How We Learn, Needs to Determines How We Teach.

How We Learn, Needs to Determines How We Teach.

The ability to collect information from our environment and subsequently organize, integrate and combine it into new concepts is a fundamental part of the learning process and an indispensable part of the human condition. Although we all perform this rudimentary process, the mechanisms and the paths we take along our learning journey are often uniquely our own. As leaders and educators we need to understand how the human brain learns in order to maximize the knowledge transfer process as well as to create a foundation to build tomorrows innovators.

A critical part of this concept is to identify the learning style of your audience. There are seven primary styles of learning that are commonly recognized and presenting the information in a format that matches the students’ style provides the best chance of success.  

 

               7 Learning Styles:

1.      Visual (Spatial) – prefers pictures, images, and spatial understanding

2.      Aural (Auditory/Musical)  - prefers using sound and music

3.      Verbal (Linguistic) - prefers using words, both in speech and writing

4.      Solitary (Intrapersonal) – prefers to work alone and use self-study

5.      Social (Interpersonal) – prefer to learn in groups or with other people

6.      Logical (Mathematical) – prefer to use logic, reasoning and systems

7.      Physical (Kinesthetic) – prefers using your body, hands and sense of touch.

Understanding your audiences learning tendencies is an excellent first step, however the human brain is too complicated to conveniently fit in one of seven buckets.  People learn in a variety of different manors often deploying several of these different styles simultaneously. Additionally, when instructing a group, the likelihood that all the students have the same learning style is very improbable. Therefore it is important to remember that when trying to convey knowledge, a single tactic is usually not sufficient.

 

According to Paul Bruno, pH.D. student at USC, there are six additional scientific principles that teachers should understand to increase the effectiveness of training.

1.      People learn new ideas by relating them to concepts that they already know.

2.      People remember information better when they are given many opportunities to practice.

3.      Problem-solving and critical thinking skills are developed through feedback and depend heavily upon background knowledge.

4.      For people to transfer their abilities to new situations, they need to deeply understand both the problem's structure and context.

5.      People’s motivation depends on a variety of social and physical factors

6.      Misconceptions about learning shouldn’t determine how curricula are designed or how instruction is provided.

These additional six concepts are critical to success when embarking on your organizations lean journey.  For measurable results, you need the entire company pulling the rope in the same direction. For this to happen, relating the concepts of lean and six sigma to things the employees already know, dramatically improves retention. This requires a level set and base understanding of lean, enterprise wide. Having isolated pockets or only a few individuals with lean/six sigma knowledge does not provide a common language or foundation to leverage. This background knowledge or organizational intelligence is also a vital part of the problem solving process. The higher the company’s collective IQ, the better continuous improvement activities involving innovative concepts become.  Another critical component of successful lean implementations is the concept of practice makes perfect or learning by doing. Studies have shown that information is better retained when practice and repetition are part of the process. Similar to a golf swing, repetitive practice entrenches the knowledge into muscle memory resulting in better scores.

Many organizations struggle with generating tangible results with their lean initiatives because they don’t provide curriculum that matches how people really learn. Sending a select few employees through an on-line Green/Black Belt class is a good start but does not engage more than the simple Visual learner and does nothing to provide practical, real world, issues to solve.  On-site programs, training with company specific processes and incorporating multiple learning styles has demonstrated to deliver better results.

Understanding how people learn needs to determine how we teach. Mr. Bruno and others have demonstrated that people learn in different ways and for different reasons. Understanding these factors and modifying the teaching tactics accordingly are the best way to achieve a sustainable knowledge transfer. After all, if the student didn’t learn, the teacher didn’t teach. This concept is just as true in the classroom as it is in the boardroom or in a Kaizen event.