Training Session Design and Development, from ASTD course …



Designing Learning

Background – How People Learn and Methods that Enhance Learning

Intro to Bloom’s Taxonomy

Learning Objectives

Basic Ingredients of an Effective Learning Session

Training Materials

I. Summary

I. Background – How People Learn and Methods that Enhance Learning

Eight Ways Adults Learn

1. Adults must want to learn. Strong inner motivation to develop a new skill or acquire particular knowledge.

2. Adults will learn what is practical. They think, “How will this help me on the job right now?”

3. Adults learn by doing. So do children, but the importance of active participation is greater among adults. Retention is much higher with immediate and repeated opportunities to practice or use what they have learned.

4. Adult learning centers on problems and the problems must be realistic. You can teach adults a rule or principle, and then show them, by a series of hypothetical illustrations, how it applies to specific situations. But studies show they will learn much faster if you reverse the process. Let them begin with specific problems, drawn from job experiences, and work out practical solutions from which principles may be deduced. (case studies, problems)

5. Experience affects how adults learn. The most conspicuous difference between adults and children as learners is that adults have had a lot of experience with life. This can be an asset or a liability. Negative feelings or failure attached to certain experiences may prevent new learning.

6. Adults learn best in an informal environment. Many adults have unpleasant memories of school days. They will respond to adult education programs in inverse relationship to the degree they are reminded of their childhood experiences.

7. A variety of methods are needed in teaching adults. Adapt the method to what you are trying to accomplish. If you main purpose is to impart information, the most efficient method is some version of the lecture. But if the purpose is to bring about change in conduct, behaviors, attitudes or ideas of the learner, you must involve the learner actively in the process.

8. Adults want guidance, not grades. Competition, such as grading, has a negative effect on adult learning. At the same time, adult learners want desperately to know how they are doing. Adults should be encouraged to measure their own progress or work on teams that can compare each other’s progress. They know better than anyone else whether their performance has measured up to their goals.

Understanding how people learn and how training methods impede or facilitate that process is key to maximizing the effectiveness of any session you are developing and/or facilitating. It is your instructional methods, not the media, that cause learning. Table 1 presents definitions and examples of instructional media and methods.

Table 1. Instructional Media and Methods

|Term |Definition |Examples |

|Instructional Media |Carriers of instruction. |Computers |

| |May include technical or non-technical delivery mechanisms |Video |

| | |PowerPoint/slides |

| | |Facilitators |

| | |Workbooks |

|Instructional Methods |The active ingredients of training |Examples |

| |The elements of lessons that cause learning |Practice |

| | |Graphics |

To be effective, instructional methods must promote (not obstruct) basic human psychological learning processes. Table 2 presents descriptions of the psychological processes of learning and example instructional methods that support them. Try to incorporate them into your session design.

Table 2. Learning Processes and Instructional Methods that Support Them

|Process |Definition |Example Methods |

|Support attention |Helping learners to focus attention to |۰ Learning objectives to provide focus. |

| |important elements in the instruction, |۰ Interactive introductory exercises. |

| |and minimizing divided attention. |۰ Solicitation of participant goals. |

| | |۰ Advanced reading and questions to focus attention. |

| | |۰ Avoidance of irrelevant and distracting visuals. |

| | |۰ Use of bright color to highlight main terms. |

| | |۰ Avoid information overload |

|Activate prior knowledge |Good instruction activates prior |۰ Review of earlier related sessions. |

| |knowledge, making integration of new |۰ Analogies linking content to prior knowledge. |

| |information easier. |۰ Intro stories or questions: lead-in statistics, scenarios, successes, etc. |

| | |۰ Discussion on related experiences of participants. |

|Manage cognitive load |Helping learners make best use of their |۰ Segmenting content into small chunks. |

| |limited working memory resources for |۰ Sequencing content for ease of acquisition. |

| |learning. |۰ Avoiding extraneous visuals, stories, and content not relevant to the instructional|

| | |goals. |

| | |۰ Explaining visuals with cues and narration. |

| | |۰ Brainstorming. |

| | |۰ Reading assignments. |

| | |۰ Internet searches or tours. |

|Promote rehearsal and |New information must be rehearsed |۰ Examples and worked examples. |

|long-term memory storage |(processed) n order to be stored in long|۰ Memos. |

| |– term memory. |۰ Engaging learners to induce knowledge and skills from examples or experiences. |

| | |۰ Practice exercises. |

| | |۰ Appropriate visuals. |

| | |۰ Questions. |

|Practice retrieval |New knowledge stored must be brought |۰ Role-play exercises using scenarios that are similar to those encountered in unit |

| |back into working memory when needed. |operations. |

| | |۰ Facilitator questions. |

| | |۰ Short pen and paper exercises. |

| | |۰ Relevant games or drill exercises. |

| | |۰ Peer feedback. |

| | |۰ Case studies that are realistic. |

| | |۰ Action plans to implement a skill at unit level. |

| | |۰ Discussion of how new skills will be adapted for individual unit use. |

| | |۰ Creation of working aids (plans, schedules, etc) |

II. Intro to Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom et al. (1956) divided the cognitive domain, which includes knowledge, intellectual abilities and intellectual skills, into six major levels:

Knowledge. Knowledge consists of facts, conventions, definitions, jargon, technical terms, classifications, categories, and criteria. It also consists of the ability to recall methodology and procedures, abstractions, principles, and theories in the field.

Comprehension. Comprehension is the ability to understand or grasp the meaning of material, but not necessarily to solve problems or relate it to other material. An individual who comprehends something can paraphrase it in his or her own words. The information can be interpreted, as in the interpretation of experimental data, or trends and tendencies can be extended or extrapolated. Comprehension is a higher-order skill than knowledge, but knowledge is required for comprehension.

Application. Application is the use of abstract ideas in particular concrete situations.

Analysis. Analysis usually consists of breaking down a complex problem into parts and determining the connections and interactions between the different parts. Many engineering problems fall into the analysis level because very complicated engineering systems must be analyzed.

Synthesis. Synthesis involves taking many pieces and putting them together to make a new whole. A major part of engineering design involves synthesis.

Evaluation. Evaluation is a judgment about a solution, process, design, report, material, and so forth.

Bloom’s taxonomy is a hierarchy. Knowledge, comprehension, application, and analysis are all required before one can properly do synthesis. It can be argued that in engineering, synthesis is a higher-order activity than evaluation, since evaluation is needed to determine which of many answers is optimum. The major use of the taxonomy in training is to design objectives, materials, exercises, and assessment to include examples and problems at all levels, wherever practical. It’s important to understand that in a training session of short duration (< three days), time does not permit delving into Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. Fortunately, engineers, by the nature of problem solving and design, tend to have well-developed skills of analysis and synthesis.

Learning Objectives

Learning objectives are clear statements of the knowledge, skills or behaviors you expect your participants to acquire and/or demonstrate as a result of the training you provide, along with the level of performance that is to be demonstrated. You must clearly communicate these to the participants.

It is essential that you identify the tasks you are trying to teach before you spend a lot of time and effort developing your session objectives. This will help you decide what content (knowledge and skills) is relevant to your session, and serve as its foundation.

Steps in a task analysis:

1. Analyze audience and determine prerequisites

• What are the characteristics of the participants, and what do they already know? If you have preparatory information you’d like them to preview so everyone is basically on the same page, send it to me and I’ll post it on the VOLT web site. If you have some questions you’d like to send out, to help you in determining what to present, send them to me and I’ll include them in the pre-conference assessment.

• What skills and knowledge does it take for them to do their job effectively?

2. Identify outcomes of unit activity (e.g. conduct of a conference in a financially sustainable manner, a recruitment drive that leads to increased membership, or a fundraiser generating a desired amount of revenue)

3. Identify the tasks within each outcome, and the steps within each task.

4. Identify the knowledge needed to complete each task successfully (knowledge = necessary information and the decisions or discriminations that the volunteer must be capable of)

To clarify expectations with respect to outcomes, it’s important to understand the levels of mastery desired– how well participants are able to apply the skills and knowledge acquired during the training event.

More extensive information on objectives is found in the Learning Objectives document.

IV. Basic Ingredients of an Effective Learning Session

All face-to-face training materials incorporate the following basic elements: Visuals; Test; and Audio (speakers’ voice and/or multimedia materials with sound). These elements are assembled into lesson components, as described in Table 4.

Table 4. Lesson Components

|Component |Purpose |

|Explanations |Presentation of new knowledge and skills |

|Examples |Illustrations and demonstrations of knowledge and skills |

|Practice exercises and feedback |Activities to promote acquisition of new knowledge and skills |

|Working aids |Memory supplements to guide performance “in the field” |

V. Training Materials

Your instructional materials are the link between your unit’s business goals and the knowledge and skills volunteers need to achieve those goals.

Participant Notes: Providing the participants notes containing the critical session content, with space for some note-taking, along with examples and exercises, will maximize the time available for better learning techniques than extensive note taking. One example would be the PowerPoint slides you developed for your session, printed 3 to a page with lines for a few notes. Print and review the slides in advance and make sure they are legible!

PowerPoint Content: PowerPoint slides should not be in depth or detailed descriptions of the content of your session; rather, the slides should contain the important content elements that you will explain in more detail. Keep in mind that the PowerPoint file is not your presentation; what you say is your presentation. Include functional (as opposed to decorative or distracting) visuals, tables, definitions, and examples needed to present the main ideas. The point is to use the slides to creatively support the learning process, not distract from it.

Face the audience when using PowerPoint. Practice using your slides and talking to each point listed on them, refering to your speaker notes as needed.

Tips for effective PowerPoint slide design:

• Leave plenty of blank space

• Number pages

• Use minimalist writing techniques

• Do not read your presentation or read your slides out loud – the audience can read 3x faster than you can speak – and it is boring. Emphasize important points

• Include tables and charts to summarize content

• Use visuals as needed to illustrate content

• Include explicit examples and practice exercises

Wall Charts: Place any content that needs to be referenced throughout the course of the session (e.g. learning objectives, important graphics or screen shot, org chart) on a wall chart as memory support.

Other Visuals: Table 5 shows the three types of visuals shown to improve learning.

Table 5. Visuals that improve learning

|Type |Definition |Examples |

|Representational |A visual that accurately shows the appearance of |Screen shots |

| |your content |Equipment photos |

|Organizational |A visual that communicates qualitative |Org charts |

| |relationships among content |Block diagram of topics |

|Explanatory |A visual that helps learners understand how |An animated demonstration |

| |things work or how to perform tasks |A schematic diagram |

For additional articles on the effective use of PowerPoint and other visuals, check out .

For easy reference, see the “Quick Job Aid” for writing training materials.

VI. Summary

We’ve covered some of the building blocks of effective design of your training session. You may want to use the session template as a guide in implementing any of the ideas you’d like to use. For guidance in executing your training, see the Facilitator Guidelines document.

Don't Worry About Whether Your Plan is Perfect or Not -- The Plan is Guide, Not Law

Don't worry about whether you completely understand key terms in training or whether your plan is "perfect" or not. The key is to get started. Start simple, but start. Do the best that you can for now. There is no perfect plan. You're doing the plan according to your own nature and needs.

Also, it's not important to stick to the plan for the sake of the plan. The plan will likely change as you go along. That's fine, as long as you've notice that it's been changed and why.

Remember that Training and Development is a Process

So often when we design a plan, the plan becomes the end rather than the means. The plan is a general guide -- the real treasure found from implementing your plan is the learning you achieve. Look at learning as an ongoing process and you enjoy the long time during the journey rather than the short time at the destination. The “aha” moments along the way (yours and the members of your audience) are worth the extra effort. And don’t forget to take advantage of the teachable moments…

-----------------------

NOTE: in a three-day training seminar such as the LTC, it is realistic to expect participants to gain critical awareness and knowledge (e.g. what the Balanced Scorecard is) and some guidance in applying it (e.g. how to apply the BSC at the unit level). However, skilled application will require additional practice, perhaps through follow up self-study and/or the creation of action plans for individuals and teams, to be carried out throughout the year.

“What I hear, I forget; what I see, I remember; but what I do, I understand.” – Confucius

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download