationship between beliefs and values and delegate behaviour
4. How Attitudinal Based Learning works in practice and adds value to other learning methodologies
5. How attitudinal elements can be introduced into training

About the Author

Paul Dunn – contact@howadultslearn.com

Paul has been pioneering the development and practical delivery of the latest learning technologies for the last 20 years. He is an international speaker and broadcaster on organisational development and Accelerated Learning. He is perhaps the leading authority on Attitudinal Based Learning in organisations and consults globally with P3 Training in aligning business, organisational vision and people through values.

Attitudinal Based Learning – Giving Learners the Choices they Need

Introduction

You can take a horse to water, but how do you make it drink?

You can coach, train, and develop skills; you can even ‘accelerate’ learning, but ultimately these only ‘take the horse to water’. It is the horse that chooses whether to drink or not. The basis on which a learner decides to learn, to take on board new knowledge, to develop new behaviours, and to ‘change’ is peculiar to each individual. In particular, the decision to learn is driven by the perceived usefulness, or not, of new material, given their personal context. Attitudinal Based Learning focuses on this decision making process, and in so doing aims to establish a more solid foundation for sustained change than simply developing knowledge or skills.

What is Attitudinal Based Learning?

Developed out of the thinking of, amongst others, Malcolm Knowles and Robert Dilts, Attitudinal Based Learning is a systematic process designed to treat the learner’s context as the core construct to which we offer new choices.

Malcolm Knowles argued that adults require ‘andragogic’, rather than pedagogic learning processes. In the pedagogic process it is the teacher, not the pupil, who is in control of what is learned. The teacher even controls when and how the learning takes place. By contrast, adults require a learning process that enables them to fit the new knowledge, skill or behaviour in their own unique context. This is what Knowles referred to as ‘andragogy’. Forcing ideas, content or skills on adult learners, without this fit, simply creates a learning resistance cycle within learners. In practice this hypothesis is evidenced by the behavioural response from a delegate ‘sent’ on development. Knowles concluded that behaviourist and cognitive approaches are equally useful or un-useful and that a higher order connector was required.

The shift in mindset of trainers demanded by this conclusion is enormous. People are not re-programmable machines; their behaviour is not always rational; they have the ability of free thought and can exercise choice. The learner is in control, decides what is to be learned – or not, how it is to be used - or not. Thus a trainer’s job becomes one of convincing people that learning is to their advantage, rather than simply developing new knowledge or skills within them. Furthermore, in this paradigm, organisational needs can only be satisfied if the learner decides that change is worthwhile to them.

Robert Dilts supports this thinking by explaining that we all operate at different levels -each deeper level being more powerful than the previous. External behaviour is the manifestation of those levels working in combination. Dilts proposes that changing beliefs and values (attitudes) will have a ripple effect on capabilities, skills knowledge and the environment.

So, let us consider the choice aspect of learners. Do learners make choices on the basis of a change in their environment? – Sometimes. Do learners make choices on the basis of lots more information? – Sometimes. Do they make choices based on the application of new skills? - Sometimes. Do they make choices based on their beliefs and attitudes? - Almost always. Do they make choices on the basis of their own identity and their personal place in the world? Almost always.

Attitudinal Based Learning interventions focus on these deeper, more powerful levels and, therefore, deliver a superior return on investment and more sustained levels of change.

So how does it work in practice?

Attitudinal Based Learning starts by finding agreement on what delegates believe is true, useful and works. In practice this requires time to be spent up front considering the required change at a level that is conceptual, high chunk and attitudinal. Once this agreement is found, then, and only then, can they progress to new thinking.

Let us explore, for example, leadership behaviours. A typical Attitudinal Based Learning process would ask learners:

1. To identify for themselves truly great leaders

2. To consider what beliefs, attitudes, skills and behaviours made them truly great

3. Whether all this data is useful to a budding leader

Most learners would agree that budding leaders would find the information useful, especially because no-one has challenged their perceived map of the world – the whole process has taken place in the learners’ context, not the trainer’s. The next step in the process would be to ask the learners to:

4. Consider how this data would apply to their working context, challenging and changing it to fit their environment

5. Consider whether this list would be useful for them to apply as individuals

****At this point, with the ‘avenues of escape’ cut off, the learners are left with no choice but to agree – their relationship with, and attitude towards, leadership behaviours has changed.

In structuring the process in this way the learner has not only been able to ‘fit’ the new material into their existing map of the world, but also identified the usefulness of it. Once this has been achieved, the learner will be keen to learn the new skills or attitudes and apply these in practice.

This Attitudinal Based Learning process can be used to ‘frame’ any subject, technical or non-technical, skills or knowledge based. Attitudinal Based Learning does not throw out the baby with the bathwater, best practice ideas such as Accelerated Learning, Gestalt Theory and NLP, are not discarded but included and enhanced by the use of Attitudinal Based Learning techniques.

Changing the focus of training towards Attitudinal Based Learning
The following ten-stage process will change the focus of training towards Attitudinal Based Learning:

1. Identify the attitudes that need changing in the Training Needs Analysis

2. Prepare a list of attitude based outcomes that describe the beliefs and values after the change

3. Focus the design on producing and re-enforcing these attitude shifts rather than the content itself

4. Start learning sessions at a conceptual and high chunk level, focusing outside the organisation

5. Work with these existing high chunk ‘useful’ ideas at the beginning and then add the new thinking as the session develops

6. Get learners to work out what is ‘right’, especially around behaviours, then overlay the organisational needs on top and find commonality

7. Avoid confronting learners’ personal maps of the world with statements such as ‘by the end of this session you will…’, especially during the early stages

8. Avoid challenging individuals personally in the early stages, operating in small, playful groups can be helpful in achieving this

9. Having established what learners think is right, mix delivery methodologies to explore new ideas

10. Ensure learners feel that they are intelligent, responsible and ‘adult’ – provide ideas or new thoughts rather than demands or ‘musts’.


Conclusion

Once a horse is at the water’s edge, if it wants to drink it will drink.

Similarly, a learner provided with information which is perceived as useful and which fits their personal map of the world will want to learn. Trainers who can bring learners to the conclusion that the information ‘fits’ their personal framework and is useful to them will achieve a significant increase in the take up and application of new knowledge, skills and behaviours – and isn’t that what it’s all about?



References
Dilts, R Changing Belief Systems with NLP Meta Publications 1990
Knowles, M The Adult Learner Butterworth Heinemann 1973

Processor Editorial Article - Adult Learning Principles

Here is an interesting article about How Adults Learn, which you might find intersting:

Processor Editorial Article - Adult Learning Principles: "Nearly every trainer has seen it at some point: the glassy-eyed stare from students which signals that the material being covered, no matter how important, will be forgotten as quickly as it’s said. It’s a frustrating moment because it means that no matter how carefully prepared the materials are and how dedicated the trainer might be, the time spent in training is being wasted. Fortunately, it’s also preventable."

Welcome to How Adults Learn!

Hello!

My name is Paul Dunn, my passion is learning and I am now a world leading expert on Adult Learning Theory. I have just started this blog to share some of that knowledge I have gained as a result of my research in this area over the last 20 years.

For instance, one interesting tit bit I would like to share with you today is:

Laughing whilst learning increases learning by 25% alone.

You can increase how much a person learns by over 25%, instantly, by CHOOSING how you or they are feeling. For instance, if you laugh or smile whilst learning something, from a book, a video or listening to someone, this will increase your brain and attention function instantly and YOU will learn more and retain the learning longer. The more emotion and the stronger the emotion you experience whilst learning a critical piece of information tells your brain to 'tag' the learning in your long term memory. It works with either positive or negative emotions.

How Adults Learn is a fascinating subject, if you want to know more about How Adults Learn, please go to my website to get my FREE report on Accelerated Learning , which has loads more tips and hints.