Introduction to Learning and Development

Learning and development (L&D) as a field of management research and practice is concerned with how individuals (individually or as groups) acquire or create knowledge and skills which enable them to perform and grow in their current or future occupational role.

Learning has been defined across various fields and sub-fields as a “process of gaining knowledge and expertise”; it can be defined as “relatively permanent change in behaviour that results from experience or a systematic acquisition of skills, rules, concepts or attitudes that result in improved performance in another environment”.

Learning vs Training

People often use the terms training and learning and development interchangeably. But they mean different things. Training is a sub-set of learning and development.

The fundamental difference between training and learning and development is that the later takes a multi-dimensional approach to human resource development (HRD). Training, on the other hand, is one-dimensional and based essentially on what has been referred to as the production-centered approach. The person-centered and problem-centered approaches are generally missing from traditional HRD programs based on the production-centered approach. The traditional employment relationship performance orientation is founded almost exclusively on directly developing the skills and competencies of employees.

Learning Culture

A learning culture is a collection of organizational conventions, values, practices and processes. These conventions encourage employees and organizations develop knowledge and competence.

An organization with a learning culture encourages continuous learning and believes that systems influence each other. Since constant learning elevates an individual as a worker and as a person, it opens opportunities for the establishment to transform continuously for the better.

Culture can be defined as “the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another”. Its culture that makes one country, region, or group of people different from another. It’s easy to see those cultural differences when you travel, in such things as the food people eat, the way they behave, the way they dress, and their celebrations and rituals.

Organizations also have unique cultures that shape their workplaces, and it’s that culture that differentiates a learning organization. In contrast with traditional hierarchical organizations, the culture of a learning organization promotes and supports learning at all levels and in a variety of ways.

To build a learning organization, you must deliberately and consciously transform the existing culture into a learning culture. Accomplishing that transformation requires the right leaders, the right people, the right behaviors, and the right resources.

Key steps in creating a learning culture in the workplace

• Formalize training and development plans – For a learning culture to be ingrained, it should be mandatory for all individuals in the organization. Training and development plans that are not formalized run the risk of not being taken seriously and as a result, not implemented.
• Give recognition to learning – Employees who have successfully learned new skills and abilities should be recognized and encourage others to follow suit.
• Get feedback – Sessions and polls should regularly be done to evaluate the benefits of training and development, as well as to determine whether the training investment is well spent.
• Promote from within – One of the advantages of training is having employees who are ready for a bigger role. Announce an internal job posting to encourage employees to gain knowledge.
• Develop knowledge and information – It involves developing knowledge and information for sharing into a formal process. People will be more encouraged to share knowledge and information if they are required to do so. Formalizing the process makes sure that everyone who needs the information gets it.

Kolb Learning Styles

David Kolb developed this learning styles model in 1984. Kolb’s learning styles model is based on two lines of axis (continuums): our approach to a task – (preferring to do or watch), and our emotional response (preferring to think or feel). The theory sets out these four preferences, which are also possible different learning methods:

• Doing (active experimentation)
• Watching (reflective observation)
• Feeling (concrete experience)
• Thinking (abstract conceptualization)

These learning styles characteristics are normally shown as two lines of axis. The east-west axis is called the Processing Continuum (how we approach a task), and the north-south axis is called the Perception Continuum (our emotional response, or how we think or feel). This also describes four different learning styles (and also methods):

The combination of where our preference lies on each axis produces four possible learning style types

• Activist (doing and feeling preferences, or concrete-active)
• Reflector (watching and doing, or concrete-reflective)
• Theorist (watching and thinking, or abstract-reflective)
• Pragmatist (thinking and doing, or abstract-active)

VAK Learning Styles

The VAK learning Style uses the three main sensory receivers – Vision, Auditory, and Kinesthetic (movement) to determine the dominate learning style.

Learners use all three to receive information. However, one or more of these receiving styles is normally dominant. This dominant style defines the best way for a person to learn new information by filtering what is to be learned. This style may not always to be the same for some tasks. The learner may prefer one style of learning for one task, and a combination of others for another task.

Classically, our learning style is forced upon us through life like this: In grades kindergarten to third, new information is presented to us kinesthetically; grades 4 to 8 are visually presented; while grades 9 to college and on into the business learning environment, information is presented to us auditory by lectures.

As trainers, we need to present information using all three styles. This allows all learners, no matter what their preferred style is, and the opportunity to become involved. It also allows a learner to be presented with the other two methods of reinforcement. Just because we prefer one style, does not mean that the other two do us no good. On the contrary, they help us to learn even faster by reinforcing the material. Some hints for recognizing and implementing the three styles are:

Auditory learners often talk to themselves. They also may move their lips and read out loud. They may have difficulty with reading and writing tasks. They often do better talking to a colleague or a tape recorder and hearing what was said.

MBTI Model

The MBTI model would have two dimensions – height and width, similar to Kolb’s and other models, but it would also a third dimension – depth. Extroversion/Introversion would be on the horizontal axis, while Feeling/Thinking would be on the vertical axis. This is represented by the model below.

The depth (third dimension) of Extroversion/Introversion (EI) would be Judging/Perceptive (JP). This might be thought of as how much time (JP) we are willing to stick to a task (EI) rather it be actively engaging in it or reflecting on it. The depth (third dimension) of Feeling/Thinking (FT) would be Sensing/iNtuition (SN). This might be thought of as using our various senses, to include our “sixth sense” (SN) when thinking or feeling (FT) about a subject. ”although they are not necessarily dependent on each other, these intelligences seldom operate in isolation. Every normal individual possesses varying degrees of each of these intelligences, but the ways in which intelligences combine and blend are as varied as the faces and the personalities of individuals.” –   Howard Gardner

Multiple Intelligences – Howard Gardner theorized that there are multiple intelligences, and that we all use one or two for the most effective learning. Our cultures teach, test, reinforce and reward primarily two kinds of intelligence: verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical. His theory proposes that there are at least eight other kinds of intelligence that are equally important. They are “languages” that most people speak, and that cut through cultural, educational, and ability differences.

The mind is not comprised of a single representation or a single language of representations. Rather, we harbor numerous internal representations in our minds. Some scholars speak of “modules of mind,” some of a “society of mind,” in this case it is “multiple intelligences.” They include

• Verbal Linguistic: intelligence (sensitive to the meaning and order of words as in a poet). Use activities that involve hearing, listening, impromptu or formal speaking, tongue twisters, humor, oral or silent reading, documentation, creative writing, spelling, journal, poetry.
• Logical-mathematical: intelligence (able to handle chains of reasoning and recognize patterns and orders as in a scientist). Use activities that involve abstract symbols/formulas, outlining, graphic organizers, numeric sequences, calculation, deciphering codes, problem solving
• Musical: intelligence (sensitive to pitch, melody, rhythm, and tone as in a composer). Use activities that involve audio tape, music recitals, singing on key, whistling, humming, environmental sounds, percussion vibrations, rhythmic patterns, music composition, and tonal patterns.
• Spatial: intelligence (perceives the world accurately and tries to re-create or transform aspects of that world as in a sculptor or airplane pilot). Use activities that involve art, pictures, sculpture, drawings, doodling, mind mapping, patterns/ designs, color schemes, active imagination, imagery, block building.
• Bodily Kinesthetic: intelligence (able to use the body skillfully and handle objects adroitly, as in an athlete or dancer). Use activities that involve role playing, physical gestures, drama, inventing, ball passing, sports games, physical exercise, body language, dancing.
• Interpersonal: intelligence (understand people and relationship as in a salesman or teacher). Learners think by bouncing ideas off of each other (socializers who are people smart). Use activities that involve group projects, division of labor, sensing others’ motives, receiving/giving feedback, collaboration skills.
• Intrapersonal: intelligence (possess access to one’s emotional life as a means to understand oneself and others exhibited by individuals with accurate views of themselves). Use activities that involve emotional processing, silent reflection methods, thinking strategies, concentration skills, higher order reasoning, “centering” practices, met cognitive techniques.
• Naturalist: (connected to the intricacies and subtleties in nature such as Charles Darwin and Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame). Use activities that involve bringing the outdoors into the class, relating to the natural world, charting, mapping changes, observing wildlife, keeping journals or logs.

The Three Representational Modes (TRiM)

All information that is perceived via the senses passes through three processors that encode it as linguistic, nonlinguistic, or affective representations. This is how we learn.

For example, if you go to a football game for the first time you encode information linguistically such as rules; retain mental images nonlinguistic ally, such as mental images of the players positioning them and then getting set (pose); and finally, you have various sensations which are encoded affectively, such as the excitement during a touchdown. Each representation can be thought of as a record that is encoded and then filed away.

So what learning activities do we use if we follow the TRiM model?

Linguistic Mode: The linguistic mode provides the way to the most accurate method of learning, hence the reason for its impact upon the education and training world. There are a number of ways for increasing linguistic retention.

Note Taking: Note taking has a positive impact on this mode since it involves the learners in the subject matter that is transpiring in class, it cause us to reflect on the subject and then record our thoughts, it helps us in interpreting the subject matter, and it provides an additional linguistic reinforcer. You can help them with the note taking by providing rough outlines and fill-in-the-blanks. But do not just rely on one method. For example, fill-in-the-blanks can also be concept or semantic maps (mapping) – you provide the lines and circles, while the learners fill them in.

Charting: While the above mostly refers to the declarative network, the procedural network can be reinforced with such tools as flowcharts, diagrams, and maps. Providing tools that directly support procedures or processes helps in explaining the task. Again, you can give them the skeletons of the flowchart, and then having them flesh it together in order to use the learning transfer effectiveness of note taking.

Cueing: Use “cueing” to provide the “abstract propositions”, which is then expounded on to turn it into a complete, long-term memory network. Cues can be thought of as a brief preview or skill that is to be presented. It can be as simple as saying, “I wonder what will happen if I push this button,” to using slides to cue. Most of us have head of the 6-6 (or 7-7) rule of slides – no more than six lines and each line should have no more than six words. If you have ever sat through a presentation where the presenter read the slides, you know how ineffective and annoying that method is. This is partially because our reading speed does not match our listening speed; hence, they confuse instead of reinforcing each other. So, the better method is to use the slides as cues. The slide should give a brief outline to “cue” the students on what they are about to learn.