Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Group learning styles

This from Simon (2000), linked above: "The behavior modeling method—developed in the 1970s for building an individual's skills—is a combination of  the exploration and instruction methods that concentrates on the idea of observing and doing while following a role model . . . Trainees then imitate the role model’s behavior in practice.  The technique emphasizes learning points in the instruction mode and modeling, practice, and feedback in the exploration or hands-on mode.  Learning points are simply guidelines to lead an individual to a desired objective." As opposed to creating different systems for learners of different cognitive styles, that "one size fits all" framework did successfully accommodate equally well both "instructional" learners (highly visual/cognitive) and "exploratory" learners (kinesthetic/experiential) learners. Although used by the US Navy in the research reported on comparing three computer training methods, that is actually a pretty good characterization of much of HIPoeces instruction. Contrast that with the usual approach of agonizing over adapting instruction to the distinct styles of individual learners, as in this informal piece.

No comments:

Post a Comment