Insights: Experiential studying is a vital part of the architecture

This post keeps on my feedback to the Learning Concepts 2012 Evaluation produced by Kineo for e.learning age publication. The 6th of ten 'insights' is that ‘Experiential studying is a vital part of the architecture'.

As studying and development professionals we are most careful of those opportunities which will help workers to ‘learn to’ perform some procedure or fulfill some responsibility. We want to achieve success of the game, to offer workers with the skill-sets details they need to are qualified of present and future job roles. Even when we set up functions and resources to support on-demand studying, we still have a forward looking focus, trying to achieve success of the game, even if only at the last second.

Yet for many people, the most ideas come not through ‘learning to’ but by ‘learning from’ our day-to-day execute actions. Experiential studying is actually getting details from our experience. It happens intentionally or automatically as we indicate upon our own success and problems at execute as well as those of our affiliates. It provides an incredibly useful views pattern into our everyday execute.

Without experiential studying, all we are having is the 'doing'. We do it again the same actions over and over again, never improving and consistently in danger to every new threat that seems to be in our atmosphere. Experiential studying is 'doing' plus an important extra element - reflection. Without reflection, we can have many years of and locate less than someone who is associates of the family beginner but who has acquired the chance to comprehend.

Experiential studying happens whether we want it to or not, but there are the reason why, as studying professionals, we should be supporting and motivating it:
• Because everyday experience is rich with opportunities for studying.
• Because we don't always take the best advantage of these opportunities.
• Because, if something goes well, we want to do it again it.
• Because, if a problem happens, we want to avoid it happening again.

We are hard-wired for experiential studying, as Bob Medina explains in Mind Rules: “When we came down from the vegetation to the savannah, we did not say to ourselves, 'Good expert, give me a guide and a period so I can invest ten years operating out withstand in place.' Our success did not depend upon exposing ourselves to structured, pre-planned offers of data. Our success depended upon crazy, delicate information-gathering actions. That's why one of our best functions is the chance to comprehend through a number of gradually self-corrected ideas.”

And what’s more, as Bob realises, this ability does not decrease with age: “The older mind throughout life preserves the chance to modify its structure and efficiency responding to actions.”

Employees are well conscious of how important experiential studying can be. The National Organization of Mature Continuous Knowledge (NIACE) asked for 2076 workers in the UK to identify them that had been useful to assist them to do their job better. Top of the record, identified by 82% of associates, was 'doing your job on a regular basis'.

There are many techniques a company can encourage experiential studying on a top-down basis:
• benchmarking
• project reviews
• action learning
• job enrichment
• job rotation
• performance appraisals
• a plan of ongoing improvement
• optimising the operating environment

Whether or not studying professionals have an energetic part in these techniques is based upon on their brief, but as real studying developers, they need to have a handle on all the techniques that studying happens in the office.

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