Of late there seems to be renewed interest in finding new ways to make learning happen. It isn’t just new ways to deliver training, which of course is good, but what I’m coming across is more innovative ways of helping learners absorb and apply content. This is exciting because there are many areas to explore as learning professionals seek to find new and better ways to make learning, and more importantly, the application of learning happen.
Now more then ever learning professionals are working toward active learning that involves engagement of both intellectual and physical activities. And with all our modern technology we can share what is being done, the results and learnings to the greater community of learning professionals. We may actually be at a point where we can better affect how learning can be applied for better results.
While research shows that interactive learning is superior to passively listening or reading, most corporate learning events continue to offer passive instruction. Research is also showing that not only is interactive learning superior to passive learning, it is also finding that small group interactive learning improves long term retention of concepts that can be applied to job responsibilities.
In the May 30, 2018 post “Learning about learning: Meaning matters”
Andres S. Bustamante and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek discuss the work of Professor Noah Finklestein of the Physics Department at the University of Colorado. He and his colleagues are working to transform the approach to educating undergraduates.
“…students are both engaged in hands-on minds-on learning and are much more likely to retain the content than their peers who were talked at or lectured to. Irrespective of age, people learn best when learning experiences are active, engaged, meaningful, and interactive.”
Most course developers in business environments are tasked with developing instructional content with templates that are in need of updating. At this point most corporate course developers are using new media and others forms of instructional tools and are moving away from lectures and slides. But the instructional templates that they are often required to use are in need of being refreshed and updated. The good news is that academic institutions are working to deliver content that will hopefully provide templates for the future development of business learning events.
“In a move away from the classic lecture format, Dr. Finklestein is using an ‘interactive-engagement’ approach where students work in small groups and apply the content in computer simulations and hands-on activities. The data show that student-learning outcomes of the most seasoned lecturers are equal to the lowest performing interactive-engagement classrooms, and when done well, the interactive-engagement format vastly outperforms the top lecturers with students learning more than double the physics content.”
At the beginning of November 2018, several institutions of learning jointly sponsored an event at which some of the new educational practices in use at those institutions were presented, discussed and practiced during the day-long session. The event contained three tracks, “Deepen” “Design” and “Dissent.” All the attendees rotated through each of the tracks during the day. The planners and organizers of the event included faculty, staff and students from the several institutions of learning that sponsored the event.
http://olin.edu/the-wire/2018/remaking-education-offers-new-perspectives-tools-reforming-education/
One notable difference from other types of events is that for this event students played a major role in designing and facilitating the sessions. Participants in the sessions were composed of people from various backgrounds all interested in advancing learning.
Attendees had an opportunity to participate in collaborative, hands-on activities, mentorship, contextual learning, and to hear about and participate in discussions of how these activities can impact educational practices going forward. Not only did the event talk to how to change how learning can be presented, the entire program modeled the educational practices that were being presented and advocated.
In the “Deepen” session participants had an opportunity to learn by doing and also to recount episodes from their own life where they gained knowledge from learning that they achieved through experience. During the “Design” session attendees experienced hands-on learning as they worked together in small teams to produce a product that required cooperation and collaboration. In the “Dissent” session participants were tasked with identifying ways that pieces of the current educational system could be removed and replaced with different and better methodologies to achieve the same goals. The idea was to better meet the needs of all learners, instructors and the institution to achieve the needed end results. The participants worked in small teams to develop their recommendations.
The event was all about presenting new ideas about how education and learning can occur. I hope that there will be follow-up information about how successful the people who attended the event were in implementing the concepts presented within their organizations. An understanding of what worked, what didn’t, and why will help to move new concepts and techniques forward.
Blueprints for Learning 