Are we formal logical reasoners? The accumulating evidences offers a resounding "no". Yet, much of our learning design is still predicated on that assumption. The beliefs that we can present information and yield behavior change, that a knowledge test will lead to improved behavior, and that once someone's passed a test means we're done all rest on this assumption. Instead, we've found out a lot about how our thinking doesn't work like that. Despite our powerful cognitive architecture (that allows you to read this, for instance), we're prone to errors in thinking. There's a long laundry list of mental mistakes. And while one approach is to build in performance support, putting information in the world, there are times when information has to be in the head. When it does, we need to use learning approaches aligned with what we know. So what does learning science tell us we should do?

In this session we'll unpack the mental flaws we're prone to, develop a more appropriate picture of how we perform, and use learning science to guide us in creating a more appropriate learning design approach. We'll use some experiments to bring home just how our architecture, powerful as it is, leads us astray. Then we'll explore a more accurate portrayal of how we think, based in the latest cognitive science results, which explains the flaws and helps us understand where and how we go wrong. From there, we'll use that picture to drive a learning design approach that achieves learning that will stick. Finally, we'll visit the most important changes to learning design that will address these issues in practical ways. Knowing that there are practical constraints on your process, we'll look at the minimal changes that can have maximal impact. We need to improve our learning design if we want our efforts to achieve the outcomes our organizations need. You'll leave with a set of practical steps to do just that: improve our processes with the least amount of interference. Come make your learning evidence-informed and consequently more effective.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why our thinking, as powerful as it is, isn't logical
• What errors our architecture leads us to
• What works for created sustainable learning
• What are the most important changes to make

Technology discussed in this session:

Authoring tools, social media