Your Learn More by Doing: Fact or Fiction

01Mar10

In the CAD world we have all experienced the traditional teaching method of Hear, See, Do. In these classes we listen to an instructor talk about a specific function in the software as the instructor demonstrates the function on the overhead projector. Once the instructor has covered the functional areas of the function we are then asked to complete an exercise in the workbook. In the instructors eyes if we complete this exercise we have learned the function. This is Hear, See, Do at its best. Why is it that we, as learners and trainers, have accepted this as the de facto training method? 

Is it because we have heard and believe the statistics that:

People learn x% of what they hear, y% of what they see… where the highest results is usually what we categorized as “learned activity”?

We have assumed that “doing” is a direct function of learning but in reality doing is an indirect function- one of many indirect functions. What we fail to understand is that learning requires two things to move the information from short-term memory to the long-term memory parts of your brain; you have to pay attention and you have to think.  Folks, we are talking about retention here- the real “learning”.

First off Hear, See, Do is assuming that by having the student duplicate what they were shown that they have learned the function. This is the monkey see, monkey do mentality. Learning is more than repeating a task; it is understanding  the information (paying attention) and applying the knowledge (thinking).

Secondly, it assumes that we cannot learn by seeing, hearing, and “thinking”. Now here’s the kicker, how can the instructor observe me thinking? Is he looking for smoke coming out of my ears or maybe the famous “Thinker” poise?  My point is you can’t observe “thinking” so we want to rely on “doing” as our metric for learning.  If you can do it you have learned it.

Typical Learning Example:

You are watching the demo on the overhead projector, listening to the instructor and trying to take some notes at the same time. (See a problem already?) I take my eyes off the screen and write down some notes. The instructor moves to the next function as I am writing, talks about the new function and then does a quick demo and tells us to do the next exercise in the workbook. I completed the exercise based on the directions in the workbook.

What’s wrong here? Was I able to pay attention to the instructor and did I have time to think about what was being covered? Probably not. Stop for a second and reflect on what I said needs to happened in order for learning to occur. You need to pay attention and to think (to process what you have been told and reflect on how this new information affects your previous experiences).

OK, so how do we solve the problems that occur with Hear, See, Do? Easy, move from a Trainer-centric to a Learner-centric teaching process. Focus your activities so that you have the group thinking about something or collaborating on an idea. This is a huge shift in the way we currently teach and would require us to rewrite our training materials or at the least re-think about how we deliver our training.

More to come on Learner-Centric or Learner Centered teaching.

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Tags: Autocad, General, NX5, NX6, NX7, PDM, PLM, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, SW, Training