Philosophy of learning

My influences

My policy is to develop learning materials for clients according their own tried and trust learning approach. You know best what works in your industry and it is my job to develop learning materials for you that work and are in accord with and appropriate to sound learning models, the subject matter, the facilitators, the learners and the way you train. But in all my years learning about learning I have come to my own understanding of what learning is and naturally, this also informs what I do.

Learning models in general

Instructional design has been centered on many learning models, the most well-known of which are categorized under: behaviorist, cognitive, humanist, constructivist and various mixtures of these. Each of these learning models involves a variety of learning approaches.

According to Koohang and du Plessis, while behavioral models are still being used, in recent years attention has shifted to active learning; constructing new knowledge based on prior knowledge; real-world observation with real problems in real situations; constructing interpretations of observations; collaborating and cooperating with peers; and learners acting as facilitators/coaches to each other (Adler, 1998; Gagne, Briggs, & Wager, 1992; Leshin, Pollock, & Reigeluth, 1992).

Of course, the recent trend in learning theory supported by the contemporary corporate training industry, is that of personalised learning or principled learning. This is a theory that says that for companies to have the competative edge they must teach their employees to innovate. The only way that they can do this is to teach learners the softer skills involved in a whole new way of seeing things for themselves. This new way of seeing fosters lifelong learning and genuine curiosity in learners that helps them to question everything including their own persoal spiritual, physical, emotional, social and intellectual well being. The questions they ask, knowledge they build up and personal development of each learner become paramount in this paradigm and articulate perfectly with constructivism and experiental constructivism, which assumes that real learning happens when learners build their own learning, ask their own questions, integrate their own experiences and develop themselves.

My own model- experiental constructivism

My own position is aligned to these developments and I call it experiental constructivism. Experiental constructivism takes the greatness of the experiential learning cycle to a new level, by expressly situating the strengths of learning through experience and reflection thereon, it within the constructivist paradigm. This means that I believe that a good way for learning to occur is not only to facilitate an experience for learners to reflect on, but also to deliberately build into this learning approach specific opportunities for learners to construct their own learning from their experiences both in class and at work. I believe that this approach is especially effective with adult learners who already have significant life experiences that they bring with them to class. I believe that specific and varied opportunities for reciprocal communication between facilitator/learning materials/peers and learner is essential in constructivist learning materials, where learners are in fact co-designers of their own learning process. I believe that this in an empowering and lasting approach to learning. Using overt techniques in learning materials to empower learners in this way stimulates learners to take responsibility for their own learning and helps to fuel the fire of self- motivation, which in turn, ignites the high performance behaviour needed by learners in the new economy.