3 Employee Training and Development

Question 1

What is training?

Answer 1

The systematic acquisition of attitudes, concepts, knowledge, roles or skills that result in improved performance at work

Helps improve current job

Question 2

What is development?

Answer 2

The set of activities that workers undergo to broaden and redefine their KSAs

Looks beyond current job requirements

Question 3

What is social learning theory?

Answer 3

Humans can learn indirectly by observing others

Question 4

What are the 5 stages of the training process?

Answer 4

i. Needs assessment
ii. Set Objectives
iii. Training Design
iv. Training implementation
v. Training evaluation

Question 5

When is training needed?

Answer 5

• Initial training after selection
• Conversion training - working the same job but something about that job changes e.g. new technology system
• Organisation change - a lot of jobs centralised
• Maintenance of skills - some skills that we don’t employe very often and need to be refreshed on them so we know what to do in that situation
• Attitude change - increasingly diverse work setting and working well with others e.g. sexual harassment occurring and making sure it doesn’t happen

Question 6

What are the 5 stages of the training process?

Answer 6

i. Needs assessment
ii. Set Objectives
iii. Training Design
iv. Training implementation
v. Training evaluation

Question 7

What is a needs assessment?

Answer 7

A set of activities designed to collect data about what the organisation needs out of the training program

Asks what the training needs to accomplish in terms of:

• The organisation’s goals
• The specific tasks
• The people involved

Question 8

What does it mean in terms of organisation’s goals?

Answer 8

Short or long term goals of the organization - what does the organization ultimately want? What current training do they currently have? What resources do they have for achieving these goals? What sort of resources do we have? Funding etc

Question 9

What does it mean in terms of specific tasks?

Answer 9

Is training something people do regularly? Or are they dubious about it? Make sure you have the support of the entire organization - if little support the training won’t be taken seriously and will less likely be transferable

• What tasks need to be trained? What performance standards need to be set?
• Specific tasks that need to be trained and the level standards that need to be achieved

Question 10

What does it mean in terms of the people involved?

Answer 10

What current skills they currently have and what the disconnect is from what they know to what they need to know

• Weaknesses: knowing what they are meant to do but no motivation to do it and the training including reasons to be motivated to do it
• Managing expectations

Question 11

What are the set objectives?

Answer 11

(i. e. what the trainee should be able to do or know what the end of the training) should be derived from needs assessment
- Learning objectives e.g. starting the class with learning objectives to reflect back to know what we are able to know at the end

Question 12

What factors should be taken into consideration when deciding on training design?

Answer 12

(1) Learning Objectives
(2) Principles of learning - conceptual organizers and meaningful encoding, modelling, reinforcement, feedback, cognitive load, whole vs part learning, massed vs distributed practice, active practice, overlearning, fidelity and testing effects
(3) Trainer qualifications
(4) Individual Differences

Question 13

Instructor demonstrates overall pattern of behaviours

Answer 13

Modelling

Question 14

Useful load that can be added when the learning task itself has a low intrinsic load

Answer 14

Germane Load

Question 15

The extent to which the task trained is similar to the task required on the job

Answer 15

Fidelity

Question 16

What do some objectives include?

Answer 16

Information acquisition and skills development

Question 17

What are the principles of learning?

Answer 17

Psychological theory and research can provide key principles for instructional design
- conceptual organizers and meaningful encoding, modelling, reinforcement, feedback, cognitive load, whole vs part learning, massed vs distributed practice, active practice, overlearning, fidelity and testing effects

Question 18

What are conceptual organizers and meaningful encoding

Answer 18

Can help orient the trainee to the material by providing a framework for learning - gives you a structure to help integrate the knowledge and tie to the knowledge you already have. E.g. statements of purpose, outlines of key points, hierarchical diagrams

Question 19

What is modelling?

Answer 19

The instructor demonstrates an overall pattern of behaviours and sometimes accompanies this with a verbal elaboration -> based on social learning theory

Question 20

What is reinforcement?

Answer 20

The greater the reinforcement (reward) that follows a behaviour, the more easily and rapidly that behaviour will be learned. Most performance-enhancing reward: money by at least 23%

Question 21

What is the feedback?

Answer 21

Knowledge of the results of one’s actions. Most effective when it is accurate, timely and constructive

Question 22

What is cognitive load?

Answer 22

Try to optimize cognitive load. There are two types: Intrinsic load -> imposed by the task to be learned, can’t be trained.

Extraneous load: imposed by the instructional design itself, dealing with a patient with anxiety so you get them to engage in role-playing so it can lead to cognitive overload.

Germane Load: useful load that can be added when the learning task itself has low intrinsic load e.g. learning the names of the parts of the machine so make it less boring by stating what the part actually does

Question 23

What is whole versus part learning?

Answer 23

Whole learning: the entire task is practised at once e.g. learning to ride a bike

Part learning: subtasks are practised separately and later combined - better when tasks are too complicated to be taught at once and can be broken into individual parts

Question 24

What is massed versus distributed practise?

Answer 24

Massed practise: individuals practice a task continuously without rest - slightly beneficial when doing exam but more of a dump and forgotten easily

Distributed practice: provides individuals with rest intervals between practice sessions, which are spaced over a longer period of time

Question 25

What is an active practice?

Answer 25

Involved actively participating in a training or work task rather than passively observing someone else performing the task

Question 26

What is overlearning?

Answer 26

Present trainees with several extra learning opportunities even after they have demonstrated mastery of a task - practising helps you remember it more

Question 27

What is fidelity?

Answer 27

The extent to which the task trained is similar to the task required on the job (how realistic is the training so making the training environment similar as possible so easily to mimic in real situations)

Question 28

What is the testing effect?

Answer 28

Long-term memory is often increased when some of the learning periods are devoted to retrieving the-to-be-remembered information

Question 29

What are some qualifications trainers should have?

Answer 29

Have knowledge of the organization, be knowledgeable about content, be motivated to train and understand principles of learning

Question 30

What should the individual differences be accommodating?

Answer 30

Literacy, motivation to learn and preferred learning style

Question 31

What are training implementations?

Answer 31

The implementation of training: may use a variety of different modes

Question 32

What are some on-site training implementations?

Answer 32

On-the-job training, job rotation, apprenticeship, vestibule training and online (videos, learning, OLE etc)

Question 33

What are some off-site training implementations?

Answer 33

Lectures/seminars, audio-visual, conferences, programmed/computer-assisted instruction and simulation/role-playing

Question 34

Explain Kirkpatrick’s (1976) Evaluation of Training

Answer 34

• Reactions: did they like the training?
• Learning: did they learn anything from the training?
• Behaviour: do trainees behave any differently back on the job?
• Results: did the training have the desired outcome?

Question 35

What is the training transfer?

Answer 35

The degree to which trainees apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes gained in training to their jobs

Question 36

What are three ways transfer can happen?

Answer 36

Initiation: does the person start using the training material on the job?

Maintenance: does the person keep using the training material on the job?

Generalization: can the person adapt when they learned as the job changes around? -> can they apply outside and beyond their job

Question 37

What are the positives and negatives of pre-post design with no comparison group?

Answer 37

Positive: maximises sample size; Avoids ethical/administrative problems of withholding or delaying training

Negative: no way of determining whether factors are due to training or some other factor; testing effects

Problem: no way of determining whether the factors were due to the training or some other factors like news that changed attitudes or questions were completed beforehand

Question 38

What are the positives and negatives of pre-post design with a comparison group?

Answer 38

Positive: can determine whether effects are due to training or some other factor; testing less of a confound

Negative: ethical constraints of delaying or withholding training

Question 39

What are some of the positives and negatives of post-test-only design with a comparison group?

Answer 39

Positive: useful when pre-testing is suspected of interacting with training

Negative: experimental groups and control groups may not be the same before manipulation

Question 40

What are some of the pre-post design with non-equivalent controls group?

Answer 40

Positive: often not practical for random allocation within organisations; when in-tact groups are isolated from each other there is less chance for control and experimental groups to mix and communicate

Negative: confounds from unknown differences between groups, give the training to one office and not the other and see how they ago, may be confounded to unknown differences between the groups

Question 41

What are the future directories of training programs?

Answer 41

Increased technology, diversity of the workplace, continuous learning and adaptation and flexibility

Question 42

In order to create a successful training program you first need to:

Answer 42

Conduct a needs assessment

Question 43

While the need for training is recognized, the value…

Answer 43

of applying psychological principles to training is less well recognized

Question 44

Training programs should be…

Answer 44

designed, implemented, and evaluated using our knowledge of psychological research and theory

Question 45

What are the four types of training evaluation in terms of design?

Answer 45

Pre-Post Design with no comparison
-max sample, avoids ethics, but don’t know if due to training

Pre-Post Design with comparison
- determine changes due to training, but ethics

Post-Test-Only Design with comparison
- good if pre-test suspect interacting with training, but they may not be the same before

Pre-Post design with non-equivalent controls
- less chance mingling between groups, but confounds from unknown differences

Question 46

What does the training evaluation need to assess?

Answer 46

Overall “training effectiveness” -> did the training work?