Nuts and Bolts: “Let The Learners Hold The Spoon”

June 7, 2011

Acommon litany in learning and development is the claim that learnerswant tobe spoon-fed, when, in fact, it is often the trainers andinstructional designers who won’t let them hold the spoon. Intraining — both traditional and online — I see lots of missedopportunities to let learners learn.

Thisseems to come partly from PowerPoint or other tool “defaultthinking”: Insert image, insert text, and keep the autobullets.And it happens even without PowerPoint: we list “guidelines”for learners, or we outline “key ideas” for them.

Often,though, the learners could do this very well on their own — if onlywe would let them. It may be a matter of helping them to resurfaceold knowledge; it could be nudging them to extend existing knowledge;it might be providing platforms for them to learn from one another.In any case, we can help them arrive at answers that will be moreuseful and memorable than the ones we just deliver unto them.

Let go of the spoon!

Figure1 is an example that crossed my path recently. It’s from a course forSocial Workers on maximizing their safety during visits to client’shomes.

Home Visit Safety: Don't *Wear heels *Talk on cell phone *Carry purse/bag (picture of a woman is shown carrying a purse and talking on a mobile phone, repeated in all the following images))

Figure 1. Spoon-feeding something the learner probably already knows

Inthis first example the learner gets facts. She or he doesn’t have tothink, and probably won’t, and probably won’t remember either (if heor she pays attention at all). The information is common sense butlikely floating somewhere below the learner’s everyday awareness.Here are three quick ways of presenting this screen differently,either in a standalone eLearning program or as a discussion-starterin a virtual classroom session.

Home Visit Safety: This woman's safety is compromised in 3 ways. Can you spot them?

Figure 2. An alternative to spoon-feeding. What’s the weakness of this alternative?

Home Visit Safety: What are 3 things this woman could do to make herself safer

Figure 3. Another alternative to spoon-feeding. Do you see the weakness in this alternative?

Notethat in figures 2 and 3 the screens telegraph that there are “3things.” You might promote further thinking by just asking thelearner to engage with the photo.

Home Visit Safety: Click on possible trouble spots:

Figure 4. This approach gets beyond spoon-feeding and actually engages the learner.

Goback now and look at some of your own past work. Are there placeswhere you could do more than just present content or list facts orrules?

Ingeneral, posing a question will prompt more thinking — and be morememorable — than presenting a list of facts or “right” answers.As Stolovitch (see reference below) says: “Telling ain’tteaching.” In designing eLearning it is awfully easy to fall intothe “content loading” trap, assuming that reading slides meanslearners will magically absorb new learning. Maybe it isn’t thatlearners want to be spoon-fed. Maybe it’s that we won’t let themhold the spoon.