Learning Characteristics

To continue from Part I: The Learning Process, I would like to discuss the characteristics of learning; however, it may be important to briefly discuss why students may expect a pedagogical learning experience when it may be detrimental to their learning.

The most common form of instruction is one of a pedagogical form. Pedagogy is considered a didactic method, used in the transmittal of knowledge and skills to the learner. Many adult aged students (and some teenaged) find themselves resistant to this common form of teaching as it concentrates on fact-laden lectures, rote memorization, assigned readings, quizzes, drills, and examinations (Knowles, 1980, p. 40). Most everyone has received their primary, secondary, and post-secondary education using these methods. Coaches (Instructors) have also been grounded in this type of education model and naturally lean toward using these methods because the techniques are comfortable, resultant from years of learning in that manner. Pedagogy is a very efficient way to teach, but not the best way to learn. The method is accepted unthinkingly unless we are exposed to better ways and can see the benefit beyond pedagogy.

As I was recently reading an assigned book for one of my personal courses, I had to laugh at what the author stated. At the beginning of each very difficult to read chapter, it stated “After reading this chapter, you will be able to… [insert 10 crazy unique things to never remember]”. As if touching and reading the words in this book were so magical it would automatically make me an expert on the topic. The author made a few assumptions about my grasp of his material, which is a great example of how teachers, and in our case coaches, using a pedagogical method can sometimes miss our connection with students.

Pedagogy is normal in education and is expected as common knowledge to coaches and students. But what if there was a better method, what could we do? This is where the andragogical practice model as distinguished by Knowles et al. (2015) can enhance the learning portion of the teacher-learner transaction for better success. Therefore, a discussion about a few characteristics of learning can be helpful.

Purposeful Learning (The Personal Payoff)

Every student and coach for that matter, sees the world through their own eyes – having their own and possibly dissimilar viewpoint. Being unique individuals, our past experiences can affect how we translate information, our readiness to learn, and how we manage everything involved with the learning-transaction. From my previous assigned book example: someone else, given the same task, having experience in that field of practice, and based on a solid knowledge of the topics, may be very competent in retaining the information as noted by the author as stated at the beginning of the chapter. That student may well realize the value and application of each and every one of the concepts covered by the author. I on the other hand, despite my desire to learn, have the simple goal of complying with my teacher’s assignment so that I can complete the course and move on with topics that have more interest to me.

Our responses to the assignment differ because we have different viewpoints and connections to the learning material in that situation. Some purposes and goals are shared by both of us, like graduating, but other purposes and goals are not. Students will always learn from activity that tends to further their purpose but how they retain that knowledge is something else. Individual needs and attitudinal behaviors may determine what each individual retains, probably even more than the efforts of a coach trying to assist them with learning. Students learn based on their purpose – sometimes despite the efforts of a coach. In the process, a learner’s purpose is the most significant and important consideration. The effective coach seeks ways to understand the student’s purpose for being in a course and ultimately guide them in the achievement of their goals.

Learning Through Experience (The Learner’s Experience)

The process of learning is an individual one. A coach cannot tell a student to learn or dictate what they will retain and information cannot be uploaded to the brain with a USB drive or downloaded from the “cloud”. Students can only learn from their individual experiences. Learning and knowledge resultant of individual experiences. When more than one person views an event, there will be more than one reaction and remembrance of it. To go deeper into the individual psyche, any learning from the event was directly related to the needs satisfied by the individual only. Previous experiences dictate whether the information was relevant to a person and who decides to remember or ignore specifics or the whole event completely.

Some learning involves the entirety of a person’s being and other learning may involve only seeing and memory. Because of the intricacy of individual needs, a coach must be prepared to engage a student with meaningful information using every appropriate sense possible based on the students needs. Real experiences challenge learners by engaging thoughts, emotions, feelings, memories, previous experiences, and a physicality that ensures enough learning to make an impact. Effective learning requires more than committing something to memory, in motorcycle and all other forms of education – a better experience requires engagement of all faculties available. Students learn best by doing, commonly known as experiential learning, with appropriate preparation, under the watchful eye of a knowledgeable and experienced coach.

Learning is Multifaceted (A Learner’s Orientation)

Even when students expect to be lectured in a pedagogical manner, coaches have an opportunity to move toward a “seek-and-find”, facilitated approach of self-directed learning. By challenging students with learner-centered question and group facilitation, learning becomes more than just a call and response memory centered activity. A coach sets the environment so that development happens not only during the course, but every day after. Students will form an inquiring mind (Houle, 1961) to continue the learning process and that is the spark a good coach can provide. These methods change the context of learning to problem centered in hopes the students will continue a similar process while riding using the experience and judgement to consider safety. It is common for academia to differentiate students into selective learning types based on references like: verbal, conceptual, perceptual, motor, problem solving, emotional, kinesthetic, and visual and then focus only on one aspect of learning. The reality is that these divisional methods can be artificial because learning is certainly a combination of many of these types. It is multifaceted.

An example would be discussing technics and approaches for riding through a curve. Students discussing the topic within a group, would invoke verbal, conceptual, and problem solving skills and then apply those discussions during a practical exercise to further their understanding using motor, kinesthetic and visual forms. The multitudinous of the learning types, allows a more thorough achievement of objectives for everyone. Because each student attends to the task with their own perspective and ideas, the many integrated ways a topic is approached helps to ensure behavioral changes validating learning.

Beyond the curriculum focused topics students may be learning other lessons as well. Their attitude towards motorcycling can be affected in good or bad ways- dependent on how the course is experienced. With a skilled and professional coach, they should be gaining some self-reliance for use in the quest for knowledge. Some students may even determine that motorcycling is not something they wish to continue based on their personal experience. This could be considered “incidental learning”, but the value of reaching that conclusion would be immeasurable and meaningful to the student. The combination of factors may result in several types of unexpected learning and should always be counted as valuable.

Learning is an Active Process

Most students do not soak up information like water to a sponge, and coaches cannot expect students to remember any comment or lecture just because the coach “taught” it. The coach also cannot assume that a verbal comment or mark on a test will equate to student good judgement while riding or in the transfer of information to others. Student learning requires experience and conclusion, reaction and response, supported and reinforced as much as necessary. These behaviors happen on the inside, can be displayed outside, and has some emotional and intellectual components parceled within the package. In the process of changing behavior, there is a need for action and engagement by the student, a coach monitors and assists when necessary as a help agent by being grounded in the many characteristics of learning.

Until next time, Ride and Coach Safe!

References:

Houle, C. O. (1961). The inquiring mind. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Knowles, M. S. (1980) The modern practice of adult education: from pedagogy to andragogy. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Cambridge.

Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., III, & Swanson, R. A. (2015) The adult learner (8th ed.). New York: Routledge.

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy. Boston, MA: Houghten-Mifflin.