Active Learning

Twenty years ago: Employees almost always received training in an off-site classroom setting.  An instructor led trainees, step by step, through procedures.

Now:  Training is increasingly offered – often more cheaply -- at the workplace through technology or on-the-job instruction.  The closest many learners get to an instructor is a computer avatar.  Trainees are encouraged to make -- and learn from – mistakes.

Research by Professor Brad Bell and a colleague lends insight to how training in unstructured learning environments can be designed to align with varying learning characteristics.

Bell, associate professor of HR Studies and director of ILR Executive Education, and Steve W. J. Kozlowski of Michigan State University have received an Emerald Management Reviews Citation of Excellence for an article they wrote on their research.

"Active Learning: Effects of Core Training Design Elements on Self-regulatory Processes, Learning and Adaptability," published in Journal of Applied Psychology last year, was named as one of the top 50 business and management articles of 2008 by Emerald Management Reviews, a database which selected the 50 from a field of 15,000.

In describing the growing role of active learning, Bell said "Trainees are being asked to take greater responsibility for their own learning.  Both e-learning and on-the-job training provide individuals with more learner control.  They often need to make decisions about what they should study, how much to study."

"In the past, in the classroom, these decisions were made by instructors," he said.

"People need to be able to self-motivate themselves because there is no instructor or other students to motivate them.  They must also self-manage their emotions if they get frustrated," Bell said.

There is no universal prescription for what helps active learners best master material; tailoring training to fit specific learner traits makes sense for organizations, Bell and Kozlowski said in their most recent article on implications of the shift to e-learning.

Some employees are so stressed by training, for instance, they benefit from learning how to control their emotional reactions to training; lowering anxiety levels helps some learn and perform, they said.

Abilities of trainees should also be considered, said Bell and Kozlowski.  For example, they found that high-ability trainees excel when they have more control over their learning through exploratory instruction.