Learning explained

Making a presentation, facilitating a meeting, managing a team, teaching or simply learning something new, it's good to know how we as adults learn. If you want to deliver better presentation, engage more your audience or learn things better, let's dive into it. After around 5 minutes of reading you should have better understanding of how adults learn.

Yes, adults learn differently than kids. Maybe you had a situation that you went for training and you didn’t quite follow it even though the topic sounded interesting? Or you were learning a language and the results were not the best. I'm doing German classes recently and I started wondering about it since I started noticing that my engagement is dropping and I'm not giving to full attention to my classes. Intuitively, I felt that this particular method I was following is not the best for me. Moreover, I always remembered from my dancing classes a valid recommendation that we should try out different dance teachers, why? Because of their different teaching styles and because we are learning differently. We have different teaching needs and different information digestion system. That made me look more into this subject and I found a great course of Jason Teteak on how adults learn. Have you ever wondered why kids learn languages so fast? One of the reasons might be that they don't question why they need to learn, they just acknowledge it but as we are getting older we are getting more demanding. Jason Teteak gathered his teaching experience and found the core rules when adults learn the best.

Firstly, they need to know "why" they learn something. They need to see they value in learning for example I’ll learn some basics of Italian since I want to spend there my long holidays. Our time is limited as adults. We have friends, work, family and other obligations. Time is valuable and we have a choice where to invest it. With "why" comes the value of the learning. I’m going to invest my time with learning new skill since that can help me find a better job or be a better presenter.

Moreover, we learn by comparing our current learning to our previous experiences. It's true, my current language learning methods I compare to the time when I was in high school learning French. Basically, I was looking at what went wrong and what went fine and how I want to adjust my learning process to be as much productive as possible. The idea of scrum, in IT project management, is based on learning from experience. Plus, daily catch up and retrospective meeting, which is a meeting to reflect what went good and what went wrong and how can improve it, follows that rule.

Not only do we learn by comparison, but also by problem solving. Let's imagine we are giving a presentation about the new software that is going to be introduced in a team. If we just simply display the information what this software is doing. Firstly, probably after 15 min people will stop following what we are saying, secondly they not gonna learn how to use it. The solution for that is to introduce case based scenario, give the audience time to think and respond.

That were key motivational factors that stands behind adults learning, but what is also important is to observe and acknowledge that each of us has different learning style. Why is important to know your learning style? To learn better and achieve your goals but also to pass the knowledge better as we tend to use our learning style when we explain something to the others. Jason Teteak distinguished 4 learning styles: step learner, create learner, research learner and talk learner

Step learner learns the best when the content is organized. He likes to have an agenda to follow. Step learner appreciates having a study companion and writing down the steps to reach the goal or learning content. This person benefits when the "why" is reminded in a learning process.

On the other hand, we have create learner. This person learns the best by using the knowledge in the process of creating something. Create learner enjoys writing down the content in his own words to make a synthesis. This type of learner likes working on a project on its own to create an outcome.

The third learning persona is research learner. This person likes investigating on his own first. My former work colleague, for example, said that she likes to investigate things on her own first, before asking a question. Research learner is also the person who likes debating and discussing things. Do not be discouraged if during your presentation someone from the audience is trying to ask hard question it’s his way to find the answer. This kind of learner also likes visual help to get the big picture.

Last but not least, we have talk learner that enjoys exchanging ideas, experiences and concepts in groups. In simple words, enjoy talking things through. This persona also learns the best by answering questions such us what would be the practical use of the knowledge his is learning. Talk learner, by asking questions, is trying to understand the concepts on his own.

We have a little bit of each learning style in us, but there is definitely one or two that are dominating, not only how you learn, but also how you present, explain and teach other people. That is why it is important to keep all these learning styles in mind why trying to reach out to your audience. This knowledge gave me the answer why I like learning the language in a group more than with a tutor only and what is effective for me to master the subject. As you may remember create learner likes to write down the synthesis which I did by creating this article. Like in other areas is great to see that people are diverse and respect them and address them differently in coaching, presenting and teaching. Having an agenda, creating hand -out, asking questions, making group exercises, debating, giving little assignments can elevate your facilitating skills and reach your audience better. So, what is your learning style?

This article is a part of "Developing my talents: Learner" series. It was inspired by the course Teach Anybody Anything: Reach Any Learner Anywhere, by Jason Teteak.

#facilitation #coaching #teaching #learning #self-development