INFLUENCING LEARNING

IT’S A TEAM APPROACH
Written by Pat Ford

Content: The amount of influence individuals have on how much a person will actually gain from participating in different learning opportunities.

Objectives – Participants will:

  • Identify people resources that influence how effective a learning opportunity can be.
  • Will identify the reasons why each phase in the learning process is important.
  • Discuss the importance of a team approach to learning.

Time: 45 Minutes

Time / Strategy / Resources
Before session / Note: Before beginning this exercise a large grid should be taped on the floor that looks like this. The boxes should be large enough for more than one person to stand in the box.
/ Blue Masking tape
Cards with these labels:
Participant
Supervisor
Facilitator
Before
During
After
5 Minutes /
  1. Influencing Learning – Mini-Lecture
  1. Ask: When we provide learning opportunities for our volunteers, what are our ultimate goals? Solicit a few responses, list them on the easel or white board and share the following information.
/ Easel
Felt Pen

INFLUENCING LEARNING

IT’S A TEAM APPROACH
Written by Pat Ford

Time / Strategy / Resources
  • Acknowledge their ideas, then say: Let’s summarize those ideas. Learning opportunities are provided in order to enhance the knowledge and skills of those participating in the opportunity (regardless of how it is delivered). In some cases we want to help people to develop a positive attitude towards the opportunities made available to them. Write, “knowledge, Skills and Attitudes” on the easel.Write these three on the easel)
  • Knowledge includes specific facts or concepts. Skills are “how-to's”, and attitudes are ways of approaching situations from an attitudinal point of view.
  • Ask for examples of all three that would apply in the Girl Scout world. Then continue. Of course when volunteers participate in formal learning opportunities,we want them to take what they learn and be able to successfully apply it in their “real world.” When an individual can and does apply knowledge, skills and attitudes in “real world” situations, it is called “Transfer of Learning.”
  1. Who influences the learner?
  • Ask the following question and solicit a few answers.
Consider for a moment how you might answer this question. - Who do you think influences whether or not a learner successfully transfers learning into real world situations? List what they say, on the easel.
15 Min /
  1. Vote with Your Feet – Influencing Learning
  1. Mini-Lecture. Say: Let’s explore this concept further. Ask the participants to stand and join you around the grid you have taped on the floor. Give the following directions.
  • Point out the three individuals (supervisor, facilitator, participant). Were identified in a study as the three who most influence learning and transfer of learning to real situations.Also share, (if it comes up) that friends/peers are also influential. Let’s consider them part of the “supervisor category. Clarify who might be considered the supervisor of a volunteer. ‘
  • Share: It is important to understand that all three of these individuals are VERY important to the learning of the individual’s learning and to whether or not a person learns and actually applies the knowledge, skills and attitudes gained from a formal learning opportunity. Repeat this to emphasize the point.
/ Blank grid on the floor and grid on the easel
Time / Strategy / Resources
It is also true that the time that these individuals connect with the learner/participant is also important. (Before, during or after experiencing the opportunity.)
  1. Directions:
  • Explain: With this caveat in mind, I want you to decide, without talking to anyone else: “Which box on the grid represents who has the most influence on a participant’s learning and at what point in time?
For example: I might think the participant during the session influences his/her learning the most. That represents this box. Point to the correct box. I would then put myself in that box.
  • Okay, which box most represents your thinking? Ask the participants to step into the box they have chosen. .
  • Once everyone has chosen a box, give the people in the box a little time to discuss why they think this person and time have the MOST influence on the participant’s learning.
  • Give them a few moments to discuss, then ask them to pick a person who will “ADVOCATE” for their “box.” The advocate’s job is to explain to everyone else their rationale. Before you have each “box” start their advocacy, point out that if they hear something said in a box that is not their own that they agree with, they can change boxes if they want to.

Have each advocate report, then ask the participants to be seated.
  1. Debrief – Ask: What conclusions might you draw from having done this exercise? Solicit some responses.
Points you want to make sure are made:
Every individual and every point in time is important.
Learning doesn’t start and stop during a workshop. What happens before and after is critical.
Teams need to work together to promote and reinforce.
  • Draw the grid on the easel. Hand out the Influencing Learning handout. Share the order of influence according to research.

Time / Strategy / Resources
10 Minutes / BEFORE / DURING / AFTER
PARTICIPANT / 6 / 5 / 7
SUPERVISOR / 1 / 8 / 3
FACILITATOR / 2 / 4 / 9
  1. Who, When, How
  1. Explain: Again, the reality is that all of these three individuals and times are important when it comes to influencing how much an individual learns, retains and can apply what they to the real world. Equally as important is that this influence occurs before, during AND after a particular learning session. We MUST remember that to be truly helpful in supporting new troop Leaders to be effective as a troop leader, we must be willing to work as a team to support and reinforce their on-going learning.
  1. Brainstorm
  • Share: Because it is SO important to consider all the individuals who might be involved in influencing a new volunteer’s learning and growth, let’s spend just a little time with it.
  • Have the following preprinted on the easel. Then ask: Besides the new leaders themselves and the workshop facilitator, who influences and reinforces the learning of a new troop leader? Fill in a list of “who’s.” Add those positions to the grid.
Note: Be sure SUM, Troop Program Managers, other leaders, facilitators Service unit team members – like coaches or consultants ,are on the list.
WHO / BEFORE / DURING / AFTER
New Leader
Facilitators
/ Transfer of Learning Handout
Preprinted grid on easel
Assign each table or duo one of the “Who’s” listed and then have them fill in “HOW” that particular “who” can support the new leader in each of the three time periods. Have them put their ideas on post-it notes.
At the end of 5 minutes, have each group come forward, read their ideas out loud and put them in the appropriate spot on the grid.
  1. Answer questions and address concerns

End

HANDOUT

INFLUENCING LEARNING

Three people influence whether or not learning from a formal learning opportunity is actually applied on the job: 1) the learner (participant), 2) the manager or supervisor and 3) the facilitator. Each can do something to facilitate the value and use of the learning by the participant, or alternatively, discourage its use. Each has an impact on the transfer and application of learning at three critical points: before the learning, during the learning process, and after the learning has occurred.

In the matrix below, these three individuals are shown in relationship to the three moments in time that affect the transfer of learning to actual real situations. There are nine squares in the matrix, each representing a point of possible influence. Please rank these points of influence from “1” to “9” using all the numbers, from “1” being “real important” to “9” being “not as important.”

Before / During / After
Participant
Supervisor
Trainer / Facilitator