Carolyn B. Thompson
Training Systems, Inc.
221 Vermont Road
Frankfort, IL 60423
815-469-1162
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1083 Words
Adults Learn Differently Than Children
by: Carolyn B. Thompson
There's a lot more to training than talking! An awful lot of us are
training our staff, our co-workers, our customers these days without a
clue of how to really help adults learn.
Studies show that we remember 80-90% of what we see and touch, and only
10-15% of what we hear...so there's one thing for sure —
people don't
learn by us talking!
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
Involve me and I learn – know who said it? –
Benjamin Franklin. When you
think of involving people in the learning process, don’t you think of the
1990's stuff like outdoor experiences, interactive video, team building
exercises? Involvement in the learning process is not a 1990's thing, it's
an adult learning thing. Adults need to be involved in the learning
process in order to be able to perform what they've learned. Most of us
know this – we remember 80-90% of what we see and touch and only 10-15% of
what we hear – it makes sense, but we don't put it into practice when we
have to help a new co-worker or staff person learn their job or a new
process. I believe there are two reasons for this; Number 1, most of us
haven't been trained to train – we don't have a BA or MA in HR, we don't
read Training Magazine each month, we don't go to training on how to train
– we're simply the most experienced at a task and so we get to be the
trainer. There are a handful of us trained to train but we too don't
involve people in the learning process as much as we ought to because we
have been just that - trained to train. No company on Earth cares if
someone can train, or if the employees are trained, do they? We only care
if the employee learned and can perform! Even if you've been trained to
train you probably still find yourself involving learners in the learning
process less than you should because we think of ourselves as the trainer –
but no one cares if you can train, they only care if the learner learns.
Make a new mindset for yourself and you'll involve learners more often –
your job is not to train but to create learning, so think of yourself as a
Creator of Learning and you'll involve people in the learning process more
often because you'll always be focusing on whether they're learning, not
whether you're training!
Now to be a great creator of learning you must understand one great truth
about adults – adults learn differently than children. This is because
adults and young adults come to the learning with experiences. The older
the person, the more experiences they come with. Those of you who snow ski
know all about those 5 year olds that zoom past you while you’re carefully
maneuvering the slope. Why are they able to ski so fast, so quickly?
Because they have no experience of falling, and even if they did, it's
only a foot and a half to the ground so it's no big deal. They have no
experience of running into trees, like I have, they have no experience of
another skier running into them, like I have. So adults come to the
learning with these negative experiences which hold them back from
learning the new process or new task. The cool thing is that adults also
come to learning with positive experiences which, if you recognized them,
you could capitalize on them and generalize the past experience to the new
one!
Adults learn from experiences, it's a fact, and they are going to come to
learn with those experiences already in place. So our job, if we want to
help them learn quickly and learn it the first time, is to recognize the
experience they've had, if it's negative find a way to wipe it out, and if
it's positive, generalize it to the new task. For example, most of us,
when we're helping someone learn something, spend the first few minutes
telling them all the neat new things this piece of equipment or software
will do or the reasons why they'll benefit from working in this new manner
- new, new, new, new! And then we wonder why they're holding back, not
trying very hard, asking 500 questions! What we should do is start by
telling them all the things this new piece of equipment or new form does
or how this new procedure is similar to old ones or ways they've done it
before!
Adult Learning Theory says that in order for adults to learn they must be
involved in a 5 step process, beginning with experiencing –
which can be
remembering an experience or acting out the past experience (ie. “show me
what you can do before we get started with the training”) and then trying
the new one or for some reading about the new way to do it or watching
another do it. They must then have the opportunity to publish –
tell about
the experience, the old one and the new one. Next, they need time to
process – think about, talk about or evaluate what they've done, read or
watched, and therefore what they've learned. Next, they must have the
opportunity to generalize – relate in writing or speaking how what they've
done, read or seen applies to what they'll be doing on the job on their
own once the training time is finished. The final step is for the learner to
apply – which for many of us is actually doing the task, for others it's
planning what we're going to do including a date to start.
Adults must experience (which they'll do with or without your help),
publish, process, generalize, and apply in order to learn. Your job, when
you need to help someone learn, is to provide training that includes the
ability for the learner to be involved in all 5 steps so the learning will
be cemented! Each learner is slightly different, hence my mentioning that
some learners will want to read, others to talk, others to watch someone
else doing the job first. All of these are significantly more involving
than the standard talking to them (lecture) or the “you show them, they
try, you leave” type of training which is involving, but only works for
some learners as some learn better from trying without you and others from
reading.
Stop talking so much and start helping people learn!
Carolyn B. Thompson is the President of Training
Systems, Inc.,
a customized training & HR consulting company that helps small and
medium sized organizations enhance their ability to recruit, inspire,
and retain quality employees and improve performance through training. Training
Systems, Inc. also provides
training design and delivery services to training companies and the
training departments of large companies, and professional and trade
organizations. Carolyn is an exciting, experienced, and inspirational
trainer who leads people to learn, and a knowledgeable consultant in the
employee recruitment, inspiration, and retention. Carolyn’s produced a
two-tape audio tape set based on her radio show, Straight Talk for
Employers; the worksheet, Ten Steps to Determining the Return on
Your Training Investment; written & published the book, Creating
Highly Interactive Training Quickly & Effectively, and written Interviewing
Techniques for Managers and The Leadership Genius of George W.
Bush. She’s written articles for prominent magazines, been
interviewed for Chicago’s TV Channel 26, the ‘You’re Hired’
radio show, and written chapters in several books. Carolyn is also the
editor of the monthly publication, Recruit, Inspire and Retain.
Training Systems, Inc.
1999
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