Learning and HRD

1. Learning and HRD Lecture 2

2. Learning Objectives • Define learning and list at least three learning principles • Describe the three broad categories of issues that should be considered to maximize learning • Identify and discuss several personal characteristics (such as ability, personality) that affect trainee learning • Identify and discuss the training design issues that can be used to maximize learning • Identify and discuss the factors that affect the transfer of training, and how these can be used to maximize learning

3. Learning Objectives con’t • Discuss how various individual differences affect the learning process • Discuss the value of adult learning theory to HRD interventions • Describe the role that learning styles, learning strategies, and perceptual preferences play in learning • Cite recent perspectives from instructional and cognitive psychology that have importance for HRD

4. Learning and Instruction • Learning: • a relatively permanent change in behavior, cognition, or affect that occurs as a result of one’s interaction with the environment

5. Focus of Learning • Change • By acquiring something new • By modifying something that already exists • Long-lasting • Behavior, cognitions, affect • Any combination of the three • Results from interaction with the environment

6. Basic Learning Principles • Association • Process by which two cognitions become paired so that thinking of one causes thinking of the other • Contiguity – Objects that are learned together tend to be associates with each other • Law of Effect – A behavior followed by a pleasurable consequence is likely to be repeated • Practice – Repetition strengths the association

7. Limits of Learning Principles • Robert Gagne • Argued that training could be improved by • Task Analysis • Subdividing each task into component tasks • Component Task Achievement • Mastering each component task to learn entire task • Task Sequencing • Learning components should be in appropriate sequence

8. Impact of Instructional Psychology on Learning • Four components • Describe learning goal to be obtained • Analyze initial state of learner • What is capacity before learning starts • Identify conditions that allow learner to achieve competence • Instructional techniques, procedures, materials • Assess and Monitor learning to measure progress and need for alternative techniques

9. Impact of Cognitive Psychology • Adopting the language, methods and models that portray humans as information processors • Cognitive Architecture • A fixed system of mechanisms that underlies and produces cognitive behavior • Symbolic Architectures • Rely heavily upon processing information as symbols and language • Connectionist Architectures • Focused on way that information is processed

10. Maximizing Learning • Three primary areas • Trainee characteristics • Trainability • f (motivation x ability x perceptions of work environment) • Training design • Transfer of training • See Table 3.1

11. Pre-training Motivation • Way trainee perceive training affects levels of learning, perceptions of efficacy, anxiety, and perceptions of fairness • Way individuals view own ability affects anxiety level, efficacy perceptions and the learning of factual knowledge • Experiencing negative events on job can increase trainee’s motivation to learn and their performance • Other factors: • Involved in decisions to train • Perception that training will result in benefits • Perceptions of support for training • Lack of obstacles in applying training on the job

12. Selection of Trainees • Cognitive ability over prior job knowledge • Trainability testing • Testing motivation and relevant abilities (e.g., military) • Train, then select • Use training as opportunity to screen applicants/trainees for retention and further training (e.g., BMW)

13. Personality and Attitudes • Personality • The stable set of personal characteristics that account for consistent patterns of behavior • Traits for training • Locus of control • Need for achievement • Activity • Independence • Sociability • Extraversion and openness to experience are valid predictors of success in training (Martocchio and Webster, 1992)

14. Training Design • Involves adapting the learning environment to maximize learning • Issues include • the conditions of practice that influence learning • Massed versus spaced practice sessions • Massed – All at once (“cramming”) • Spaced – Segments separated over time • Whole versus part learning • Whole – Practice entire task • Part – Practices segments of task • the factors that impact retention of what is learned • Rationale for over-learning • May improve performance under different situations • Additional proactive when opportunity for same not available on the job • Makes what is learned “automatic” in stressful or emergency situations • Feedback in training

15. Retention of What is Learned • Issues influencing retention • Meaningfulness of material • More meaningful, easier to learn and remember • Degree of original learning • More effectively learned, more is retained • Interference • Knowledge gained before training can inhibit retention • Knowledge gained after training may inhibit retention • Both require learner to respond differently in the same general situation do to changed equipment, changed procedures, etc

16. Transfer of Training • The transfer of new knowledge from the training scenario into the workplace • Positive Transfer – Job performance improves because of training • Negative Transfer – Job performance is worse because of training • Near Transfer • Ability to directly apply on the job what has been learned in training, with little adjustment or modification • Far Transfer • Expanding on what has been learned in new and creative ways

17. Baldwin & Ford’s (1988) Transfer of Training Model Fig. 3-1 SOURCE: Baldwin, T. T. & Ford, J. K. (1988). “Transfer of training: A review and directions for future research”. Personnel Psychology, 41, 65. Reprinted by permission.

18. Identical Elements • The more similar the training and the performance situations, the better the transfer • Physical Fidelity • extent to which the conditions of the training program, such as equipment, tasks, and surroundings, are the same as in the performance situation • Psychological Fidelity • extent to which trainees attach similar meanings to both the training and performance situations

19. General Transfer Theories • General Principles Theory • Learning the fundamental elements of a task will ensure transfer from training • Stimulus Variability • Transfer can be enhanced when training contains a variety of stimuli • Support in the Work Environment • extent to which trainees perceive support for using newly learned behavior or knowledge on the job

20. Training Support • Supervisory support • Encouragement to attend training, goal setting, reinforcement, and behavior modeling have all been shown to increase transfer • Organizational Support • presence of both transfer of training climate and a continuous learning work environment affected behavior after training

21. The Opportunity to Perform • The number-one reason cited for low transfer (listed by over 64 percent of trainees!) was “lack of opportunity to apply on the job.”

22. Increasing Transfer to the Job Table 3-2 • Develop (and follow) clearly stated learning objectives for the training • Maximize the similarity between the training situation and the job situation • Provide ample opportunity during training to practice the task • Use a variety of situations and examples, including both positive and negative models of the intended behavior • Identify and label important features of a task • Make sure trainees understand general principles • Provide support back in the work environment, including clear goals, checklists, measurement, feedback, and rewards for using the new behaviors on the job • Provide ample opportunity to perform what is learned back on the job

23. Individual Difference in Learning • Rate of progress • People learn at different rates • Learning Curve • Charting individual proficiency against time • Provide feedback for altering approaches according to individual needs

24. Learning Curves Fig. 3-2

25. Attribute-Treatment Interaction • Some methods of training may be better suited to certain types of people • Two Variables: • Cognitive ability • Motivation

26. Cognitive Resource Allocation Theory • Predicts that • Individuals with higher levels of cognitive ability will perform better than those with lower levels of cognitive ability during the declarative knowledge phase • Motivational efforts will reduce performance during the declarative knowledge phase • Using attentional resources for motivation during the declarative Knowledge phase • Knowledge phase will have less of an impact on high-cognitive-ability individuals

27. Adult Learning Theory • Pedagogy • Used for educating children and teens through high school • Andragogy • Adult-oriented approach to learning

28. Child versus Adult Learning • Adults are more self-directed • Adults have acquired a large amount of knowledge and experience that can be tapped as a resource for learning • Adults show a greater readiness to learn tasks that are relevant to the roles they have assumed in life • Adults are motivated to learn in order to solve problems or address needs, and they expect to immediately apply what they learn to these problems and needs (see Table 3.3 and 3.4)

29. A Theory of Adult Learning • Mezirow (1994) suggests that there are three levels of adult learning - • instrumental • communicative • emancipatory

30. Instrumental learning • Learning to control and manipulate the environment. • Task-orientated problem solving - how to do something or how to perform. • Establish the truth through empirical testing - we can measure changes resulting from our learning in terms of productivity and behaviour. • Two examples of instrumental learning: • Procedural training • Empirical research

31. Communicative learning • Communicative learning involves the dynamics of understanding others. • Communicative learning - trying to understand what somebody means - involves values, intentions, feelings, ideals and normative concepts (Mezirow 1994). • Seeks to establish the validity, or justification, for personal beliefs. • Rational discourse - the need to understand values, ideals, feelings, etc can only be achieved through rational discourse.

32. Emancipatory learning • Mezirow (1996) - emancipatory learning requires individuals to transform their basic frames of reference - transformational learning. • Frames of reference are those deep-seated underlying values and belief systems that guide, shape and dictate everyday attitudes and behaviours. • What we do and do not perceive, comprehend and remember is profoundly influenced by our frames of reference. • Hierarchy of assumptions - three types of assumptions - paradynamic, prescriptive and causal

33. Five Principles of Adult Training • Older workers can and do develop • Supervisions cannot exclude older workers • Effective training needs • Motivation, structure, familiarity, organization & time • The organizational climate must reward entry into training and transfer of skills back to the job • Training must be considered within an integrated career perspective

34. Kolb’s Learning Styles • A learning style represents how individual choices made during the learning process affect what information is selected and how it is processed • A mode of learning is the individual’s orientation toward gathering and processing information during learning

35. Kolb’s Basic Modes • Concrete Experience (CE) • An intuitive preference for learning through direct experience, emphasizing interpersonal relations and feeling as opposed to thinking • Abstract Conceptualization (AC) • A preference for learning by thinking about an issue in theoretical terms • Reflective Observation (RO) • A preference to learn by watching and examining different points of view to achieve an understanding • Active Experimentation (AE) • A preference for learning something by actually doing it and judging its practical value

36. Kolb’s Four Styles -1 • Divergent • A combination of concrete experience and reflective observation (feeling and watching), emphasizing imagination, an awareness of values, and the ability to generate alternative courses of action • Assimilation • A combination of abstract conceptualization and reflective observation (thinking and watching) that stresses inductive reasoning, the integration of disparate observations into an explanation, and the creation of theoretical models

37. Kolb’s Four Styles – 2 • Convergent • A combination of abstract conceptualization and active experimentation (thinking and doing), with a focus on problem solving, decision making, and the practical application of ideas • Accommodative • A combination of concrete experience and active experimentation (feeling and doing), this style is usually demonstrated by accomplishment, executing plans, and involvement in new experiences

38. Perceptual Preferences • Print (reading and writing) • Visual (such as graphs and charts) • Aural (auditory, i.e., listening) • Interactive (discussing, asking questions) • Tactile/manipulative (hands-on approaches, such as touching) • Kinesthetic/psychomotor (role playing, physical activities) • Olfactory (association of ideas with smell or taste)

39. Learning to Regulate One’s Own Behavior • Experts develop self-regulation and control strategies through experience • They can monitor their performance by • quickly checking their work, • accurately judging how difficult a problem is, • Allocating their time, • assessing progress, and • predicting the results of their efforts

40. Expert and Exceptional Performance • Expert performance • consistently superior performance on a specified set of representative tasks for a domain • Exceptional abilities and performance are acquired • primarily under optimal environmental conditions • acquired through deliberate practice • requires sustaining a very high level of motivation

41. Gagné’s Theory of Instruction • Focuses on the kinds of things people learn and how they learn them • Two main components of the theory • taxonomy of learning outcomes (what is being learned) • techniques needed to teach them • Each requires a different set of conditions for maximizing learning, retention, and transfer each of which requires a different set of conditions for maximizing learning, retention, and transfer (See Table 3.6)

42. Summary • Define learning and list at least three learning principles • Describe the three broad categories of issues that should be considered to maximize learning • Identify and discuss several personal characteristics (such as ability, personality) that affect trainee learning • Identify and discuss the training design issues that can be used to maximize learning • Identify and discuss the factors that affect the transfer of training, and how these can be used to maximize learning

43. Summary • Discuss how various individual differences affect the learning process • Discuss the value of adult learning theory to HRD interventions • Describe the role that learning styles, learning strategies, and perceptual preferences play in learning • Cite recent perspectives from instructional and cognitive psychology that have importance for HRD