Imagine this. You are asked to bake a cake. You are given some ingredients and a list of instructions for making the cake. You look down at the list, and then to the countertop. Surveying what is there you notice that the list says things like, "It would be best to use eggs." You look at the countertop and notice that there are no eggs. "So how many should I use, I have made cakes before and have used three eggs, but I am unsure of how fluffy you want your cake?" Then a deep voice, from nowhere imparticular says, "I am sorry, but the actual number of eggs that you need is confidential." You sit and ponder this. "Well, what about the amount of oil? You have oil here. This is good, but I need to know how much your particular cake needs." Again, the deep voice replies, "Yes, that information would be helpful, but our Adminstration does not feel that you need to know this. It is confidential. If we share this information, there are some who would be concerned that you have knowledge about oil measurements." This task begins to look increasingly daunting as you reply, "I have made cakes before, I understand the process, I know how high I can turn up the temperature before the cake burns, but you want a very specific cake, you hired me to make the cake for you, so why would you not want to give me all of the information needed, to ensure you get the best cake possible?" There is no response from the deep voice for a moment, and then without warning you hear "We want you to do the best that you can, with what you have been given. We know you will still be successful. We have faith in you and your ability." You scream out to the voice, "YES! Just not as successful as I could be if you give me all of the information!"
You deliver a half-baked, lop-sided cake, and you cannot help but to feel cheated because you know that you did not deliver your best cake. You think, "What I could have given them if they had just given me all of the information! What I could have done for you, your employees, and the company!"
Facilitators, trainers, educators, are seen as some of the best speakers and motivators in the world. Yet, it is a constant, on-going battle with red tape, which binds us from performing at full capacity! It is like telling a child to run as fast as they can, and then holding onto their jacket hood while they do so, and all while still expecting them to finish the race in first place. What is it with corporate culture? Do you really believe that you are doing a diservice to your employees when you provide vital information regarding performance to someone who can increase their productivity, customer service or time management? Is it so awful that someone who lives and breathes confidentiality (most external trainers and consultants will not publicly discuss fees, client lists, or curriculum content) would have access to private information in order to produce increased results for your company? Now the company is the little boy! They are allowing themselves to be dragged back to the starting line when they repeatedly do not allow the educator to DO THEIR JOB!
This type of mentality will always give you half-baked results. For the sake of your company people, give your educator the tools that they need to do the best that they can for you, your employee and company. Do not be the "drag" in the race, or the reason that they can only deliver a lop-sided cake.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Dumping Out the Drawers: A Learning Styles Wrap-up
Our greatest moments of enlightenment come in unsuspecting ways.
I cannot stand math, especially Algebra; it gives me anxiety attacks and all my life I have avoided it like the plague. Apparently, one has to have some basic understanding of Algebra to be able to receive a degree. Dang it! So, I have been attending tutoring sessions for the past month at a Sylvan Learning Center. Turns out, I never understood math-ever! Now I am working on problems that include “fractions” and something called “absolutes,” and I actually broke down and cried when the tutor explained them to me and asked me to do some problems to show my learning. Then she said something, which to anyone else would not seem profound, but to me it was an epiphany: “You keep trying to file everything into drawers; you want rules (really? me? Rebel1, wanting rules?!), and that is not what you need. You need understanding. Close the drawers and just understand it.” Wow.
I believe my math epiphany has application to what I have been doing to myself over the past fifteen years in training and development. I have soaked up every “technique” and “method;” I have gone to every certification program that I could afford ever on the lookout for the “one big theory” or idea, which would turn me into Ken Blanchard or Stephen R. Covey overnight. If I could just fill those filing cabinet drawers with enough information then somehow I would have the knowledge to come up with a new idea. I have “Six Sigma’ed” myself to death with the hope I might be able to know enough to make a difference. I understand now that no matter how much I put into those drawers no single-solution exists, and nothing fits neatly into a “rule.” For example, my beliefs about the all-important and necessary learning styles, which for me fell neatly into audio, visual, or kinesthetic drawers, have been turned upside down and the content scattered everywhere.
I believed that to some extent I had to teach to each learning style during the course of each class, but so much more needs to be taken into account! Now that I have really studied learning styles, I realize that the tools most facilitators use may be completely different from the ones that work for me. I also realize that the best part about what we do as training and development guru’s is not black and white, but is still up for negotiation. In reality an array of possibilities exist which I can bring into my classroom in order to understand my students more fully, but I do not have to go to my “filing cabinet” each time that I teach to decide what those will be. What I need to do is take all that I have learned by study and experience and develop my own principles and theories, because there are still so many yet to be discovered. Why limit myself to what is in those drawers?
I cannot stand math, especially Algebra; it gives me anxiety attacks and all my life I have avoided it like the plague. Apparently, one has to have some basic understanding of Algebra to be able to receive a degree. Dang it! So, I have been attending tutoring sessions for the past month at a Sylvan Learning Center. Turns out, I never understood math-ever! Now I am working on problems that include “fractions” and something called “absolutes,” and I actually broke down and cried when the tutor explained them to me and asked me to do some problems to show my learning. Then she said something, which to anyone else would not seem profound, but to me it was an epiphany: “You keep trying to file everything into drawers; you want rules (really? me? Rebel1, wanting rules?!), and that is not what you need. You need understanding. Close the drawers and just understand it.” Wow.
I believe my math epiphany has application to what I have been doing to myself over the past fifteen years in training and development. I have soaked up every “technique” and “method;” I have gone to every certification program that I could afford ever on the lookout for the “one big theory” or idea, which would turn me into Ken Blanchard or Stephen R. Covey overnight. If I could just fill those filing cabinet drawers with enough information then somehow I would have the knowledge to come up with a new idea. I have “Six Sigma’ed” myself to death with the hope I might be able to know enough to make a difference. I understand now that no matter how much I put into those drawers no single-solution exists, and nothing fits neatly into a “rule.” For example, my beliefs about the all-important and necessary learning styles, which for me fell neatly into audio, visual, or kinesthetic drawers, have been turned upside down and the content scattered everywhere.
I believed that to some extent I had to teach to each learning style during the course of each class, but so much more needs to be taken into account! Now that I have really studied learning styles, I realize that the tools most facilitators use may be completely different from the ones that work for me. I also realize that the best part about what we do as training and development guru’s is not black and white, but is still up for negotiation. In reality an array of possibilities exist which I can bring into my classroom in order to understand my students more fully, but I do not have to go to my “filing cabinet” each time that I teach to decide what those will be. What I need to do is take all that I have learned by study and experience and develop my own principles and theories, because there are still so many yet to be discovered. Why limit myself to what is in those drawers?
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Major Mismatch on the Road Less Travelled
“A major mismatch between instructor styles and learners' style can lead to trouble. For example, suppose that learners prefer independent work and reading, but the instructor prefers group projects. Never rely totally on any one method, but try to vary them. If a student does not seem to be learning, consider whether his/her learning style might be at odds with your teaching style. Remain flexible and be able to change planned learning activities if students are having trouble in a given area.” -Susan A. Santo
Well, do I really believe this? Based upon what I have written already-no, not so much. Everyone has encountered someone with whom they mix like oil and water, and most of us can recall at least one educator who crossed our path that we just could not see eye-to-eye. Sometimes the facilitator gets on our nerves, smiles too much, or recently the comment was made in a training session that the instructors' voices were too "high pitched." It does not take much effort to find differences between the educator and the student. None of these were learning style issues; so I believe that learning style issues are just one small piece of the puzzle, which every educator is required to piece together in order to achieve success.
No, I do not believe that a difference in learning styles and teaching styles can lead to "trouble." My entire thirteen years of public education can attest to the falsity of this statement. I have had plenty of teachers with whom I did not connect, even though they were using my prefered learning style to teach. I also have had teachers with whom I completely connected who used my learning style, yet I still did not learn anything from them. Can we justify this as a learning style issue? Or is it a conflict of personalities, an inability to comprehend the material, or could it simply be a lack of interest all around? Is it the teachers' fault that I simply did not want to do the homework? And why do I feel like we should be speaking in hushed tones regarding such things? Perhaps I am afraid students will get their hands on this insider information and use it as another excuse for not applying themselves. "I got a D in the class because the teacher was not teaching to my learning style mom!" Yeeeaaa, that is just what I need.
Yes, an educator can use varying teaching methods to ensure that all students are included and actively learning, but can we really say that "trouble" lurks around the corners of every educational instituation because teachers are not using these methods? The reality is every educator is likely reaching some of his or her students, because the teacher will most likely be using a teaching style that is a refelection of his or her personal learning style. At least one student has to be on the same page. Then let us consider that millions of students have learned from styles that are not their own, and do you know what they call that? Adaptive learning! The student has adapted to the style the teacher is using. It might not be his own, but he stretches, and he reaches, and he can still acheive success. No, it is not easy, but the road to greatness never is.
Let's quit making excuses about learning and educating, and be cogniscent of individual learners themselves. Should learners be catered to because they have specific learning styles and teachers must bend over backwards to accomodate them, or should learning styles be viewed as another way to Build Relationships of Trust (BRT) and be used as a starting point instead of a defining point? Students will measure up when pushed to do so. I have seen students step outside their comfort zones and experience the growth that comes whenever they choose to change. I have placed students deep within a learning style that does not work for them, and I have seen those students struggle within that style, but most of them try. Each one of them still believes that he or she can achieve success. They were not told achievement would be limited because they were placed in the wrong learning style. So why ruin it for them now? Why coddle them only to discover that down the road they have to face the adverse effects of it any way? Why not encourage them to take the road less travelled? Those of us who have traveled it know that it leads to better places.
Resources:
Santo, Susan A. “Learning Styles and Personality”. The University of South Dakota. Updated: December 2007. May 26, 2009 http://www.usd.edu/~ssanto/styles.html Adapted.
Well, do I really believe this? Based upon what I have written already-no, not so much. Everyone has encountered someone with whom they mix like oil and water, and most of us can recall at least one educator who crossed our path that we just could not see eye-to-eye. Sometimes the facilitator gets on our nerves, smiles too much, or recently the comment was made in a training session that the instructors' voices were too "high pitched." It does not take much effort to find differences between the educator and the student. None of these were learning style issues; so I believe that learning style issues are just one small piece of the puzzle, which every educator is required to piece together in order to achieve success.
No, I do not believe that a difference in learning styles and teaching styles can lead to "trouble." My entire thirteen years of public education can attest to the falsity of this statement. I have had plenty of teachers with whom I did not connect, even though they were using my prefered learning style to teach. I also have had teachers with whom I completely connected who used my learning style, yet I still did not learn anything from them. Can we justify this as a learning style issue? Or is it a conflict of personalities, an inability to comprehend the material, or could it simply be a lack of interest all around? Is it the teachers' fault that I simply did not want to do the homework? And why do I feel like we should be speaking in hushed tones regarding such things? Perhaps I am afraid students will get their hands on this insider information and use it as another excuse for not applying themselves. "I got a D in the class because the teacher was not teaching to my learning style mom!" Yeeeaaa, that is just what I need.
Yes, an educator can use varying teaching methods to ensure that all students are included and actively learning, but can we really say that "trouble" lurks around the corners of every educational instituation because teachers are not using these methods? The reality is every educator is likely reaching some of his or her students, because the teacher will most likely be using a teaching style that is a refelection of his or her personal learning style. At least one student has to be on the same page. Then let us consider that millions of students have learned from styles that are not their own, and do you know what they call that? Adaptive learning! The student has adapted to the style the teacher is using. It might not be his own, but he stretches, and he reaches, and he can still acheive success. No, it is not easy, but the road to greatness never is.
Let's quit making excuses about learning and educating, and be cogniscent of individual learners themselves. Should learners be catered to because they have specific learning styles and teachers must bend over backwards to accomodate them, or should learning styles be viewed as another way to Build Relationships of Trust (BRT) and be used as a starting point instead of a defining point? Students will measure up when pushed to do so. I have seen students step outside their comfort zones and experience the growth that comes whenever they choose to change. I have placed students deep within a learning style that does not work for them, and I have seen those students struggle within that style, but most of them try. Each one of them still believes that he or she can achieve success. They were not told achievement would be limited because they were placed in the wrong learning style. So why ruin it for them now? Why coddle them only to discover that down the road they have to face the adverse effects of it any way? Why not encourage them to take the road less travelled? Those of us who have traveled it know that it leads to better places.
Resources:
Santo, Susan A. “Learning Styles and Personality”. The University of South Dakota. Updated: December 2007. May 26, 2009 http://www.usd.edu/~ssanto/styles.html Adapted.
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