Article Review on "Effective Ways to Foster Learning Performance Improvement"

Article Review 5 pages (1875 words) Sources: 5

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foster learning Performance Improvement

Effective ways to foster learning, Article Review

Written by Jialin Yi, Effective ways to foster learning tries to define learning and examines the variation that exists in the behavior of learners. The author goes further to explain the different ways that are used to promote learning by comparing the common methods in use.

Learning is defined differently with some referring to it as a process while others consider it an object, thus, it can be defined as a significant change in the human potential or performance or as a knowledge-acquiring process, and these definitions are contextual dependent. But for the purpose of this article the author defined it as a process that helps to develop new skills and knowledge with the purpose of improving the performance of an individual and an organization. The author points out the importance of distinguishing the unique attributes that learners within different groupings such as adult learners and children learners, this will enable the incorporation of the relevant learning principles while designing instructions. Instruction, which is defined as the deliberate arrangement of events for purposes of facilitating learning, has three components; the desired outcomes, learning activities, and evaluation methods, thus every instructional method must have these components. Despite the fact that a clear boundary cannot be traced between children's and adult's learning, they are not equivalent. Summarily, adult learners are more self-directed, goal oriented, and task and problem centered, in addition they are more diverse and are motivated naturally.

Jialin expresses two beliefs about knowledge and learning, objectivism and constructivism. While objectivists believe in the active participation of learners in the learning process, constructivists believe in the interaction of learners with the environment, the author identifies himself as a constructivist. The author believes that knowledge construction takes place through the interaction with the environment and that knowledge depends on the context, she further gives a definition by another author which defines knowledge as "a function of how the individual creates meaning from his or her own experiences."

Three methods of fostering learning are identified by the author, these are; problem-based learning (PBL), cooperative learning (CL), and situated learning (SL). In problem-based learning, learning is driven by problems which are chosen from real workplace setting. Such problems are usually ill-defined thus creating uncertainty of its contents to the learners, through this method, learners can acquire critical thinking skills, self-directed learning skills, and problem related problems. A number of reasons make this method useful for firms that intend to develop training programs, these include; the necessity of employees being able to solve various contextual problems, PBL adheres to the principles of constructivist instructional design, and it is well suited for adult learning since adults are task or problem oriented. Despite these there are limitations of PBL and its use does not guarantee development of problem solving skills. Successful application of PBL must be accompanied proper facilitation from the instructor and more learning responsibility from the learners. PBL seeks to achieve enhanced analytical, problem-diagnosing, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. In tying to achieve these, PBL incorporates a number of sequential activities which begin by the instructor giving the learners a real life problem and ends with the learners reflecting on process of constructing knowledge and solving the problem. The success of this method is evaluated through peer and self-evaluations focusing on the goals that were identified by the learners. The difference between PBL and the other two methods is that in PBL the problem is given at the beginning of the class while the other methods can introduce the problem either at the end or when the class is progressing. It is thus argued that PBL encourages the learners to think more independently.

In cooperative learning (CL) small groups of learners assist each other by working together with the purpose of achieving a common learning goal. CL targets at the negotiation and communication of ideas that are meaningful among the groups and employs four attributes in order to succeed; positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, individual accountability, and group processing. These attributes requires that there is reliance among the learners and support for each other's efforts to learn thereby achieving a common learning goal. However, individual responsibility is also encouraged which would contribute to the overall performance of the group. The attributes also recommend that review and improvement of the group process should be continuous. The merits that this method has include the emphasis of social skills and, as pointed out by some researchers, it encourages participation of adult learners. The other notable merit is that it provides an opportunity for learners to interact and share knowledge and learners help each other develop different points-of-view. The negative aspects of this method include inefficient allocation of time to students and lower learning quality. The outcomes sought for are enhancement in cooperative, communication, and interpersonal skills and these are measured through peer and self-evaluation through the learning process and the evaluation of the final team products and outcomes. The author notes that group work is not all that makes CL but the interdependence, interaction, and individual accountability are very vital.

Situated learning (SL) advocates for the combination of knowledge and implementation thereby matching learning experience to the real world. This method also requires the guidance, facilitation, maintenance, and assessment of roles from the instructors. This method has three basic merits; first it authenticates classroom learning since it involves real world situations thus making the learners more prepared for their work. The second aspect is that it emphasizes on the engagement of learners on meaningful experiences thus making the learning meaningful. The third merit is that it relates instructional content to the needs and experiences of the learners which is exactly what adult learners require. For SL to be effective it is necessary to incorporate cooperation and interaction between the instructors and learners and also among the learners themselves. SL seeks to develop technical skills related to the disciplines or fields involved. This is evaluated through the extent of participation, assessing performance, and through reflection paper on the learning process. What makes SL different from the other learning methods is the learning through activities which allows learners to interact with each other contrary to experimental learning where discrete content is used. The author point out that participation of learners is very critical for the learning process in SL.

Main point

This article was written to present the different methods that can be used to foster learning both in adult learners and other learners. The fact that different learning methods have different merits and limitations is discussed by the author and the effectiveness of each relative to particular learning group is discussed. The author had the objective of presenting the three methods of fostering learning i.e. problem-based learning, cooperative learning, and situated learning, in order to make the reader have a deeper understanding of all these methods and be able to compare them. In order to do this the author researched different materials regarding this topic and brought together ideas as presented by different researchers and authors.

Main argument

The author in this article presents a study on ways of fostering learning and is more interested at employees and the adult learners. The author first gives the definition of the term learning and explores the nature of learners and learning giving views and beliefs of different groups of persons. She presents the two beliefs about learning, objectivism and constructivism and goes ahead to state the side she takes. The author goes ahead to discuss the methods of fostering learning by identifying the attributes, the merits, the activities involved, and the limitations for each of the three methods. The author suggests that for any of these methods to succeed then it is important for both the learners and instructors to take their responsibilities seriously and work towards achieving the common goal; developing knowledge.

Discussion of conclusion

The author concludes that the appropriate application of these methods can help learners tackle complex problems, cope with one another in the working environment, and give support to each other thus improving individual performances. The author also states the possibility of integrating the three methods and gives an example of an author who combined CL and PBL successfully. Further, she adds that adapting the methods to the current technology-based environment is possible. The author strongly believes that through these learning methods learning can be transferred from classroom to workplace contexts and adds that implementing these methods requires the formulation of an environment that is realistic, motivating, supportive, flexible, collaborative, and challenging. Lastly, the author stresses the need for instructors and learners adapting to the newly created environment so as to improve learning and performance.

Strengths

Even though one may be tempted to look for problems associated with this article, it has more obvious strengths. The author made the article strong by using a wide number of resources in finding the arguments behind each of the methods. The arguments presented in the article… READ MORE

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