Skills at Work

Are we reading more ... or less?

2011-10-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

I was asked recently, by one of the leading publishers in the world, "are people reading less today". Intuitively I felt that the answer was "Yes".

After all, movies, video games, cellphones and a myriad other channels of communication are talking to us without requiring us to read much at all, or at least not in the accepted sense of the word - as in reading a book, or doing research.

Well the answer is actually quite surprising. People are reading more today than ever. However, they are just doing it differently. Instead of consuming large volumes of information, people are now getting right to the nub of their needs and consuming information in smaller chunks. My son asked me to do an unusual search on the Internet, for an obscure picture. We found it, with a bit of hit and miss. To get that in past repositories, I would have had to work through a number of reference works, books and other sources. Now it is all at hand and so accessible to all.

So how does this inform the way adults will learn in future. Can we rely on traditional school/learning methods and the prevailing tendency to dump large volumes of information on learners? It may become increasingly difficult to learn anything that way, as our brains slowly evolve and rewire. We are going to have to adapt our messages and delivery systems to the changing reality.

This subject warrants far more attention, so I will continue the theme in subsequent articles, but I too need to live my message and focus on delivering one message at a time, in shorter, more concise "bytes".

Art versus Science

2011-09-13T01:47:00.000-07:00

To some education is the edifice, the system and bureacracy that forms the bedrock of the institution. To them the means is more relevant than the ends.

The principle is not limited to education, though, for there be many a firm that has moved from an entrepreneurial context to a mature context, often out of a need to manage the asset rather than the outcome. Many, however, have unconsciously allowed their success to become their failure, as what once drove a firm to glory becomes a beast that must be ridden by its masters. Many of the world's biggest banks actually had soul at one time, until teh forces of rationality, organisation and order, killed the soul of the organisation - often helped along by a good dose of regulation.

The upshot of it all is firms that are less suited to the dynamics of the 21st century, where a more nimble, adaptive and customer engaging approach is more relevant.

To the remnant, a majority in terms of numbers of firms, but a minority in terms of market share, education remains an art. My sons went to a private school, which traded on its impressive name, facilities and purse, but later went to a grand old state school, which only traded on its esprit de corps, its pride of place, its ancient facilities and its great teachers. Out of the latter emerged gentlemen (it is a boys school), who are groomed for life, educated in the fullest sense of the word and with a noble bearing.

I am in the latter camp. I would far rather that education and training is an art, which transforms people and inspires the noblest response from learners. We will speak more on these things.

Principles of Adult Education

2011-09-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

Learning can be defined formally as the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skills.

In contrast, memory can define the capacity of storing, retrieving, and acting on that knowledge. Learning helps us move from novices to experts and allows us to gain new knowledge and abilities.

Learning strengthens the brain by building new pathways and increasing connections that we can rely on when we want to learn more. Definitions that are more complex add words such as comprehension and mastery through experience or study.

Physiologically, learning is the formation of cell assemblies and phase sequences. Children learn by building these assemblies and sequences. Adults spend more time making new arrangements than forming new sequences. Our experience and background allow us to learn new concepts.

At the neurological level, any established knowledge (from experience and background) appears to be made up of exceedingly intricate arrangements of cell materials, electrical charges, and chemical elements. Learning requires energy; re-learning and un-learning requires even more. We must access higher brain functions to generate the much-needed energy and unbind the old.[¹]

Our discussion here assumes learning, from the most fundamental to complex, to be:

Any increase in knowledge,
Memorizing information,
Acquiring knowledge for practical use,
Abstracting meaning from what we do, and
A process that allows us to understand.[²]

Remarkably, people can learn from the moment of birth. Learning can and should be a lifelong process. Learning shouldn't be defined by what happened early in life, only at school.[³] We constantly make sense of our experiences and consistently search for meaning. In essence, we continue to learn.

Though humans like the familiar and are often uncomfortable with change, the brain searches for and responds to novelty. "Ah-ha!" you may think. "That's why I hated freshman English. No novelty!"

Rote learning frustrates us because the brain resists meaningless stimuli. When we invoke the brain's natural capacity to integrate information, however, we can assimilate boundless amounts.

Another "Ah-ha!"? This may explain why sometimes a tough class, one you never thought you would get through, was one of your all-time favorites.

Western society once believed adults didn't learn. Even today, if you ask a group why adults cannot learn, it may surprise you how many begin answering the question without challenging the premise. Unfortunately, many adults deny themselves what should be one of the most enriching parts of life because they assume they can't learn.

We can learn from everything the mind perceives (at any age). Our brains build and strengthen neural pathways no matter where we are, no matter what the subject or the context.<br><br>

In today's business environment, finding better ways to learn will propel organizations forward. Strong minds fuel strong organizations. We must capitalize on our natural styles and then build systems to satisfy needs. Only through an individual learning process can we re-create our environments and ourselves.

Some of this text was originally published in a whitepaper Marcia wrote in 1995 for Wave Technologies entitled "Learning: The Critical Technology." You can download the full whitepaper in Adobe Acrobat format (280K). The excerpt here is used with permission.

Harold D. Lasswell. The changing nature of human nature. American Journal of Psychoanalysis. 26 (2), p. 164. Quoted in Alvin Toffler (1970), Future Shock.
Robert M. Smith (1991, April). How people become effective learners. Adult Learning, p. 11.
Robert L. Steinbach (1993). The Adult Learner: Strategies for Success. (Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications.)
Article source: http://agelesslearner.com/intros/adultlearning.html

We doan need no edercashen

2011-08-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

There are a few terms that describe the education process. Mark Twain would probably contend that none apply, having argued that schooling should not ruin a good education.

Training is formally used in the corporate world and broadly describes the entire education process, but it is a misnomer for where training happens it doesn’t. The only training I ever did was potty training for my kids and nose rubbing for my dog. It was brutally effective, but hardly aspirational.

Then there is instruction. It is a vital process used to teach people how to drive, follow a procedure or operate a machine. I used it to tell me children what to do before they were old enough to reason why on earth I would want them to do it at all. The purest instruction I ever got was from a pot-bellied man in a brown uniform, who claimed to be my mother and was insistent that I march, turn, stop, turn or whatever else he spat out at me … pity his left sounded like right, else we might have got on better.

Teaching is what teachers do, ostensibly because they can’t do. Hmm, I am firmly of the view that it is the teacher that does education not the institution. My children have been in small-class private education, medium-class private schooling and larger-class public schooling. Despite big differences in fees, the only standout feature in each case was the teacher – and some of the best were in public schools.

Then there is education. That is the overarching process that describes our personal development. Oscar Wilde rightfully argued that we should not let schooling ruin a good education, for education is a total process, embracing a broad range of experiences that inform us about life, values, culture, etiquette, girls (or boys if you are a girl or …), our ABC’s and so on. Education is what happens when you get caught picking your nose and eating it … it’s an outcome, the product of many inputs across the spectrum of life.

I find facilitation to be more relevant (and its what I do), because I finally realize that we cannot change anyone, nor is that the role of an educator. You can change a light bulb, your clothes or your mind, but changing others is a different ball game. Facilitation involves a degree of standoff, which guides the process of learning towards a given outcome, but the magic only happens when learners are motivated and they connect with the learning process. I often say that learners learn more from sharing ideas and concepts with each other or doing activities together. The defining skill of the facilitator is to bring them to that.

Learning shifts the burden from the educator to the student and is largely independent of the channel, method or giver of instruction. It is significantly self-motivated and happens throughout our lives, but is made the more effective by accessibility of information, richness of content and the fulfillment it brings to the learner. The advent of the Internet has made autonomous learning a more typical behavior of modern man, but has also shifted the burden of self-improvement to the learner. There can be no nobler expression of the human soul than for us to outlive ourselves ... by choosing to riase ourselves above mediocrity.

Image source: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.carr/files/education.jpg

Its time

2011-08-19T22:01:00.001-07:00

Now is the time