More Basic Training Definitions - To Review

Question 1

Learning- highlight the changes in the learner and are a direct result of how the learner attends to, interprets, and responds to the learning experience.
1. Some type of change prior to and then after an experience/set of experiences.
Changes knowledge, skills, capabilities, affect (attitudes/values).

2. Change in knowledge/skill/affect may be relatively permanent to be called learning. Not fleeting or long lasting!
3. Inferred Process- infer learning is taking place when we observe/measure changes in the learning according to some expectation.

Answer 1

COGNITIVE DIMENSIONS

1. Factual
2. Conceptual
3. Procedural
4. Metacognitive

Question 2

Skills- learned, goal-directed activity, entailing a wide range of human behaviors that involve an organized sequence of activities to employ.

1. Cognitive (what to do)
2. Perceptual (attuned/obtaining info.)
3. Motor (action/movement)- basic/more complex

Stages of Skill Acquisition– hierarchical integration of steps through practice

1. Initial Phase- understand task steps/task components (erratic)
2. Integration Phase- comprehend and perform tasks (somewhat fluid)
3. Automation Phase- perform tasks with speed, efficiency, and effectiveness (fluid)

Answer 2

Affect- individual’s attitudes, values, feelings, emotions, and motivational tendencies
Influence, inspire, engage, interest, captivate, fascinate, and lead to concern, distress, and discomfort.

Attitude- learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable/unfavorable manner with response to a given issue or situation.
- Internalization into philosophy of one’s life (ingrained) - Charctericization

Question 3

Behavioral Modeling- skills must first be developed through observation/demonstration/practice/reinforcement.
Once subsequent behavior problems are found to be effective by the learner in addressing problems in their job, the learner will come to recognize the value of these new/effective behaviors. – Internalize attitudes/values congruent with new behavioral patterns.

Question 4

Comprehensive Needs Analysis

Answer 4

1. Organization-wide analysis
2. Analysis of work performance/ work analysis- KSAO’s
3. Analysis of the persons performing work
   - How well connected the linkages are
   - Input from org. leaders, learning specialists, job incumbents
   - Depends on support of these efforts/allocation of resources needed to conduct a systematic assessment
4. Realistic expectations
5. Level of participation required
6. Time span of completion of analyses
7. Cost

Question 5

Organizational Analysis

Answer 5

System-wide examination of the organization relevant to the learning and development.

1. Strategic Learning Goals—future/current
   Development of ore competency models
   Competencies—represent general capabilities that form the basis of talent management within an organization (critical thinking/decision making)

Core Competencies= “patterns of behavior”, send a signal to the employees about what behavioral patterns are valued by organizational leaders.

• Top-down  Meet vision of the organization; strategic goals of an organization
• Vertical Regulation- specific industries (FDA/ICC)
• Horizontal Regulation—specific issues with organizations with employee wellbeing and society related issues (across industries)

2. Resources/Support—People, time, and money; resource analysis when planning to purchase and implement new technology

Learning Climate (Organizations) – Positive development climate exists – Reward/reinforcement systems in organizational value investments in learning and development. –Existing disincentives/obstacles to learning and development can also be identified – Lack of support in the workplace for using knowledge/skills gained in training (Espouse)

Question 6

Work Analysis

Answer 6

Identification of specific tasks completed by employees in the jobs of interest

• Underlying knowledge/skills required to complete the tasks of analysis of how well a person is doing in performing job tasks (Person Analysis)
  – Broader capabilities/relevant
  Task Analysis—uses language of people performing the job one on one interviews/focus groups with incumbents and supervisors, what a “typical day” is like. Beginning-end; regular basis.

Task Clusters—helps organize the individual task statements into similar categories of job duties.
1. Label/develop definitions of task clusters that describe broader functions than individual tasks.
2. Have a group of SMEs (incumbents/supervisors or HR sort each task into a cluster)
3. Est. a role that defines the level of agreement needed to declare a task is successfully clustered.
4. Plan to rework that task cluster definitions.
Knowledge and Skills—Knowledge= organized body of information, usually factual or procedural.

-Skills = refers to the capability to perform job operations with some degree of ease/precision.
Identify each task cluster and tasks under each cluster, what a person needs to know or be able to do (skill wise) to complete tasks/ task cluster. “Determines what to consider”
Reasonable cross sample of those individuals with relevant information, importance/consequences of error to be identified.
Capabilities and Work Team Analysis – O*NET

“Determines who”  Person Analysis—needs to be given learning opportunities to address knowledge/skill gaps that further the learning goals identified through strategic planning process.

Requires a gap analysis—current learning state of a person in question/job behaviors and performance that are desired.
Identified== how to best reduce the gap. Inadequate knowledge/skills, lack of incentives to perform at a higher level, lack of support in workplace/inadequate job design or lack of motivation.
3 Questions:
1. What do highly effective people do on the job to provide an indicator or desired performance levels?
2. What is the current level of effectiveness for people in question for targeted jobs?
3. To what extent can identified gaps be reduced or eliminated through a learning intervention?
Current/future needs requirement
Cognitive Analysis of experts – use knowledge/skills/capabilities (effective)—what they do to perform job tasks, address key challenges vs. non-effective incumbents
Behavioral Analysis—what successful ppl do on the job

Critical Incident Technique – qualitative methodology; current state assessed by supervisory performance appraisal

Question 7

Chapter 4= Designing a Learning Plan
- Identifying Learning needs
- Prioritize learning needs (takes precedent)
- Decisions can be made as to which type of learning approach or combo of approaches (training, guided learning, job experiences, self-directed learning) best addresses the need.
Ex. Quality engineers may need skill learning updating through formal training programs.
New supervisors may need to be given guided learning opportunities.
Affected by new technology- self-directed learning by finding certification program to enhance range of skills.

Includes: 1. Development of learning objectives of what is to be gained in terms of knowledge/skills/attitudes.
2. Creation of plan of instruction (details sequence) of what learning content will be delivered.
3. Incorporation of learning characteristics/ pre-learning interventions to maximize the chances that learning will occur.
Learning Objectives:
Outcomes – Intellectual skills (procedural- concepts, rules, procedures)
- Cognitive strategies – understanding how and when info is used
- Verbal information (declarative knowledge)
- Motor skills
- Attitudes
Before jumping into the design of the learning intervention, the initial question is what the learner should know more of, have skills in, or have stronger attitudes about as a function of the learning approach.
Gaps that need to be filled or what the org. wants to see in terms of performance on the job that helps the organization move towards its strategic goals.
 Informs learning designer on what learning objectives needs to be set to address the problem.
 Tie directly to the evaluation to determine if learning has occurred to the level indicated by the objectives
 Tests or observations
Comprehensive Set of Objectives Provides a roadmap for planning; the learning intervention that targets operationalizing in specific terms of what is to be learned.

Question 8

Creating Learning Objectives:
1. Capability or desired behavior: demonstrates/shows evidence of learning. Begins with verb; describes observable action.
2. Specify the conditions under which the behavior is to be performed/ demonstrated once the learning phase is completed and testing assessment begins. Condition.
3. State the criterion or standard of acceptable performance on the learned task. Standard.
- How well learner must be in order to perform a task
- Min standards, time to perform, quality/quantity of work or service produced ex. Accurately delivery in 10 ft of target
Closed Skills = precise time to finish task; prescribed process (changing a light bulb)
Open Skills = freedom to perform not a single correct/best act/ learn principles/guidelines- not concrete or discrete
Sequencing Objectives – when multiple objectives exist (such as in workshops), prereq. Skills and knowledge acquired prior to training; may not reflect some sequence as on the job tasks
Done By:
1. Logical Order (Easy  Difficult)
2. Problem Centered Order- focus on general problem dev. Various ways to solve the problem
3. Job Performance Order- can mirror/reflect the sequence in which job or task is actually performed
4. Psychological Order- moving from abstract ot more concrete examples and hands on experience
Plan of Instruction—organized approach, needs assessment -> development of objectives, creation of plan of instruction (POI) includes sequence of content/detailed plan for conveying the content, identify KSAOs and how to build specific instructional activities, time needed
Components of a Plan—Quality of a Learning Plan (checklist) – assessed and broken down into 5 steps

Question 9

Feedback information/enhance learning

1. Timing of Feedback
2. Frequency of feedback
3. Specificity of feedback
4. Sign of Feedback (+/-)
5. Source of Feedback (self, peer, coach/instructor, supervisor)

Cognitive/motor tasks decay with nonuse/nonpractice over time since the original learning opportunity

Decay becomes STEEPER the longer interval of nonuse.

Question 10

Overlearning Learners are presented with a number of extra practices of the knowledge or skills during the learning opportunity even after they have initially demonstrated the required level of master on the task.

Positive Benefits of Overlearning

• Those who are overtrained perform significantly better than control group
• More repetition/practice  Stronger retention results
• Linked to automaticity Highest order level of skill development, little attentional capacity to be performed (routinized) and resources
• Easy to accomplish and can switch to other tasks, quick/efficient performance