By Lee-Anne Ragan

Warning: Reading this article may cause excellence in training

When we’re training it’s tempting to cram lots of information in, especially when resources are short and demands are high and your boss wants it all …. in 2 hours. 

 
Cartoon used with permission: www.callcentercomics.com

The ‘cram-it-all-in-effect’ is compounded by what I call the ‘university professor effect’.  That is, being a content expert does not mean you can automatically teach.  They are two entirely different and distinct skill sets.  Do you remember that 8 am university course you took years ago where your professor lectured from notes so old they were yellow?  Lecturing is not teaching.  It does not facilitate effective transfer of learning.  With all due respect to university professors, I find it shocking that they don’t require any training in how to teach.

Learning how to teach will automatically leverage your training content.  In order to do that learning how we humans learn is key; knowing what makes for powerful learning, learning that sticks and learning that is transferable.  

Let’s take an example.  One of your examples.  Listen to some soothing tunes to reminisce by. Now close your eyes.  Take a moment to relax and cast your mind back to a time when you experienced powerful learning – a time when you learned something as an adult, in a group setting.  Hold that example in your mind.

Your example likely had three elements:

• 1. Powerful learning places the learner in their zone of proximal development:  

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  • Proximal development simply means training that is challenging enough for the learners so that it remains interesting, but not so challenging that learners are set up for failure nor so easy that it creates disinterest.

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  • Likely your example was challenging but not excruciatingly so.  In the same vein your example was likely not boring, where you kept checking your watch for the time it was over.

• 2. Role of emotion:

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  • While we often focus on training things that are concrete and measurable, we often ignore the role of emotion.  Learner’s emotions play a large role in defining whether something is worth learning or not.
    
  • In fact when sensory information comes into our brains it goes first to the amygdala, also known as the lizard brain because it’s the oldest part of our brain.  If our amygdala decides we are safe and everything is okay then and only then does it pass along the information for higher processing.  See the link above for Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED video, the famous neuroscientist who had a massive stroke.  Her description of how our brain works is captivating, as is her book ‘Stroke of Insight’.
    
  • If learners are disengaged or worse angry, upset or feeling disrespected, studies have shown hearing can actually decrease up to 25%.  Who can learn in a group setting if they can’t hear?
    
  • Your example likely involved your emotions –they likely motivated you to learn something new.

• 3. Access and inclusion issues:

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  • Big topic, little space but suffice it to say that we learn best (including from other learners) if everyone feels as included as possible, with full access to the course material. 

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  • Access includes teaching to all learning styles and much more (for example the need for detail vrs need for the big picture, power and privilege issues etc.)

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  • Quick!  How do you learn how to use a new techno gadget?  If you ask someone, you may be an audio learner (learn by hearing).  If you keep pushing buttons until it works, you may be a kinesthetic learner.  If you read the manual, you may be a visual learner.

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  • I was teaching a workshop once on learning styles and going over the use of powerpoints and flipcharts.  “That’s what those damn things [flipcharts] are for!” said a learner, “I never understood what their use was but as I’m not so much a visual learner, I’ve simply ignored them til now.  I didn’t see what possible use they could be.”   An illuminating example which illustrates how we typically teach to our own style and how we run the risk of inadvertently leaving out others.

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  • Take a learning style assessment yourself

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  • The powerful learning example you remembered likely fit with your learning style

There are many other principles for powerful learning, ways to make learning interesting, engaging and transferable but enough said for now (as another tenant of training is to leave learners wanting more). 

Lee-Anne Ragan, MEd, BSW, ITC, is President and Director of Training with Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. (RPS), Vancouver’s award winning corporate training and entertainment company.  RPS is where great minds come to play.  See www.rpsinc.ca for more information.