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LEARNING BARRIERS Barriers to Learning Overfilled class-sizes, economic disadvantages and "learning disorders" are common. Yet underlying all of this, there are three primary barriers that keep one from successfully studying a subject. Despite all that has been written on the subject of study, these three barriers were never isolated as having such importance in effective education. This is not attention deficit disorder, emotional problems, or stupidity at work. This is the emotional or physical reaction a student of any age will experience when encountering one of these barriers to learning. Students fail to learn because no one has ever taught them how to learn — how to identify the barriers to learning and how to overcome them. First Barrier to Study Lack of mass (physical object) of what is being studied If one is attempting to understand the function and operation of a car or a computer or a solar system, the printed page and spoken word are no substitute for the object itself. It would be difficult to understand how to use a computer for the first time if you did not have the computer there in front of you. In fact, lacking the object associated with a 1

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Page 1: W4 Lesson Notes - Learning Barriers

LEARNING BARRIERS

Barriers to Learning

Overfilled class-sizes, economic disadvantages and "learning disorders" are common. Yet underlying all of this, there are three primary barriers that keep one from successfully studying a subject. Despite all that has been written on the subject of study, these three barriers were never isolated as having such importance in effective education.

This is not attention deficit disorder, emotional problems, or stupidity at work. This is the emotional or physical reaction a student of any age will experience when encountering one of these barriers to learning.

Students fail to learn because no one has ever taught them how to learn — how to identify the barriers to learning and how to overcome them.

First Barrier to Study

Lack of mass (physical object) of what is being studied

If one is attempting to understand the function and operation of a car or a computer or a solar system, the printed page and spoken word are no substitute for the object itself.

It would be difficult to understand how to use a computer for the first time if you did not have the computer there in front of you. In fact, lacking the object associated with a word can inhibit all understanding.

 

Have you seen your children or students like this when they study?

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Perhaps you have experienced this yourself when you've tried to learn something. A person studying a subject without the objects related to that subject will experience these and several other specific reactions.

Knowing how to identify and handle these reactions is vital to a student's ability to grasp and use a subject.

Second Barrier to Study

Too steep a study gradient

A gradient is a way of learning or doing something step by step. A gradient can be easy where each step can be done easily, or it can be hard where each step is difficult to do.

Too steep a gradient consists of not having mastered prior skills before going on to more complicated or detailed steps. A student who has skipped a gradient may feel a sort of confusion or a feeling of reeling (i.e. moving or swaying like you might fall).

                  

These are two reactions a person will have when they have missed a step or hit too steep a gradient in the subject they're studying.

This is often referred to as "missed basic skills" or "insufficient basic skills."

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Third Barrier to Study

A word not understood or wrongly understood

The third and most important barrier is the misunderstood word.

Have you ever been reading a book or a report, gotten to the end of the page and couldn't remember what you read? Therein lies the phenomena of the misunderstood word - all becomes distinctly blank beyond a word not understood or wrongly understood.

It also determines whether or not one can actually perform a learned skill, and to what degree of proficiency.

Have you ever observed someone look tired while studying? Like they were about to fall asleep?

All of these are the result of one or more words or symbols not understood or wrongly understood. The misunderstood word can stop a student in his tracks completely. Knowing how to determine when there is a misunderstood word or symbol, how to find it and how to handle it are critical to the success of any student.

The importance of learning

We live and work in a changing world. New laws are introduced that lead to the introduction of new policies. New ideas and approaches emerge. New problems arise and new solutions are sought. The world of work is therefore a constantly moving and evolving one. What this means, then, is that, if we are not constantly learning as we go about our day-to-day business, then each day we are getting further and further out of touch with the demands of the modern working world.

It can be dangerous to get into a rut whereby we continue to carry out our duties in much the same way as we have done in the past. Expectations change over time and, if

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we do not adapt to the new circumstances, then we will be steadily more out of tune with what is required of us. It is therefore important that we enter into a process of what is known as 'continuous professional development' (or CPD for short).

CPD does not simply mean constantly going on training courses; it is much broader than this. It involves being clear about what is required of us in our job to ensure high-quality practice. It also involves making sure that we have, as far as possible, the knowledge and skills required to carry out our duties appropriately and filling any gaps in our knowledge base and skills repertoire as these become identified. In addition to the knowledge and skills, there is also the question of values. We need to make sure that our work is consistent with the value base on which it is premised. For example, people working in a commercial setting will need to be in tune with the value of customer care and I would argue that anyone working with people should be in tune with the values of respect and dignity.

CPD is a useful antidote to becoming stuck in a rut of uncritical routines. It is based on what is often referred to as 'reflective practice'. This refers to forms of practice which draw actively on the knowledge and skills base on which our work is premised, taking the opportunities to link theory and practice and thus maximizing the number of opportunities for learning from experience. Indeed, reflective practice is based on the idea that experience is not the best teacher - it is what we do with experience that forms the best basis for learning.

Learning is not just important to ensure that we keep up-to-date with developments in our particular field. It is also an important source of motivation, stimulation and job satisfaction. For example, somebody who works in a particular place for three years and during that time continues to learn, grow and develop, is likely to experience far greater job satisfaction than someone who stays in the same post for three years, simply repeating the basic tasks in the same way without any growth or development over that time. Learning should therefore be seen as something positive and worthwhile in its own right, not just something that we have to do to meet other people's expectations of us.

Learning is therefore important because it helps us to keep in tune with trends and developments in our own field. It provides stimulation and job satisfaction and also helps to keep us on our toes to make sure that we do not become blasé and thus more likely to make mistakes. Learning should therefore not be seen as an additional burden on top of what is already perhaps a heavy workload, but rather something to be welcomed as a means of dealing as effectively as possible with that heavy workload.

Barriers to learning

If we were to attempt to draw up a comprehensive list of those things that stand in

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the way of learning, it would be a very long list indeed. Opportunities for learning are around us all of the time, but so too are potential or actual barriers to such learning. Rather than look in more general terms at the obstacles to learning, it is probably more profitable for each individual to think carefully about what may stand in his or her way. What are the things that are likely to knock you out of your stride when you are attempting to learn? What frustrates you in your attempts to get a better understanding of what is happening around you in the workplace? What prevents you from developing your skills and learning from your experience?

These are all important questions that are worthy of our attention. If you struggle to answer them on your own, you may find it helpful to get together with one or more colleagues to compare notes. Similarly, if you are a manager, you may wish to look more broadly at the issues instead of focusing simply on your own learning. You may want to consider the people for whom you are responsible - what might prevent them from learning?

One very strong barrier to learning which, unfortunately, is quite common in the workplace is a culture which does not value learning. This can manifest itself in a number of ways but, most commonly, it appears as an attitude of 'just get on with the job'. In some organisations (or sections of organisations, such as teams), there may be a culture of defensiveness which discourages people from looking at situations in a new light or from trying out new ideas. Unfortunately, this can lead to people feeling that it is unsafe to try anything new, and so learning opportunities become very restricted.

Where such a culture exists, this can be a major challenge to managers. Indeed, it can be a significant test of one's leadership abilities to be able to influence such a destructive culture and shape it in the direction of a more positive approach to learning.

A learning organisation is one which seeks to harness all the capabilities of its staff and to promote learning wherever possible. That is, a learning organisation is one which sees learning not simply something that happens in response to having made a mistake, but rather an everyday part of working life - constantly looking for opportunities to develop and improve.

Developing a learning organisation is not something that can be done overnight. However, it is an important challenge for those organisations, or parts of organisations, that currently have a culture which discourages learning. It involves looking closely at the organisation and considering which aspects of it are supportive of learning and which stand in the way of personal and professional development.

Of course, individuals too have a responsibility to identify what helps and what hinders when it comes to learning but this will be reinforced and supported if the

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wider organisation takes such matters seriously and does more than pay lip service to them

Developing learning

At an individual level, each member of staff in an organisation must take responsibility for his or her own learning. That is, if we are to maximise our learning, each individual must recognise that he or she has a part to play in making the most of learning opportunities that arise as part and parcel of one's working life and, where possible, adding to this range of possibilities by actively seeking out and creating additional opportunities for learning. Learning can be closely linked with job satisfaction, and so there is much to be gained for each individual by looking carefully at what steps they can take to ensure that their learning is maximized. At a team level, learning can be more than the sum of the individual responsibilities of each member of staff within the team. This is for two reasons. First, team members can support and encourage one another in learning - for example, by sharing ideas, exploring possibilities together and giving each other feedback about performance. Being exposed to other people's perspectives and points of view can in itself be an important basis for learning. Also, the person who has responsibility for leading the team can be a major factor in promoting learning if his or her leadership skills are sufficiently well tuned to encourage and support a culture of learning within the team. Indeed, it can be seen that team culture is an important factor, as a team which discourages learning through defensiveness can create major and unnecessary obstacles to learning.

Effective teamwork means that members of the team can learn from each other's experiences (mistakes and positive steps) without having to have the same experiences themselves. This can be a major benefit in terms of widening our learning.

At an organisational level, the question of culture is once again very important. An organisation which, through the unwritten rules of its culture, discourages or blocks learning is, in effect, creating major problems for itself. A culture of non-learning can not only block learning opportunities, but also lead to key staff leaving because they are frustrated at the lack of learning available to them and the lack of value attached to their knowledge and skills. In line with the well-known motto that an organisation that fails to plan, plans to fail, we can argue that an organisation that fails to learn, learns to fail.

An organisational culture which fails to recognise the value of learning will often manifest itself in a failure to invest in training development and related activities. A hallmark of such an organisation is a tendency to see training and development monies as costs rather than investments. Enlightened organisations recognise that it

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is a mistake not to invest in learning.

The question of organisational learning introduces once again the important concept of leadership. A culture of learning does not necessarily develop spontaneously; it is something that has to be nurtured, supported and developed over a period of time. This takes not only hard work and persistence, but also the vision that is associated with a good leader.

In sum, then, learning can be promoted by each individual taking responsibility for his or her own learning, supporting one another in learning within our team or work group setting and leaders within an organisation using their skills to influence the culture in order to promote a stronger emphasis on learning

10 Strategies for Overcoming Language Barriers

Language barriers are a common challenge in international business settings—and a two-way process. What native speakers often don't realize is that frequently it is not the other person's accent but their own way of speaking that creates the greatest barriers to effective communication. Use the strategies below to ensure you're not putting up

your own roadblocks to effective communication.

1. Speak slowly and clearly.Focus on clearly enunciating and slowing downyour speech. Even if you’re pressured for time,don’t rush through your communication. Doing sooften takes more time, as miscommunication andmisunderstanding can result and you’ll ultimatelyhave to invest additional time in clearing up theconfusion.2. Ask for clarification.If you are not 100% sure you’ve understood whatothers say, politely ask for clarification. Avoid assumingyou’ve understood what’s been said.

3. Frequently check for understanding.Check both that you’ve understood what’s beensaid and that others have fully understood you.Practice reflective listening to check your own understanding(e.g. 'So what I hear you saying is…')and use open-ended questions to check other people’sunderstanding. Ask, 'what's your understandingof this process?' instead of 'is that clear?'

4. Avoid idioms.

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Business language is often contextual, and thereforeculture specific. For example, in the US, baseballterms are used extensively: ‘Strike a deal’. As a good general rule, if thephrase requires knowledge of other information—be it a game or metaphor—recognize that this maymake your communication more difficult to be understood.

5. Be careful of jargon.Watch the use of TLAs (Three Letter Abbreviations)and other organizational language that may not beunderstood by others.

6. Define the basics of business.In international business contexts terms such as:‘success’, ‘meetings’, ‘punctuality’, etc.may mean different things to different people.Spend time early in your communication definingwhat these mean to you and others. Invest in buildinga shared vocabulary.

7. Be specific.Spell out your expectations and deadlines clearly.Instead of, ‘Please get back to me shortly,’ say‘Please email the completed report by 5 pm EasternStandard time on Wednesday, February 21.’

8. Choose your medium of communicationeffectively.Carefully choose your form of communication(phone or video conference, email, instant message,etc.). Be mindful not to ‘overuse’ email. Whileuseful, there are times when the medium is likely tobe ineffective. When a message is complex andcomplicated or there is tension or conflict thatneeds to be resolved, switch to another medium.

9. Provide information via multiplechannels.Follow phone calls with emails that summarizewhat’s been said. When possible, provide presentations,agendas, etc. in advance so those working intheir non-native language can get familiar with materials.

10. Be patient.Cross-cultural communication takes more time. If

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not at all times, certainly initially you cannot expectyour communication to occur with the same speedand ease as when you are communicating with someone from your own culture.

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