1. Approach to Learning Know your preferred learning style
Seek out learning opportunities to suit
Develop other styles to get most from learning
Move outside the comfort zone
Balanced learning means better learning
Take more in, retain more and apply it more.
Learning: “knowledge created through experience”
We become better at learning when using different styles and experiences
Experiential Learning (John Dewey)
Learning through everyday experiences (thinking, feeling, behaving, perceiving etc)
Active learning and intelligence is a product of interaction with the environment (Jean Piaget)

2. Learning Cycle Learning Experience Experiment and Integrate Observe
Reflect
Assessment – self and gaps
Learning – info and ideas
Analysis – exploring good and bad practice
Practice – within learning workshop
Application – at work until the norm
Adult Learning:
Have an experience
Reflect
Draw Conclusions
Apply and Plan
Generalise
and
Conceptualise
ALAPA
Adapted from Weinstein, p40/41 (1999) and Knasel, Meed & Rossetti, p105 (2000)

3. Active Learning Lessons? Recognise ‘deep smarts’ Get them to talk
Group-based
One-to-One
Passive Reception
Active Learning
Directives,
Presentations,
lectures
Rules of
thumb
Stories with
a moral
Socratic
questioning
Guided
practice
Guided
observation
Guided
problem
solving
Guided
experimentation
Lessons?
Recognise ‘deep smarts’
Get them to talk
Transfer knowledge through active learning.
Leonard, D. and Swap W. (2004) Deep Smarts Harvard Business Review , September Issue: Edited version

4. Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI)
How We Think The Brain Works
Neo-Cortex
(Higher Order Thinking Skills)
Limbic System
(Emotions & Long Term Memory)
Brainstem (Reptilian)
(Fight, Flight or Freeze)
Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI)
Cerebellum
(Embedded Learning/Habits)
Right side: creative, intuitive, abstract
Left side: logical, analytical, languages
Whole-brained
We are multi-tasked, not sequential and think many things at once
Hard-wired learning – patterns reinforced into ‘rivers of thought’
River Jumping?
We need to UNLEARN and create new pathways
Active learning stimulates the brain and builds on thinking and understanding and retention
therefore use activities, questioning, experiences challenges etc

5. Look at the chart and say the colour, not the word …
YELLOW BLUE ORANGE
BLACK RED GREEN
PURPLE YELLOW RED
ORANGE GREEN BLACK
BLUE RED PURPLE
GREEN BLUE ORANGE
We are whole-brained but with preferences
Engage the whole brain for a more rounded understanding?
Tips
Rhythm - music allows us to code information more effortlessly
Learn best when high challenge and low stress
Need plenty of oxygen and water
On average we can remember 7 (+or- 2) bits of information
Left – Right Conflict
Your right brain tries to say the colour
Your left brain insists on reading the word

6. Information Retention
On average people remember:-
20% of what they Read
30% of what they Hear
40% of what they See
50% of what they Say
60% of what they Do
90% of what they See, Hear, Say and Do
Learn through experience
Learning is an active process – importance of active participation
Rose,C. and Nicholl. MJ, Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century

7. Understanding Information
99% of learning is unconscious (non verbal, around us)
90% of learning is visual
Easy to misinterpret
We need social contact, dialogue and exchange for shared understanding
93% of understanding comes from
body language and expression
Albert Mehrabian

8. Learning Styles Honey and Mumford (1983)
Concrete
Feeling
Activist
Enjoys new and challenging experiences
“I’ll try anything once”
Reflector
Learns best when able to sit back and observe
“Look before you leap”
Theorist
Likes to be able to question logic or methodology
“If it’s logical, it’s good”
Pragmatist
Needs to see link between learning and practical application
“If it works, it’s good”
Testing
Doing
Reflecting
Watching
Activist: enjoys challenging experiences
Reflector observes before action
Pragmatist must see link (learning + practice)
Theorist Likes to question/must see logic
We have preferences but learn best by using all four
Best to ground learning in experience
Visual Vs Words
Facts/Logic Vs Possibilities/Feelings
Abstract
Thinking

9. Riding a Bicycle Activist Reflector Theorist Pragmatist
Leap on, have a go, learn as you go
Reflector
Watch others, try it, evaluate and try new technique to improve
Theorist
Read the manuals, know the theory, might never try it
Pragmatist
Take advice, practical tips and helping hand
Activist case studies and simulations
Reflector journals and reviews
Pragmatist field work and observation
Theorist lectures and papers

10. Awareness and Ability Stangaards (1981) NLP Model of Learning
Conscious
Competence
Aware and Able
Aware and Unable
Incompetence
Unaware and Unable
Unconscious
Unaware and Able
Importance of self-awareness: need to learn and open to learning
Feedback
Disclosure
Experimentation
PDP
- Development goals
Current position
Personal Action Plan
Lessons? a. Raise awareness and develop ability, or nothing will change
b. Importance of feedback, disclosure and experimentation.

11. Learning to Lead Kouzes and Posner (1987, p283)
Their analysis (supported by two other major studies)of all responses suggests three major categories of opportunities for learning to lead. In order of importance they are :
Trial and error (experience)
Other People (role models)
Education and formal training.

12. Learning Advice Learning needs to be grounded in experience
You learn best by using a range of learning styles in a cycle of learning
Be aware of your preferred style and try out others
You need to review and practice to remember.
Reflective Practice
Take action and reflect to remember and change practice
Importance of content, context and emotions
We learn best when high challenge and low stress
Seek out appropriate learning experiences
Learning Equation:
L=P+Q
Learning (experiential and learning cycle)
Programme Knowledge (traditional information and facts
Questioning (ability to question, think and apply)