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Learning Strategies

by Donald Clark

"Learning strategies," or "instructional strategies" are the various methodologies used to involve the learners in the training program, such as questioning during lectures, simulation with CBT, reflection after reading, etc. They are used to obtain the "learning objectives" which are the new behaviors that you want your learners to use when they return to their jobs.

The learning objectives, in turn, point you towards the major avenue of "media" (plural of medium), in which you will present your instruction, such as through the use of CBT (Computer Based Training), self study, classroom, OJT (On the Job Training), etc. Do not fall into the trap of only using one medium when designing your course...use a best-of-breed approach.

Although many people use the terms interchangeably, objectives, media, and strategies all have separate meanings. For example, your learning objective might be "Pull the correct items for a customer order." Your media might be OJT. Your instructional strategies is to have the learners watch a demonstration in order to get an overall view of the customer order process, have a question and answer period, observe small group demonstrations, and then receive hands-on practice by actually performing the job.

The Instructional Strategy Selection Chart shown below is a general guideline for selecting the learning strategy for changing the present behavior to the desired behavior. It is based on Bloom's Taxonomy (Learning Domains). Notice that the matrix runs from the passive learning methods (the top left column) to the more active participation methods (the bottom left column). While Bloom's Taxonomy (the right three columns) runs from top to bottom, with the lower level behaviors being on top and the higher behaviors being on the bottom. That is, there is a direct correlation in learning:

	Lower levels of behavior can be taught using the more passive learning methods.
	Higher levels of behavior require some sort of action or involvement by the learners.

You can use higher level media to instruct lower lever behaviors, but normally you should not use lower level strategies to instruct high level behaviors. For example, in the second column under "Cognitive," you can use all the media from "Lecture" to "Use in Real Situations" to instruct "Knowledge," but when instructing "Analysis," you should generally use "On The Job Training," "Practice By Doing," or "Use In Real Situation" strategies.

The highest level "High interest," requires that the learner has a high interest in the subject and wants to become an expert in it. You might think of this level as one of Maslow's meta needs such as self-actualization. That is, few people are going to know a subject this well, unless it is easily grasped, or they are willing to spend the time mastering it.

The chart does not cover all possibilities, but most activities should fit in. For example, self-study could fall under reading, audio visual, and/or activities, depending upon the type of program you design.

It does not cover each learner style. For example, some people learn better by listening, while others learn better by reading.

Also, it does not cover the skill of the designer and the instructor. For example, CBT that only presents information for the learner to read or listen to, would be more of a lecture or reading activity, while a well designed reading activity might involve the learners more than any CBT program could.

Reference

Benjamin S. Bloom, Bertram B. Mesia, and David R. Krathwohl (1964). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (two vols: The Affective Domain & The Cognitive Domain). New York. David McKay.

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