Adult Learners are:Autonomous and self directedGoal OrientatedRelevancy OrientatedKnowledgeable - based on work history, study and life experiencePracticalIt is important to remember and explore these characteristics in your group whilst training.
As a little aside to start us off on our discovery of Adult learning – Something to remember throughout this presentation and a key takeaway is that in adult learning communication is key – ...Clarity,Simplicity and Relevance Rule here... This is one way to ensure your ideas and concepts are integrated and remembered and also that you build a relationship with your learners from the off.A little TED talk to illustrate and define the power of good communication: NOTE: Click to play
Lets move on to talk about possible barriers you may need to address before you even begin training.It is inevitable that our adult learners may be facing barriers to their training, these possible barriers include (but are not limited to!)Lack of TimeLack of MoneyLack of confidenceLack of InterestLack of information (about opportunities for LT&D)Scheduling problemsRed TapeProblems with Childcare/Transportation – LIFE!Agreed that this IS a long list – but one I am sure we can identify with... NOTE: discussion at this point on how the group of L&Ds may be feeling about THIS training could be a nice illustration of point. ...By ensuring we build good rapport from the start, through use of good communication and respect, we hope that these barriers will be expressed and we can help to overcome them.We can of course assume that at least one of these issue is present in our training room at any time and so we can mitigate for them using good training strategy (and designing in some fixes in our planning stages) note: see coming slides for things to consider in planning...
So as we address our barriers, a good way to counter this may be by asking what is motivating our Adult Learners?Note for trainer – This is a good section to introduce some discussion and invite suggestions before sharing the “right” list“So, what are your experiences, or what do you think might be motivating factors for our learners?”Typically (although be careful not to make assumptions)Requirement for competency or licensingAn expected (or realized) promotionA need to maintain old skills and learn new onesA need to adapt to job changes (positive or negative)A need to adapt to new systemsThe need to learn in order to comply with company directives.You can help to motivate your trainees, both by addressing their concerns (barriers) as we have already discussed but also by bearing in mind a few things:Setting a feeling or tone for the sessionSetting an appropriate level of concern – this may be by using case studies, or just by showing a true understanding of their business/industrySetting an appropriate level of difficulty.Most Importantly to ensure a smooth session and keep your learners motivated is to respect their knowledge, needs and... Motivation!
And so onto an explanation of the four different styles of learning as described by Honey and Mumford (don't worry if you are not yet familiar with this model, we will look at it in more depth in the next slide), and how these can inform (or limit) learning design.Although our group may look similar on the outside (a bunch of penguins!), actually each is very individual and it is likely that you will have a mix of the thethe four types of learners, which are classified as Pragmatist, Reflector, Activist and Theorist.Pragmatists will need to have learning anchored into real life. To achieve this use case studies, problem solving and plan in some action to your session. For the pragmatist, you will need to have strong summaries and conclude the experience to re-iterate what has been covered and how it relates to the real world objective you were aiming to tackle.The reflector will appear quite in your sessions, they will need time to think and will hate to be put on the spot, consider teaming a fast acting impulse activist with a more grounded reflector, the pairing will work well so long as you are aware that the activist will have a tendency to take over and moderate to avoid this. Ways to engage a reflector include use of observation, paired discussion and interviews, where the reflector is the interviewer and is allowed time to think about the conversation before presenting back to group.Behaviour you may see from a theorist which at first appears to be them being difficult, is a lot of challenge and question asking. In fact it is because the theorist needs to understand the background to what you are proposing that they will often engage in question asking before they allow you to move on. The use of handouts, and models are a good way to provide the theorist with what they need without disrupting the group. A good pairing for the theorist can be the pragmatist as they will force the theorist to focus on the problem in hand, whereas the theorist will force the pragmatist to consider more then the most obvious solutions. Facts appeal to both of these types. As a moderator beware of clashes due to different processing rates in this pairing.Activists are very doing focussed, behaviour you may see is an inability to concentrate during presentations, or disruption of group exercises. A good way to keep the involvement of the activist is to charge them with writing up the conversation on a flip chart or to moderate and take notes, this keeps them busy whilst concentrating on the task in hand. Activists are great for group moral though and often having a few activists in a group can lead to a more enjoyable session. Again practical activities and games are ideal for this type.Actually, it is not essential to work to cover all of the above elements in your training, this would result in complex and confusing content! What is more important and the take home message for this section is to ensure your training is varied and appeals to a wide cross section of individuals!
The four types are nicely illustrated in this slide which shows how in the Honey and Mumford model the styles connect with the cycle and which stages of the cycle we will use to tackle the different needs. Honey and Mumford also guide us through the different stages of our training session, so that after we have set our scene by addressing concerns, laying the ground rules and finding out more about our group, their aims, objectives and motivations, we can begin by introducing an exercise to have the experience, this will particularly appeal to the activists in the group.NOTE: Instead of talking through it might be nice to use the visual to discuss the different stages and how these will capture the different learners, if you feel more comfortable some “right answer” examples are below.We then move towards reviewing the experience, this will help to embed the learning for our reflectors, once we have reviewed we can move on to conclusions, perhaps at this point with a little more theory to explain our conclusions, this will help to ground the learning for our theorist.Finally it is important (as discussed during the last slide) to clarify the next steps, and how we can use the session content, this will help to engage our pragmatists.A note on reinforcement – instructors can also motivate adult learners though reinforcement (positive or negative), you can use these techniques to change behaviour (often in the form of learned habits) by, for example:Using Case Studies for the pragmatistUsing a practical exercise for the activist,Allowing some time for the reflector to think and Giving the theorist the background they need ALL FOR EACH TOPIC OF THE TRAINING.
The ultimate aims of the use of the learning cycle is to ensure that each learner goes through the stage of engagement, exploration, and explanation in order to embed the knowledge that is covered, with a final focus on extending and evaluating what they have learnt.The Learning Cycle can help the Design of Interventions by working through during our planning stages and ensuring we have appealed to all of our different learners and taken them through the stages using different tools.NOTE: Some definitions below. These can be incorporated into a handout for ease.Engage: in which a student's interest is captured and the topic is established. For this remembering motivation and barriers is key.Explore: in which the student is allowed to construct knowledge in the topic through facilitated questioning and observation. Here we should consider our learning styles and ensure we cater for the whole group.Explain: in which students are asked to explain what they have discovered, and the instructor leads a discussion of the topic to refine the students' understanding. Remember not to put reflectors on the spot! Sometimes this is better done as a group exercise rather than a while “class” exercise.Extend: in which students are asked to apply what they have learned in different but similar situations, and the instructor guides the students toward the next discussion topic. This section will appeal in particular to your theorists, to engage other learners you will have to be creative in how you plan this part of the cycle.Evaluate: in which the instructor observes each student's knowledge and understanding, and leads students to assess whether what they have learned is true. Evaluation should take place throughout the cycle, not within its own set phase.How to use the learning cycle to achieve the above.Engage: Use of stories and case studies that relate to subject.Explore: Allow discussion and questioning so that students discover answers instead of just listening.Explain: Learners are encouraged to reword what they have heardto show their knowledge.Extend: Learners should try to apply the knowledge in another area (life or business) or to approach the subject from a different angle.Evaluate: Observe and feedback to each individual to perfect their "working" knowledge of the subject.
A brief explanation of how each of the following affect learning design:Equal Opportunities;Health and Safety;Data ProtectionCopyright Law.It is always important to ensure that the training offered caters to all equally, regardless of age, sex, race, religion, belief, disability, or sexual orientation, this is particularly important to consider where training is external to the company premises, it may be a good start to re-iterate the expectations for the day including Equality of Opportunity for all present.You should check that all of your group can access the training equally and adjustments should be made where necessary, in the case of visually impaired member of the group for this example, or where a trainee has use of a wheel chair or other mobility aid then the premises must offer them easy access. As a trainer you must be aware of these needs and consider then as part of your initial assessment and include them in your proposal, for example for time out needed for prayer if you have a predominantly or mixed group with Muslim members.Information Governance: Broadly speaking the two most important pieces of legislation for Information Governance are the Data Protection Act and Freedom of Information Act. These acts are in place to safeguard personal information and ensure best practice in handling information securely. They relate to both practices and culture. The Data Protection Act provides a frame work of Do’s and Don’ts relating to how we gather and store information, it aims to establishing a balance between our freedom to gather and process information, and our employee’s rights to privacy. I training this may be pertinent if we are collecting data on our group and or assessment results. Be sure to discuss the how the policy is applied in the groups working or study environment and follow they code of practice. The Freedom of Information Act gives people increased access to the wealth of information held by public bodies and government departments, as such, it will very much depend on which sector you are working as to how much this will affect you. In the public sector you may need to provide documents summarising your costs which can be used externally in reporting to the public. Generally when working in the private sector this piece of legislation has less of an impact.Finally Copyright law may affect how you produce materials and the rights of the learners to reproduce your content, under creative commons, they are free to use any of your materials so long as they cite you are their source. Copyright is complex and many layered, it is important to check both your sources when preparing materials to ensure you can use them freely and also to set copyright for materials you produce if you want your learners to be able to take them away and use after the session. Above all the best advice is to check with the person commissioning your piece of training what legislation is active in their environment and use this guidance to frame your own training materials.
Any questions?Note for trainer: Don't forget to give out course feedback sheet and spend some time summarising the main points (in bold) on each slide.
