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The
Trainer's Guide to Learning Theories and Their
Practical Application to Training Design Edited by Dr. Sue Stein and Shannan Farmer This valuable resource contains seventeen chapters, each written by experts and each addressing a different learning theory. This book was written for both the experienced trainer who has formally studied learning theory and the new trainer who may have come from a subject-matter-expert background and may not have been exposed to any learning theories. More information? Also included:
Review: |
4. RECENT STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS RELATED TO THE LEARNING ORIENTATION RESEARCH
Shrader,
V., Parent, S., & Breithaupt, D. (2004). Factors
for Success: Characteristics of Graduates in an Online
Program. Western Governors University.
Our institution has graduated over 120 students in a
Master of Arts in Learning and Technology degree program
since the program began matriculating students in the
fall of 1999. For most of these last few years, we have
been in a program building mode, setting up a framework
of learning resources, developing a learning community,
and smoothing out many of the wrinkles that new programs
invariably encounter. Now that a number of graduates have
completed the program we are able to conduct
institutional research and examine ways to make the whole
process more efficient and refined for students. The goal
is to help our students be successful online learners.
For this study we have posed the following research
questions:
1. What are significant predictors of successful online graduates? If we can define the characteristics that make people successful in our programs we can leverage that knowledge in helping our existing and future students.
2. What are factors that facilitate time to completion? If we can identify what works best to keep students progressing, they are more likely to graduate expeditiously.
3. What are some appropriate strategies for working with different group profiles, and how do we develop an approach of what to do for specific individuals? Much of this will be based on learning orientation theory (Martinez, 2004) and also our own experience working with students.
Mingming,
J., Shrader, V., Parent, S. An
In-Depth Look at Strategies for Mentoring Online Adult
Learners. Western Governors
University.
This paper presents results of a qualitative analysis of
mentor support for distant adult learners in a web-based
learning environment. It combines two sources of date:
emails mentors sent to their students and mentors'
reflections about mentoring students in a Master of Arts
of Learning and Technology program at Western Governors
University (WGU). By examining the data from these
sources, we gained insights into our mentoring practices
and hoped to find useful strategies for helping students
progress in a timely and successful manner through our
program. Western Governors University implements a model
that separates assessment from instruction, which means
that its faculty (the mentors) do not directly deliver
instruction. Students take online courses offered by
other universities, know as Education Providers. The
responsibilities of the WGU mentors are to provide
academic guidance, advising, and tutoring to WGU students
through their programs. Mentoring activities range from
designing a preferred path, preparing students for
assessments, reviewing portfolio projects, and serving as
Chair for students' Capstone Committees. Mentoring is
conducted via email, listserv, and telephone. The main
communication channel between students and mentors is
email. Understanding student learning orientations has
made mentoring more effective.
Molinari, D.
(2004). The Stress of Online
Learning: An Experiment. Washington State
University.
A feasibility study compared stress levels of 39 nursing
students learning how to author a database with ACCESS
either in isolation or in a group setting with an
instructor. The ability of continuous cardiopulmonary
data and three salivary cortisol samples to compare the
online learning stress indicates new technologies can
inform science. All students experienced stress overtime
and statistically significant differences between the two
groups were found. An allostatic learning model developed
that permits study of biophysical, environmental, and
instructional variables simultaneously. Also: http://stti.confex.com/stti/bcscience38/techprogram/paper_24746.htm
Molinari, D. L., Anderberg, E., Dupler, A., Lungstrom, N. (2005). Learning Orientation and Stress in an Online Experience. Howard, C., Boettchr, J. & Justice, L Encyclopedia of Online Learning and Technology. Hershey, Penn.: Idea Group Inc. Significant correlations were found between stress and learning orientations.
Molinari, D.L.,
Blad, P. & Martinez, M. (2005). Seniors Learning
Preferences, Healthy Self-care Practices and Computerized
Education Implications. The Online Journal of Rural
Nursing and Health Care, 5(1) - Spring 2005.
Health promotion uses an increasing amount of
Internet-based education. Understanding seniors' learning
orientation and self-care practices can inform
instructional designers how to use the Internet with this
population. A correlational descriptive study of
community-based seniors’ (n=87) learning orientation
and healthy self-care practices was conducted in a
western state. Implications for Internet-based health
promotion include associations between rural and urban
location, age, health condition, self-care practices,
informational preferences, and learning orientation
factors. Difference between urban and rural populations
and illness severity were identified. Respondents used
the Internet as much as they did television and friends
for health promotion materials. Transforming learners used the Internet while
conformers did not and yet conformer learners performed
the most self-care practices. Implications for designing
differentiated health promotion materials based upon
learning orientations are discussed.
Colin, M. (2005).
LOQ Case Study. Loyola Marymount
University.
At the beginning of
the Fall 2004 semester, students took the Learning Orientation Questionnaire
(LOQ), a 25-item
online survey that identifies an individual’s
orientation to learn. The students were a fairly typical
set of university students (most of them were performing or conforming – with one resistant student
who actually (with encouragement) turned out to be one of
the best students in the class). From previous
experience, the professor realized that she was really
teaching her course too much at the “intuitive”
level and that her students were not comprehending or
doing well on her big-picture, complex, project-level
assignments. We decided that she should cater a bit more
to the “performing” students and see if she
could encourage them to think a bit more out-of-the-box.
She wanted them not to be so anxious or concerned about
what would give them a good grade on the assignment. To
help, she gave them some examples of acceptable project
outcomes from previous semesters and made a rubric that
gave them an idea of what she was looking for and grading
in their projects.
The Teaching Strategies for Project-Based Courses developed by Mindy Colin, Instructional Technology Analyst at Loyola Marymount University uses learning orientation foundations.
Fuller, T.
(2005). Students Learning Demand:
An Overview. Northern Arizona University.
Students' visits at a learning center could be
considered observable and measurable part of students'
learning demand. Students are visiting the learning
centers for some form of learning assistance; therefore,
learning demand is directly connected with the zone of
proximal development. The date, time distributions and
patterns of students' visits at a learning center are
used to interpret the fine structure and dynamics of
students' learning demand. For educational purposes the
most important concept is what part of students' learning
demand requires assistance outside of the classroom and
what part could be addressed in the classroom. The
study's part one considers students' learning demand for
three courses of developmental mathematics. The study
shows that the demand for learning assistance decreases
in the learning process although the intellectual
challenge is increasing as students advance from
arithmetic to college algebra. This finding is in
agreement with Bodrova and Leong's research on the zone
of proximal development (1998). In the second part of
this study, the fine texture of students' learning
preferences is discussed as it acts upon and shapes the
learning demand. The problem of students' learning
preferences is researched with a Learning
Orientations Questionnaire (Copyright ©
1997-2005, Margaret Martinez). Knowing students learning
orientations is a one way to find the individuals' impact
on learning demand. This part of the study provides
information about some patterns in the learning demand
due to students' Learning Orientations.
Magoulas, G. & Sherry, Y. (2004). Individual Differences in Adaptive Hypermedia. Chen (Eds.) in Proceedings of the AH 2004 Workshop. The Workshop on Individual Differences in Adaptive Hypermedia is part of the 3rd International Conference on Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-based Systems that was held from August 23 to August 26, 2004, at The Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. The Workshop explores how to embrace the various dimensions of individual differences into adaptive hypermedia, and investigates the impacts of individual differences on the design, implementation and use of adaptive hypermedia systems. Individuals differ in traits such as skills, aptitudes and preferences for processing.
Gordon, D. &
Bull, G. (2004). The Nexus Explored: A
Generalised Model of Learning Styles. Dublin Institute of
Technology.
The controversy over learning style (the unique
way of thinking and reasoning that characterises an
individual learner) as to whether or not it is a stable
cognitive factor is one which has raged on for a number
of years, and has been reinvigorated recently with the
advent of easy-to-use courseware development tools and
the consequent development of virtual learning
environments. This paper surveys a number of different
learning styles models and it concludes there is a large
degree of commonality between the different theories,
which allows us to distil key or core learning style
characteristics which point the way to a number of styles
of teaching which should be addressed in every learning
environment. A model of this core set of dimensions is
presented which unifies the various learner styles
presented by others.
Prakash Pillai R. (2004). A Study on Learning Orientation and HRD Climate In Banks. University of Kerala. Training as a competency building measure has a prominent role in the contemporary era. Today’s organizations are facing many challenges such as greater competition in terms of product and cost, innovation, export, customer satisfaction, quality of service as well as attracting and retaining competent personnel. In order to survive in these conditions the organizations are required to be more productive, quality conscious, customer oriented and constantly updating in skills of its employees (Biswas 1999:313-14). Thus organizations are forced to invest huge amount on account of training and development. But, then as some studies indicate, there are certain dysfunctional perceptions about the training and learning. Training days are usually paid holidays, nomination to training programme is a punishment, and to be nominated to training one must be idle or influential (Krishna et al, 1993). Rao’s version was that training has become more of a perk. All these point to the unsystematic approach in the execution of training programmes and question the climate of learning and development in the organization. The other side that merits further exploration are the initiative and orientation of the employees take to learn. Are they really interested in learning? If so what kind of learning orientation they do have?. These are some questions to be dealt with. The banking sector in Kerala is currently facing many challenges in the pretext of greater competition and “right sizing”. In this context the present study attempts to deal with the learning orientation of employees and HRD climate prevailing in banks.
The major objectives of
the study include:
- study the nature of human resource development climate
prevailing in banks
- analyse the type of learning orientation of employees
therein.
- identify the significant factors influencing the
learning orientation.
- assess the influence of HRD climate on learning
orientation.
Research questions: 1. A
good HRD climate stimulates the learning orientation of
employees.
2. Managers in Banks are of predominantly performing
learners whereas the non-managers belong to the category
of conforming learners.