Learning Styles

• Honey & Mumford – four part learning styles – pragmatists, activists, reflectors, theorists

• Howard Gardner – multiple intelligences

• Left & Right brain theories

• Bandler & Grinder – visual, auditory & kinaesthetic

• Global and analytical learner model

Learning Styles cont…

• It is important not to see these examples of learning styles as attributes of individuals or as necessarily proven categories. Rather they offer ways of thinking about how people differ in how they learn, and point to the importance of taking this difference into account in teaching/training.

Learning Theories

– Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs– Constructivist theories– Andragogy– Pedagogy– Behaviourist, Cognitive, Humanist theories– And many more...

• Rather than an explicit, formal, academic theory informing your practice, you will probably have an implicit theory that you have constructed, based on what you think works and doesn’t work

Key adult learning principles

• Adults have the need to be self-directing• Adults have a range of life experience, so connecting

learning to experience is meaningful• Adults have a need to know why they are learning

something• Training needs to be learner-centred to engage

learners• The learning process needs to support increasing

learner independence• Emphasis on experimental and participative learning• Use of modelling• Reflecting individual circumstances

Learning program

• The aim of any learning program is to engage learners in meaningful and productive activity that results in the desired learning outcome

• An effective learning program engages learners by being active and productive in a way that is meaningful to the individual learners

A learning program should Identify:

• Its purpose• The target group, their needs and

characteristics• The outcome to be achieved, such as

units of competency or other benchmarks

• The learning and assessment activities including any flexibilities with this

• Any required resources

It should also include:

• Learning objectives

• A plan of how the learners will achieve the objectives

• A structure and sequence for learning

• Content of the learning

• Delivery and assessment methods

• Assessment requirements