How Learning Evolves

Do you recall studying for your GCSEs, being spoon-fed facts by teachers, and then regurgitating them on exam day? A Levels were a  step-up, where you had to demonstrate an ability to not just repeat but analyse information and come to a demonstrable conclusion. At university, you had to choose to attend lectures and tutorials, to research, and produce a dissertation, demonstrating an ability to contribute to the sum total of human knowledge. By the end of the process, how you learned as an adult was very different from how you learned as a child.

Does Pedagogy Suit Adult Learning?

Yet elearning developers keep referring to “pedagogy” as though spoon-feeding facts to adults is the best way to get them to absorb information. As adults, perhaps as future leaders of your company or as managers undertaking continuous professional development (CPD), people need to engage with new information and relate it to real situations and experiences. Frankly, do you want employees who simply accept what they are told at face value and never think for themselves? To get the most out of your people, you have to encourage them to think, allow them to consider the implications of new knowledge and understand the consequences of both applying it properly, and getting it wrong. 

Presenting adults with a succession of slides on a screen, useful information and perhaps some entertaining and informative animation, followed by a little quiz to ensure learning has taken place has limited impact. Too much of elearning is just a chore to get done, a box to tick. It’s not inspiring anyone, or providing real opportunities for growth or career development.

Why Adults Need To Engage With New Information

The markets you operate in are changing, companies have to innovate, disrupt, and change to survive. To achieve this you need people who seek new information, analyse and evaluate it, and then apply it to produce a positive outcome. 

No one develops this adult habit of learning from pedagogically correct elearning. So why not treat your employees as adults and make the information they need available to them and let them get on with thinking and learning? 

While there are any number of business books out there to inspire and assist change managers and leaders, selecting the most relevant and highlighting their key lessons can be difficult. This is where book summaries, delivered via text or audio files come in. Organisations can build libraries of the newest and most relevant books, on a range of business topics, which can be easily accessed by employees. Thus managers and leaders find themselves well informed and confident in taking their business in the right direction.

When adult learning has been achieved, informed choices are more likely to be made.

Find out more or contact us for a free trial.