Η Julie Diamond γράφει για τη διεργασία της μάθησης και την πρόκληση της ισορροπίας ανάμεσα στη μάθηση και το αναμενόμενο αποτελέσματα. Όταν η μάθηση (learning) συνδέεται με ένα αναμενόμενο αποτέλεσμα (outcomes), συμβαίνει το εξής ενδιαφέρον. Το αποτέλεσμα το βιώνουμε σαν κάτι έξω από εμάς. Έτσι η διεργασία της μάθησης περιπλέκεται από την παρουσία μιας εξωτερικής πίεσης από κάποιον ή ‘κάτι’ έξω από εμάς – έναν εκπαιδευτή, απαιτήσεις ενός προγράμματος, στόχοι του οργανισμού, ενός προϊσταμένου, ή ακόμα και την παραγωγή ενός συγκεκριμένου μετρήσιμου αποτελέσματος. Δημιουργείται μια σύγκρουση που μπορεί να τορπιλίσει το αποτέλεσμα. Στο άρθρο της, η Julie Diamond γράφει για πιθανές στρατηγικές αντιμετώπισης αυτής της σύγκρουσης.
Πηγή: Julie Diamond blog
Taking the pulse of your learner
I just finished teaching a seminar in Australia, Beyond our Grasp: The Art, Science and Flow of Learning, Performance and Change. I really enjoyed working with a new topic, and having the opportunity to trial new ideas and learn together with such an enthusiastic and experienced group of participants.
We looked at the challenge of learning and outcomes: when learning is tied to an outcome, a funny thing happens. The outcome is experienced as external to ourselves. Our learning is now complicated by the presence and pressure of someone or something outside ourselves – a teacher or program requirements, the organization’s goals, a manager, coach, or teacher, a professional association, or even a result or number. Even when the goal is self-assigned, for instance, quitting smoking or losing weight, because we are changing something about ourselves, it creates an inner conflict: one part of us against or trying to change another. Even the tiniest sense of conflict or lack of consensus with our self-interest can torpedo the whole enterprise. This is why research on workplace motivation shows conclusively that intrinsic motivation trumps external motivation, including paid incentives:
people who expect to receive a reward for completing a task or for doing that task successfully simply do not perform as well as those who expect no reward at all.
At the seminar we looked at strategies for facilitating learning in the face of this and other obstacles. We started by taking a “health check” on the learner. Here are some of the ingredients for keeping your learner healthy
1. Own the goal. We resist outcomes and measurements when we don’t identify what’s in it for us. Even a self-assigned goal can quickly start to feel like an external pressure. We need to continually ask ourselves why we care. What is my deepest, most compelling reason for doing this? What, if anything, do I want to gain from this? This also helps when we have to perform under pressure. If we can hold in our mind the one compelling reason why we are doing what we’re doing, and what we want to get out of it, we can focus our attention, shut out nerves and anxiety, and attain some calm under intense pressure.
2. Fail well. And often. It’s common knowledge that learning from mistakes makes for good learning. But recent studies on performance show that most accelerated learning happens at the very edge of our abilities (just beyond our grasp). In this cognitive zone we learn ten times faster than in conventional practice. But it means making frequent mistakes, and being able to correct them. But if we equate mistakes with failure, take it personally, get down on ourselves, we miss all that potential growth. We need a good attitude that allows us to view mistakes neutrally, as information, a sort of negative feedback that micro-corrects us, not as proof of our stupidity.
3. Appreciate your efforts. How we identify ourselves is crucial for learning. Carol Dweck’s research on learning and identity (malleability vs. entity theory of intelligence) has shown that if we think our success comes from effort, it makes us better learners. We can learn from mistakes, respond well to challenge, and see failure as an opportunity. However, if we think our success is based on intelligence (I’m good at this because I’m smart), we avoid failing, and our performance decreases with time. When the task gets hard, we give up, because there is nowhere to go: if we’re good because we’re smart, then if we make a mistake, we must be stupid.
4. Set yourself up for success. Some learning just happens naturally. But the kind of learning that takes effort, explicit learning, is ‘edge work.’ That means, we’re doing something beyond our current abilities. It feels unnatural. It’s counter-intuitive. It hurts. And because it’s natural to back away from pain, we need solid structures to hold us at the edge, to support our learning. But too often we don’t set ourselves up to succeed. We set huge and unrealistic goals without any sense of what it takes to get there. We need a plan, a clear path to get there. We need small benchmarks so we can review our progress. And we might need helpers. We also need to check in with our goals periodically and adjust our plans based on how we’re doing. We need small wins frequently, or we lose motivation. And if we don’t provide the resources to learn, we won’t make progress, and chances are, we’ll attribute that lack of progress to our intelligence (entity theory!).
5. Hire a good inner coach. Inner criticism is really important to learning. The inner voice, which can sometimes be critical, is needed to talk us through difficulty. It’s important that our self talk can work with us, not against us. If the critical voice is too harsh and condemning, it interprets everything as a judgment. On the other hand, if we’re too indulgent and permissive (sometimes to counter harsh inner criticism) it takes us off our edge. Three (as a start!) aspects to the good inner coach:
• Sees information not failure. Mistakes and challenges are opportunities for learning and growth.
• Is honest in praise, and useful and specific in criticism. Praise and criticism is not about talent, ability, or person. It’s specific and targeting what we are doing, not who we are.
• Speak to our inner goals and standards: doesn’t use external or mainstream goals to evaluate us, but focuses on the goals we have established for ourselves