2

Theories and Models of Adult Learning

According to the online edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, learning has three main definitions. First, it can mean “the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill.” Second, it can mean “knowledge or skill gained through schooling or study.” Third, it can mean “Changes in behavior resulting from experience, especially changes due to conditioning.” Knowledge is generally understood to mean facts, information, and concepts. Skill refers to know-how—that is, practical awareness of how to do something. Attitude is a general disposition or feeling, positive or negative, about something and is closely aligned to opinions and beliefs. Much training is geared to changing what people know (knowledge), what they can do (skills), and what they feel or how they feel (attitudes). Knowledge relates to the cognitive domain, skill relates to the psychomotor domain, and attitude relates to the affective domain.

Wikipedia defines learning in a more robust way than the dictionary definitions. It says learning “is the process of acquiring new, or modifying existing, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants. Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event (for example, being burned by a hot stove), but much skill and knowledge accumulates from repeated experiences. The changes induced by learning often last a lifetime, and it is hard to distinguish learned material that seems to be ‘lost’ from that which cannot be retrieved.”

Do these definitions seem inadequate to capture the nuances of a complicated human process? If so, then consider that others have defined learning differently and that, ultimately, understanding of the learning process remains incomplete. Learning gives individuals the potential to achieve results. But performance is the realization of that potential.

Think About This

Learning is a means to the end of getting results. What are other ways to get results? Consider changing the work setting, changing rewards, changing job design, and changing the tools and equipment workers are given to do their jobs. Making those changes will also affect results. Though learning is an important factor in getting results, it is not the only factor. Can you think of other factors beyond those listed above that may affect the ability of a worker to get results?

Important New Terms Relevant to Learning

Neuroscience, in the simplest sense, analyzes the nervous system. Cognitive neuroscience is a field that focuses on cognition and is thus about how the brain affects learning. Learning science is a diverse, multidisciplinary field that draws on research, data, and other information to help educators teach, and learners to learn, more effectively. Learning analytics is about collecting, measuring, analyzing, and communicating data about learners to improve learning and position it better within its context.

In recent years much new research and information has become available about neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, learning science, and learning analytics. It is sure to have a major impact on how learning is understood and is encouraged. It can also shed light on documented learning disabilities that hamper the realization of full potential of those with such brain disorders as autism, dyslexia, and others (National Center for Learning Disabilities 2014).

What Types of Learning Exist?

Not all learning is the same. While people may differ in how they categorize types of learning, many learning professionals are familiar with Robert Gagné’s (1985) classic, and still relevant, distinctions among categories of learning.

Gagné’s Types of Learning

For Gagné, the types of learning are arrayed in a hierarchy of complexity. These categories are important because each type of learning typically requires a different type of instruction. Gagné’s five major categories of learning are verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills, and attitudes (Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1. Gagne’s Learning Events

Different conditions are essential for each type of learning. Gagné’s theory also outlines nine instructional events and corresponding cognitive processes:

• Gain attention (reception)

• Inform learners of the objective (expectancy)

• Stimulate recall of prior learning (retrieval)

• Present the stimulus (selective perception)

• Provide learning guidance (semantic encoding)

• Elicit performance (responding)

• Provide feedback (reinforcement)

• Assess performance (retrieval)

• Enhance retention and transfer (generalization)

These events establish essential conditions for learning and form the basis for instructional design and selection of instructional media. In a more practical sense, they can provide an excellent foundation for planning instruction of any kind. (Indeed, some teachers, talent developers, or learning facilitators will actually design their lesson plans, units, or even courses around these events.)

Fundamental Categories of Learning Behaviors

Wikipedia presents an overview of different types of learning. It distinguishes among several types, including:

• Habituation is “an example of non-associative learning in which there is a progressive diminution of behavioral response probability with repetition of a stimulus. It is another form of integration. An animal first responds to a stimulus, but if it is neither rewarding nor harmful the animal reduces subsequent responses. One example of this can be seen in small songbirds—if a stuffed owl (or similar predator) is put into the cage, the birds initially react to it as though it were a real predator. Soon the birds react less, showing habituation.”

• Sensitization is “an example of non-associative learning in which the progressive amplification of a response follows repeated administrations of a stimulus. An everyday example of this mechanism is the repeated tonic stimulation of peripheral nerves that will occur if a person rubs his arm continuously. After a while, this stimulation will create a warm sensation that will eventually turn painful.”

• Operant conditioning is “the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behavior. Operant conditioning is distinguished from Pavlovian conditioning in that operant conditioning deals with the modification of voluntary behavior. Discrimination learning is a major form of operant conditioning.”

• Classical conditioning “involves repeatedly pairing an unconditioned stimulus (which unfailingly evokes a particular response) with another previously neutral stimulus (which does not normally evoke the response). Following conditioning, the response occurs both to the unconditioned stimulus and to the other, unrelated stimulus (now referred to as the ‘conditioned stimulus’). The response to the conditioned stimulus is termed a conditioned response.”

• Observational learning recognizes that “the most basic learning process is imitation; one’s personal repetition of an observed process, such as a smile. Thus an imitation will take one’s time (attention to the details), space (a location for learning), skills (or practice), and other resources (for example, a protected area). Through copying, most infants learn how to hunt (that is, direct one’s attention), feed, and perform most basic tasks necessary for survival.”

Basic Rule 2

Not all learning is the same. There are different categories of learning. Facilitating different types of learning may require different approaches by facilitators and different behaviors by learners.

These are just a few of many types of learning worth knowing about. Talent development professionals may have occasion to draw on any or all methods to cultivate talent.

Formal, Informal, and Incidental Learning

It is also worthwhile to distinguish among formal, informal, nonformal, and incidental learning.

• Formal learning occurs in a planned event or series of events. Taking classes toward a degree is a well-known approach to formal learning.

• Informal learning occurs through interacting with others, observation, firsthand experience, and other hands-on events. These activities may not be planned, but they are important nevertheless and still represent learning.

• Nonformal learning is a middle ground between formal and informal learning. Groups of people come together to learn, but the learning plan is not as deliberate as in formal learning. An example might include a community of practice in which people set out to read the great books.

• Incidental learning occurs as a serendipitous byproduct of experience. If someone is sent to France to learn to speak French, they may successfully learn the language. But, at the same time, the experience of traveling there will lead to many other worthwhile experiences, prompting much informal learning. This “accidental” learning is incidental learning.

Taxonomies or Domains of Learning

Another way to think about types of learning is based on taxonomies. Most learning professionals have some awareness of instructional objectives, which are set forth at the outset of training to declare what learners should be able to do upon completion of the learning experience. Early efforts to develop instructional objectives—which were called “educational goals”—were organized around different hierarchical levels (types) of learning. Three hierarchies of learning were envisioned. The first, and best known, was focused around cognitive learning, having to do with knowing. It consisted of six types of learning: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001; Bloom and Krathwhol 1956; Gronlund 1970). The affective domain—relating to values, beliefs, attitudes and feelings—consisted of such levels as attitudes of awareness, interest, attention, concern, responsibility, ability to listen and respond in interactions with others, and ability to demonstrate those attitudinal characteristics or values that are appropriate to the test situation and the field of study.

Harrow (1972) proposed six levels of the psychomotor domain, having to do with skills. They included reflex, fundamental movements, perceptual abilities, physical abilities, skilled movements, and nondiscursive communication. These taxonomies or domains of learning are another way to understand types of learning. They were an early attempt to classify the behaviors associated with the learning process and are still quite important to the work of most talent developers.

Additional interest in types of learning have stemmed from neuroscience—sometimes called learning science—and the results of recent research on brain physiology and chemistry that are practical for their implications for learning. It is no exaggeration to say that learning is defined as a brain processing what it experiences. That definition is important because brains may differ, and hence learning can differ based on genetics, individual interaction with the environment, and much more.

New Approaches and New Thinking on Learning

Agile Learning

Agile learning simply means nimble or quick learning. Considering that the pace of change in general is increasing—and most organizations go through at least one major change every year—workers must learn how to learn more quickly to keep their skills updated even as these changes occur. Organizations need to create a culture that encourages people to learn on their own to solve work-related problems as they occur in real time. To that end, they must encourage microlearning, which means learning in small bursts. Younger workers do that without even thinking; their motto is often “Have a problem? Google it! (Or check YouTube.)” And that motto incorporates the essence of microlearning and of agile learning. It means find out fast.

Design Thinking

Design thinking is all about conceptualizing design in a way that new ideas can be put into practice. It is closely related to creativity (the raw material) and innovation (the realization of creativity). It can be related to cognition and thus can be related to learning. When talent developers facilitate learning, they may draw on principles of design thinking. Instructional systems design (ISD) is gradually yielding to learning experience design (LED), and one reason is that design thinking principles are being included in ways to facilitate learning. For more on design thinking, see Dirksen (2015) and Green (2017).

Blended Learning

The phrase blended learning is often tossed around without much precision. Operating managers have used the term without even knowing what it means. Generally, blended learning means any combination of delivery media or modalities to facilitate learning. In practical terms, it often means combining on-site and online delivery. But it is also true that many organizations using learning management systems (LMSs) find that blended learning can refer to robust delivery modalities that include print (such as instant chat, web pages, blogs, and discussion items), video, and videoconference.

A common question posed today by managers and talent developers alike is the simple, practical one: “Which combination of delivery methods is most cost effective while also being best at leading to powerful learning that sticks and is applied by learners on their jobs?” While it is a simple question, answering it is no simple matter. Many media models, intended to help select media to meet instructional or performance objectives, have been devised to help talent developers select what media to use to deliver what kind of instruction. But research does not provide one definitive answer to the question above. In fact, it is entirely possible that teaching different subjects in different ways will lead to different answers about what media blend to use.

Flipped Classroom

A flipped classroom is a way of blending the learning process such that subject matter usually delivered in classrooms is moved to online (or other) media. Learners must be more self-directed, with strong learning agility, because the teacher is no longer the active agent while learners passively listen as it was in traditional classrooms. In flipped classrooms, synchronous learning experiences focus on higher-order issues such as problem finding, idea generation, brainstorming, and critical discussions. Asynchronous learning experiences focus on providing background information. Learners interact in both synchronous and asynchronous formats, and learner engagement is more actively encouraged than in traditional residential classrooms. As online learning in higher education becomes more common, look for flipped classrooms to gradually become more the norm than the exception. For more information on this topic, see Abeysekera and Dawson (2015).

Microlearning

Microlearning is a broad term that refers to any effort to organize learning experiences into small (bite-sized) bits of information. It should not be confused with m-learning, which refers to mobile learning, a method by which individuals learn on smartphones or other handheld devices such as tablets.

At present, and in the future, time is the greatest resource. Few learners have the luxury to devote many weeks to sitting in classrooms to acquire knowledge, skills, or attitudes. Instead, learning must be organized conveniently to help people devote what time they may have between dealing with customer phone calls, handling drop-in visitors, and fighting daily fires.

While microlearning implies that a learning experience occurs in very short timespans, it can also mean that designing or facilitating microlearning can occur quickly. Learning is encouraged by presenting learners with:

• Short text or print passages

• Pictures

• Short videos

• Audio files

• Short quizzes

• A simple game

In short, any effort that occurs in a brief timespan can be a microlearning experience. While the approach may not work so well with complex topics, it can be most engaging to deal with workers who are in pressure-packed jobs or who wish to take maximum advantage of leveraging whatever little down time they may have.

Microlearning is a trend of the future. Increasingly, time is a precious commodity. Learners must use it to advantage. Microlearning provides a way to do that. Platforms such as Twitter and Instagram work well for it as well as others that are more targeted. For more on this topic, see Torgerson and Iannone (2020).

Structured On-the-Job Training and Learning

While much attention has been devoted to online and on-site learning experiences, less attention has historically been devoted to structured (planned) on-the-job (OTJ) training and learning. That is all the more surprising because so much training in organizations occurs on the job. Indeed, the 70-20-10 rule implies that 70 percent of all learning should occur on the job and while workers are performing their jobs. Figure 2-2 describes the components of the 70-20-10 framework and provides examples of how it can guide learning.

Figure 2-2. The 70-20-10 Framework

Planned or structured on-the-job training and learning is not quite the same thing as real-time employee development. Clearly they overlap. But planned training on the job occurs with instructional plans designed to make it easier for the worker to learn, and it is intended to reduce the unproductive breaking-in period of the newly hired, newly transferred, or newly promoted.

A well-known model to guide structured on-the-job training from World War I is still widely used. It is based on the simple steps:

• Tell

• Show

• Do

• Follow up

Tell means “tell workers what they are to learn and why.” Show means “demonstrate to the workers what they are to do.” Do means “let the workers try out the activity they were just shown.” And follow up means “give the workers feedback on what they did well, congratulating them on that, and give them gentle redirection on what they need to do to improve.”

In World War II, the model just described was modified. That modification was associated with Job Instruction Training (JIT). The steps were:

• Get the instructor ready to present the instructional experience

• Prepare the worker to learn

• Deliver the learning experience

• Let the learner try out the job performance

• Provide feedback on the worker’s performance

Those steps are obviously quite similar to the OJT model from World War I. The only difference is that steps are added to indicate that the instructor and learner must be prepared for the learning experience. That really means that the right materials must be handy to demonstrate what must be learned.

Increasingly, learners must take more responsibility for their own learning. Too often there are no on-the-job trainers available to spoon-feed information to new hires. For that reason it is helpful to train workers on how to take charge of, and accept responsibility for, their own on-the-job learning. To that end, the previous models can be modified for action to be taken by the learner:

• Ask (instead of tell)

• Watch (instead of show)

• Demonstrate (instead of do)

• Ask for feedback

Ask means that the learner poses questions of more experienced workers and managers on what they should do to perform effectively. They should watch exemplary performers who do the job well. They should demonstrate what they observed, trying to imitate what they have seen others do. And they should ask more experienced performers for feedback to improve what they have learned. These on-the-job learning steps can be the focus of training and may in fact be included effectively in onboarding (Rothwell 1996).

Theories of Learning

Say the word theory and most talent development professionals will instantly tune out because they think theory is not practical. However, Kurt Lewin, a founder of modern organization development, is often credited with saying that “nothing is so practical as a good theory.” What he meant is that theory can guide practice. Therefore, a good theory can guide good practice. It is, thus, eminently practical.

That point is especially true when thinking about learning theory. How talent developers conduct training and how learning professionals carry out other learning and performance change efforts stem from their own theories and philosophies of the learning process, the learners, the learning environment, and the results desired. In short, what we do is guided by theory—even when we choose not to admit that.

Think About This

Different theories of learning have been proposed. What assumptions does each learning theory make about people, about the learning process, about the role of learners, about the role of talent development professionals, about organizational learning climate and learning culture, and about how to get work results? Consider these issues while reading about the theories of learning.

Many excellent books on learning theory have been published over the years. They are foundational to courses leading to teaching certificates, since it is usually assumed that awareness of learning theory should guide teaching practice. The same argument can be made for other planned learning experiences. Talent development professionals should have some awareness of what these theories are, what they mean, and how they may affect practice.

While various approaches exist to categorize theories of learning, a simple one is perhaps to be preferred. Some options include:

• Functionalistic theories of learning

• Associationistic theories of learning

• Cognitive theories of learning

• Constructivist theories of learning

• Neurophysiological theories of learning

No theory is right or wrong. Each has advantages and disadvantages; each implies different roles for learners and facilitators of learning.

Functionalistic Theories of Learning

Functionalists see learning as a way that biological organisms can adapt to their environments. Chief functionalists include Edward Lee Thorndike and B.F. Skinner. While their contributions are numerous, this section will focus only on their major ideas.

Thorndike believed that trial-and-error learning was the most basic form of learning. He reached his conclusion about trial-and-error learning through experiments with animals that were placed in a box and had to demonstrate certain responses to escape it. Animals learned how to escape confinement through many efforts, some happening by accident. Most controversial was Thorndike’s contention that ideas do not need to mediate learning and that all mammals, including humans, learn in the same ways.

Thorndike proposed a series of laws to explain learning. The law of readiness states that entities (animals or humans) will find it satisfying to act when ready to do so, that not acting will be irritating when entities are ready to do so, and that entities that are forced to act when unwilling will be irritated. The law of exercise states that practice will strengthen connections, and lack of practice will weaken connections. (Thorndike later rejected the law of exercise.) The law of effect states that rewards will increase relationships or connections and learning, while punishments will decrease relationships or connections and learning. Thorndike later revised the law of effect to state that rewards will increase connections, but punishments will have no effect in strengthening or weakening connections among stimuli. The likelihood that learners will transfer learning, according to Thorndike, increases when the environment where the behavior is to be enacted is similar to that in which the learning occurred.

Basic Rule 3

Many learning professionals are concerned about transfer of training from the instructional setting to the work setting. Thorndike was an early advocate of ensuring that the similarities between the two must be great if learning is to be transferred. If the setting in which training is conducted is quite different from the work setting, learners will have trouble transferring what they learned.

B.F. Skinner, a famous psychologist, is perhaps best known for the Skinner box used in his animal experiments. Skinner identified two kinds of behavior: operant behavior, which is initiated by an entity on its own, and respondent behavior, in which an entity responds to an identifiable stimulus. Reflexes are an example of respondent behavior, while most human actions are operant behaviors.

Skinner did not believe that human beings have free will but are conditioned by their environments to respond in predictable ways. To understand people’s behavior, study their background. Controlling behavior is simply a matter of controlling the reinforcements that a learner receives. Behaviors that are reinforced or rewarded are repeated; behaviors that are ignored are extinguished. Punishment does not extinguish a behavior but merely reduces the likelihood of its occurrence.

Associationistic Theories of Learning

Associationists see the world in the way people associate stimuli. Chief associationists include Ivan Pavlov, Edwin Ray Guthrie, and William Estes.

Pavlov is most famous for his experiments with dogs. He paired the sound of a bell with food for a dog. The dog soon associated the sound of the bell with the food, which was apparent because the dog salivated when hearing the bell, even when the food was not present. That led to the view of unconditioned stimulus (US) associated with an unconditioned response (UR), a natural behavior from an organism, and a conditioned stimulus (CS) leading to a conditioned response (CR). In Pavlov’s famous experiment, the dog was presented with food (US) and a bell (CS). That led to salivation, a UR. Eventually, the dog associated the bell with the food and salivated when the bell was rung (CR). This famous experiment shows how associations and conditioning can lead to learning.

Edwin Ray Guthrie made several contributions to learning theory. He proposed the law of contiguity, which stated that people will tend to repeat the same behaviors that worked for them in previous, similar situations. Guthrie believed that practice improved performance and that practice was essential to learn a complicated skill composed of many behaviors. Guthrie also focused attention on forgetting—what some might call “unlearning”—and discovered that, for one behavior to be replaced by another, a different cue (initiating situation) must replace what prompted the response on previous occasions.

William Estes focused attention around developing a stimulus sampling theory of learning. Learning consists of an enormous, even infinite, number of stimuli. Transfer of learning, a major focus of the theory, takes place when there are similarities between the learning situation and other situations. That idea is quite similar to Thorndike’s.

Cognitive Theories of Learning

Cognitivists focus on cognition, the process of knowing. Best known of this group are Gestalt theorists Edward Tolman, Albert Bandura, and Donald Norman.

Gestalt is a German word for organization. Gestalt theorists were interested in organizations or patterns as perceived by individuals during the learning process. Sometimes called phenomenology, Gestalt is about focusing on holistic relationships rather than isolated stimulus-response relationships. It tends to be more subjective, viewing reality as that which is perceived rather than some external absolute. (Reality is in the eye of the beholder; no universe exists except what is perceived by an individual.) Gestalt theorists tend to focus on how people perceive reality and how learning is a function of perception. Individuals collect information to solve problems, but the solution comes in a flash of intuitive insight.

Edward Tolman was famous for indicating that people learn the “big picture,” which he called a cognitive map. He rejected the notion of focusing on single stimulus-response relationships, preferring instead to look at bigger patterns. Tolman was also careful to distinguish between learning (acquiring the potential to perform) and performing (manifesting the ability). People do not apply their learning unless they have a reason to do so. Latent learning is what people have learned but have chosen not to apply.

Albert Bandura is famous for observational learning (sometimes called social learning). In a simple sense, it is the view that people learn by watching others and then trying to imitate them. It is the basis for behavioral modeling in training and has important implications for coaching and mentoring. People remember what they have observed in images and in words. Once individuals have watched someone else perform, they need to practice—engage in a behavior rehearsal—to try it out. To learn, people must be willing to observe others, know who and what to watch, care about what they are watching, and practice the behaviors that are to be imitated. When applying social learning theory, learning professionals must take care to expose learners not only to good examples but also to the most common bad examples of behavior so learners can see the difference.

Donald Norman is credited with being the most prominent of learning theorists who advocated an information processing view of learning. Like machines or systems, individuals receive input (information), process it (learn), and then take action (apply it). He is most noteworthy for insisting that machines such as computers be designed to fit people rather than taking the attitude that people must be redesigned to meet the requirements of machines.

Constructivist Theories of Learning

Constructivists focus on how learners internalize what they have learned. Jean Piaget is often regarded as a key exponent of this now well-regarded theory of learning. Piaget described the means by which learners internalize knowledge. Learners construct knowledge from accommodation and assimilation.

According to the theory, accommodation is the process of reframing one’s mental representation of the external world to fit new experiences. Accommodation can be understood as the mechanism by which failure leads to learning: When we act on the expectation that the world operates in one way and it violates our expectations, we often fail. But by accommodating this new experience and reframing our model of the way the world works, we learn from the experience of our own or others’ failure.

When individuals assimilate, they incorporate the new experience into an already existing framework without changing that framework. Assimilation may occur when individuals’ experiences are aligned with their internal representations of the world but may also occur as a failure to change a faulty understanding. For example, they may not notice events, may misunderstand input from others, or may decide that an event is a fluke and is therefore unimportant as information about the world. In contrast, when individuals’ experiences contradict their internal representations, they may change their perceptions of the experiences to fit their internal representations.

Constructivists tend to focus on the individual learner, seeking information about individual needs and individual backgrounds. Constructivists place importance on the national culture of individuals, conceding that what and how people learn is greatly influenced by the national cultural settings and the contexts in which they learn. Learners should be more responsible for learning than teachers. Learners are motivated to learn only when they believe they can be successful. Instructors should enact the role of facilitators by guiding and stimulating learners, not by acting like subject matter experts who merely present information to learners.

Neurophysiological Theories of Learning

Neurophysiologists focus on brain anatomy and chemistry and on such complex phenomena as intelligence, thinking, and learning. Donald Hebb is sometimes cited as a leading thinker and advocate of these theories. Initially, Hebb focused on how cells in the brain operate during the learning process. He came to believe that learning was of two types. One type was simple associationism—that is, a stimulus and response were paired. But a second type involved more sophisticated cognitive processes. Hebb believed that childhood and adult learning were not the same. Childhood learning is primarily the first type of learning. But adult learning is more sophisticated. It involves creative thinking, which is not possible when individuals lack previous knowledge or experience.

Hebb also investigated sensory deprivation. He discovered that individuals require input from the external environment. Without it, their identities begin to disintegrate. In one study, for instance, Hebb paid college students to do nothing but lie on a bed with translucent plastic over their eyes and gloves on their hands to minimize sensation. They could take time out only for short periods to eat and visit the restroom. Few of the research subjects could tolerate these conditions for longer than two or three days. If they lasted longer than that, they began to hallucinate.

Other Theories of Learning

Many academics in the workplace learning and performance field have devoted their careers to establishing and testing theories of learning that may be applied to learning experiences. Few of these theories fit neatly into any one category. But they are worthwhile for talent developers to know about, because they may guide thinking about adult learning. (A thorough description of 15 learning theories can be found on the web at TeacherOfSci.com/learning-theories-in-education. Only a few are summarized here.)

Anchored instruction maintains that the best learning occurs when learners are given an anchor (focus) for it. In practical terms, that means they should be given a specific case, role play, activity, exercise, or other problem-solving situation. They will learn best when given this anchor. Learners should be encouraged to explore and give free play of the mind to a learning situation. Exploration is closely akin to play for children. It allows the exercise of creative thinking.

Cognitive load theory offers the notion that learning happens best when aligned with how people think (cognition). People should not be encouraged to memorize. Instead, they should be helped to learn by being given schemas or structures that help them remember. When teaching complicated topics, instructors should be sensitive to the complexity of the material and seek out ways to make it easier to understand. That may include using multiple examples, graphics, or other aids. Experts and novices perform differently because experts have developed schemas by which to understand what they are doing and navigate through complexity rapidly and efficiently.

Conversation theory was developed by Gordon Pask (1975). To Pask, people (and machines) learn through conversation. Perhaps the most well-known aspect of conversation theory is that people learn best when asked to teach what they have learned back to others. This gives proof to the old saying that “the best way to learn is to teach it to someone else.”

Experiential learning was founded by Carl Rogers and, along with the work of Malcolm Knowles, has had a tremendous impact on the field of adult learning. Rogers believed that the most important learning is applied, coming from experience. All people have the capacity to learn, and learning is related to the human need to grow and achieve one’s potential. Instructors must ensure that learners have a psychologically supportive climate in which to learn, explain why learning is important, serve as an agent to organize resources for learners to use in a learning event or project, and ensure there is a balance sustained between learner feelings and knowledge. Learners should have a major say in how the instruction is designed and delivered, and learners are the best judges of how effective the learning experience was.

Tom Sticht’s (1976) functional context approach to learning emphasizes relating what is to be learned and what work the learner does. One technique favored by this approach is to derive instructional material directly from the work materials that learners use on their jobs. For example, teach writing by directly using emails, reports, and other information that learners use; teach public speaking by directly relating speaking principles to the oral reports required for workers in the learner group; and teach arithmetic by drawing directly from the arithmetic problems that workers face on the job.

John Carroll (1998) has proposed minimalist learning theory. The basic idea is that learning events should minimize how much time is devoted to starting a learning event. Instead, learners should immediately be confronted with a learning challenge. Learners should be given self-contained learning projects that are akin to those they face in the real world. The notion is to minimize how much instructional material learners are given and emphasize their own problem solving and exploration. However, learners should also be given coaching tips on how to avoid typical mistakes.

Jean Lave introduced situated learning, which has had a profound impact on the training world. Learning should be embedded—that is, situated—in the work setting, culture, and situation in which it is to be applied. How people interact during learning is critical to the process (McLellan 1995). Simulations can be used when situated learning cannot be used (Halverson 2009).

David Ausubel (1963) has developed subsumption theory, which has also had a profound impact on training. It is about how individuals master massive amounts of material in the shortest time possible. New ideas are subsumed under what learners already know. Ausubel is most famous for introducing the idea of advance organizers in which learners are given a road map by which to navigate through a large amount of material. An example might be a simple outline offered before a course is delivered to show how all the parts of the course relate to other parts—an approach that resembles what Gestalt theorists also advocate.

The 70-20-10 Framework

The 70-20-10 framework was popularized by Morgan McCall, Robert Eichinger, and Michael Lombardo of the Center for Creative Leadership. According to them, learning experiences in organizations should follow this framework:

• 70 percent of learning should focus on the work they do and be integrated with on-the-job learning and on-the-job work experience.

• 20 percent of learning should focus on learning from other people through mentors, sponsors, peers, and social media (such as chatroom-based learning on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and others).

• 10 percent of learning should be planned and should consist of on-site, online, or blended methods.

Initially this formula, which is very popular in many organizational settings, was regarded as sacrosanct. It was meant to emphasize that learning does not occur primarily in classroom or online settings; rather, most of it occurs on the job. In recent years, however, organizational leaders vary the percentages. For some it is 60-30-10 or 50-30-20.

This framework is based on common sense, not on solid research. What research there is behind it is limited to small sample sizes (Jefferson and Pollock 2014). That is not to say the rule should be ignored; rather, it means that decision-makers and talent developers must think for themselves about the rule and not dogmatically accept everything they hear.

Getting It Done

Chapter 2 focused on theories of learning. Here are some questions to help you develop a mindset for the application of these theories.

Consider how applications of learning theories may influence what you do in your role as a learning professional. Can you list some theories that you use, even if unthinkingly?

What theories of learning have you applied?

1.

2.

How have those theories of learning influenced what you do as a learning professional?

1.

2.