Employee Learning

In most working environments, there is usually some form of training. This training takes different forms, from hands-on experience to read manuals, to viewing online media information. The way employees absorb and process information vary from one to another. They also have different natural tendency to learn the style (Morgan, 2011).

Described below is the most useful and widely implemented learning style models.

Kolb's Learning Cycle
An American educational theorist David A. Kolb whose interests and writings focus on experiential learning, personal and social change, career development and executive and professional education.

Kolb's learning cycle is a well-known theory, which advocates that we learn from our life experience, even on a day-to-day basis. It also considers reflection as an integral part of this learning. According to the Kolb (1984) study, the learning process follows a four-phase pattern or cycle. These phases are explained and summarized below:

Figure 1: Kolb's Learning Cycle (Skillsyouneed, 2016).

Concrete experience

Kolb's cycle starts with a concrete experience. In other words, it begins with doing something in which the individual, team or organisation are assigned a task. Key to learning, therefore, is active involvement. In Kolb's model, one cannot learn by simply watching or reading about it, to learn effectively the individual, team or organisation must actually do.

Reflective observation

Reflective observation is the second stage of Kolb's cycle. This means taking a time-out from "doing" and stepping back from the task and reviewing what has been done and experienced. At this stage, lots of questions are asked and communication channels are opened to others members of the team. Vocabulary is very important and requires verbal communication and discussion with others.

Abstract conceptualisation

The third stage is Abstract Conceptualisation, a process of making sense of what has happened and involves interpreting the events and understanding the relationships between them. At this stage, learners compare what they do, think and what they already know. They can draw on textbook theories to build and interpret events, their familiar models, their colleagues' points of view, previous observations, or any other knowledge they have developed.

Active experimentation

The final stage of the learning cycle is how learners think about how to put what they have learned into practice. Planning enables taking a new understanding and translates it into predictions as to what will happen next or what actions should be taken to refine or revise the way a task is to be handled. For learning to be useful most people need to place it in a context that is relevant to them. If one cannot see how the learning is useful to one's life then it is likely to be forgotten very quickly. Employee efficiency requires training to meet each requirement more or less equally (Kolb, 1984).

Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles

Kolb proposed above as a cycle. But there’s no question that while we all go through the cycle when we learn something, we also all prefer to start in different places and to spend more time on some aspects than others.

Two men named Peter Honey and Alan Mumford noticed this and based their work on Kolb's theory of learning style.

Figure 2: Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles (Getfeedback.net, 2018).

Activist - Activists are those people who learn by doing. Activists need to get their hands dirty, to dive in with both feet first. An open attitude toward learning, full participation and no prejudice of new experience.

Theorist - These learners like to understand the theory behind the behaviour. They need models, concepts, and facts to participate in the learning process.

Reflector - These people learn by observing and thinking about what happened. They tend to stand on a different perspective to observe the experience, collect data and spend time trying to reach the appropriate conclusions.

Pragmatist - These people need to be able to see how to put the learning into practice in the real world. The use of abstract concepts and games is limited unless they come up with a way to put these ideas to work. Experimenters try new ideas, theories and techniques to see if they work (Honey and Mumford, 1986).

Reference:

Morgan, R. (2011). How to Address Learning Styles in Workplace Training. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/address-learning-styles-workplace-training-10222.html [Accessed 26 November 2017].

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (Vol. 1). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Honey, P. and Mumford, A. (1986). Using your learning styles. Peter Honey.

Getfeedback.net. (2017). The four learning styles. [online] Available at: http://www.getfeedback.net/products/detail/Learning_Styles [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

Skillsyouneed, (2016). Learning Styles [online] Available at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/learning-styles.html [Accessed 24 Nov. 2017].