Here at Spectrain we receive requests for a variety of customised materials, related to training, development. We also produce presentations for corporate events, and individuals who are pitching for sales. Recently we were recommended to an individual who had reached the final stage of a recruitment process for the role of learning and development manager. He was required to deliver an interactive presentation, the brief:
What can we learn from the story of Alice in Wonderland that is applicable to Learning & Development
Very much like Alice I went off on a journey of research and discovery and learnt some interesting lessons to fulfil the requirements of the brief and produce the presentation.
Alice & the Mad Hatter
Alice: Where I come from, people study what they are not good at in order to be able to do what they are good at.
Mad Hatter: We only go around in circles in Wonderland, but we always end up where we started. Would you mind explaining yourself?
Alice:Well, grown-ups tell us to find out what we did wrong, and never do it again
Mad Hatter: That's odd! It seems to me that in order to find out about something, you have to study it. And when you study it, you should become better at it. Why should you want to become better at something and then never do it again?
Learning & Constructing Meaning
“Grown-ups tell us to find out what we did wrong, and never do it again”
If, during our training courses learners simply remembered and acted upon what they were told, they would not make mistakes, they would either remember or not but would they understand?
To encourage understanding trainers encourage learners to experiment, explore and make mistakes and during this process learners form their own meaning, interpretation linked to what they already know. They construct or make meaning and because it is constructed by them it is likely to be owned and retained. It is their way of making sense of the material!
However the process of making meaning can go horribly wrong and it is the trainer’s job to detect misconceptions and errors in learning and correct these. Clearly this did not happen for the learners who wrote the following in exam papers:
- Diarrhoea is ear ache “dire ear”.
- History calls them Roamans because they never stayed in one place for very long
- Name a food suitable for pickling: a branston
- Large animals are found in the sea because there is no-where else to put them
- Beethoven expired in 1827, and died later
Finding out and correcting what went wrong is a valuable part of the learning process!
Nothing Succeeds Like Failure!
Mad Hatter: We only go around in circles in Wonderland, but we always end up where we started. Would you mind explaining yourself? Why should you want to become better at something and then never do it again?
There are many trainers that produce mad hatters, they fail to incorporate training and learning strategies that require students to apply, use, or process information and therefore create meaning. Use questions that require learners to construct their own meaning of the content including:
- Analysis: questions: ‘why’
- Synthesis questions: ‘how’ what if....
- Evaluation questions: judgement
Simply presenting information is not enough, checking understanding activity is essential to prevent learners going round in circles and ending up where they started.
Mad Hatter: Why should you want to become better at something and then never do it again?
Good trainers aim to develop specific competencies and through practice, application and feedback during the training we generate the confidence to go and apply those skills or use that knowledge back at work, where, if learning transfer isn’t encouraged then the learning disappears into a black hole, along with the budget that funded the learning.
You're quite right, Mr. Hatter – Why should you want to become better at something and then never do it again?
You would be mad as a hatter not to read the following posts on learning design:spectrain.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/design-crimes-in-learning-development/
spectrain.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/recall-and-the-rule-of-three/
spectrain.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/connecting-learners-and-content/
