Week 10, Experiential Learning, Terms & Citations

Question 1

Experiential Learning

Answer 1

• Complex environments (VUCA) are the new normal
• Formal “classroom” experiences are not adequate to capture
  this complexity
• Recently, the focus of learning has shifted away from teacher
  -centric models to more learner-centric models of training
• Many view experiential learning as the best approach for
  complex skill acquisition
  ** Leadership
  ** Cross cultural competence (3C)

Question 2

Experiential Learning cont.

Answer 2

• A process through which knowledge is derived from and
  tested through interactions with the environment, relying
  heavily on reflection and introspection (Kolb, 1984).
• Experience provide an opportunity to learn, but learning
  isn’t guaranteed
• Learning from experience may be particularly difficult in
  complex or stressful on-the-job situations
• Emphasis is on learning while doing
• Relies heavily on reflection and introspection
• 70-20-10 model of skill development (Lindsey, Homes, & McCall,
  1987)
• Exact ratio of learning modalities is somewhat disputed (Sinar,
  Wellins, Ray, Abel, & Neal, 2014)
• Majority of complex skill acquisition is best facilitated through
  experiential learning (McCall, 2010).

Question 3

Advantages of EL

Answer 3

• More relevant and thus more motivating (Raelin, 2000)
• One-to-one correspondence between newly acquired skills
  and real-world challenges - eliminating the transfer of training
  problem (Kolb, 1984)
• Real-time feedback that enables reflection and knowledge
  integration (DeRue & Ashford, 2010)
• More variable than two-dimensional training materials -
  results in more integrated, generalizable, and permanent skill
  acquisition (Gupta & Govindarajan, 2002)

Question 4

Drawbacks of EL

Answer 4

• Unstructured and idiosyncratic in nature (Raelin, 2000).
• Bounded by finite cognitive and self-regulatory resources
  (Day 2010)
• Exposure to experiences is not the sole answer (Griffith et
  al., 2018)

Question 5

EL Process image

Answer 5

image

Question 6

Sense-making

Answer 6

• Infer meaning from an event and use that derived
  meaning to decide on a future course of action
• Answer the question, “What is going on here?” followed
  by labeling, organizing, and testing future scenarios to
  find an answer to the question, “What do I do next?”
• Not a passive process - byproduct of “the interplay of
  action and interpretation” (Weick et al., 2005)

Question 7

Simulation

Answer 7

• Re-enactment of perceptual, motor, and introspective
  states acquired during experience with the world
  (Barsalou, 2008)
• Mental trials of relevant work events
• Referred to as mental time travel (Suddendorf & Corbalis,
  2007)
• Prospection - ability to pre-experience the future by
  seeing it in our minds (Gilbert & Wilson, 2007)

Question 8

Guided Mindfulness
(GM)

Answer 8

• An experiential learning approach
• It focuses on the aspect of self-awareness + situational awareness (Griffith et
  al., 2018)
• Mindfulness: attention and awareness to present events that are both
  internal and external (Brown & Ryan, 2003)
  ** Has been linked to improved cultural competences, situational awareness, adaptability,
  reduced stress, and reduced emotional reactivity (Stanley, 2010).
• GM enhances learning through cybernetic self-regulatory mechanisms (Brown
  & Ryan, 2003)

Question 9

Benefits of GM

Answer 9

• Self Awareness > realistic assessments of one’s
  strengths and weaknesses and acting upon those
• Situational Awareness > Controlled and focused
  processing hence fewer surprises
• Social Awareness > sensitivity to subtle cues, enhanced
  presence and influenced and use of own skills

(Griffith et al., 2018)

Question 10

Benefits of GM

Answer 10

• Sensemaking > big-picture perspective, improved
  problem-solving skills and ability to frame situations and
  interactions
• Simulation > increased number of alternative solutions,
  cognitive flexibility, and stronger analytical capabilities of
  cause and effects

(Griffith et al., 2018)

Question 11

GM Learning Sequence Image

Answer 11

Image

Question 12

Prepare & Reflect Image

Answer 12

Image

Question 13

Benefits

Answer 13

• Systematic
• Strategic
• Scalable
• Speed
• Agile & Flexible

Question 14

Mentoring (image)

Answer 14

Image

Question 15

Mentoring

Answer 15

• Approximately 71% of Fortune 500 companies report having one or more formal mentoring programs
• Individuals receive more mentoring support early in their
  careers and when they have less overall experience
• Offering formal organizational mentoring programs as
  part of early training and socialization experiences helps
  ensure individuals receive maximum mentoring support
  early in their career
• Incorporate mentoring into developmental experiences
  for individuals identified as “high potential” within the
  organization
• High potential programs have tremendous impact
  ** Succession planning
• Actively seeking out mentoring relationships early in
  one’s career is recommended as an individual-level career
  development strategy
  ** Proactive protégés reap greater mentoring benefits

Question 16

Benefits of Mentoring

Answer 16

• Mentor
  ** Feelings of personal satisfaction and generativity
  ** More positive work attitudes
  ** Recognition by others for one’s mentoring efforts
• Protégé
  ** Higher salaries & faster promotion rates
  ** More positive attitudes toward one’s work and career
  ** Less stress
  ** More positive interpersonal relations
  ** Increased propensity to engage in helping behavior directed toward
  other
• Organizations
  ** Lower turnover and attraction of high-quality applicants

Question 17

Drawbacks of Mentoring

Answer 17

• Mismatched values, personalities, and work styles with their mentor
• Mentor manipulation
• Cynical attitudes about the organization

Question 18

Diversity

Answer 18

• Both women and racial minorities perceive greater
  barriers to finding a mentor than do men and Whites,
  respectively
• Women due to fear of sexual innuendos or the concern
  that men cannot understand the unique issues facing
  working women
• Racial minorities due to fear of being perceived as weak
  or concerns about difficulties relating to and trusting
  someone
• When a cross-gendered or cross-race relationship is
  forged, there is some evidence that it may be more
  superficial and less satisfying than mentoring
  relationships between individuals of the same gender or
  race
• Protégés with White male mentors earn significantly
  more than those mentored by individuals with other
  demographic profile
  ** Important to engage in multiple mentoring relationships to
  garner the full range of mentoring

Question 19

Diversity for Mentors

Answer 19

• Important to provide mentors with training on:

1. How to deal with sensitive topics of gender and race
   in the mentoring relationship
2. Multicultural competence and knowledge of gender
   issues in the workplace

Question 20

McCall (2004) Leadership development through
experience

Answer 20

• “The primary source of learning to lead, to the extent that
  leadership can be learned, is experience.”
• Role of training and other formal programs is modest
  compared to other kinds of experiences
• Experiences matter in the development of executive
  talent
  ** What the experiences potentially teach
  ** Process by which the lessons of experience are learned (or not)
  ** How experiences can be used more effectively in organizational
  settings to develop leadership talent
• Most experiences reported as developmental involve
  facing adversity, going into the new or unknown, or
  struggling with the unfamiliar (crucible events)
• Different individuals will benefit differentially from the
  same experience. Depends on:
  ** Prior experience
  ** What they already know/don’t know
• Do personal styles and/or the context promote learning?

Question 21

Experience Retention & Specificity

Answer 21

• People don’t automatically learn from experiences.
  Sometimes they:
  ** Learn only part of what they could learn
  ** Learn the wrong things
  ** Refuse to learn anything
• Need to give the right experiences to the people who will
  learn the most from them (open to learning or learning
  agile). THEN provide support that helps them learn what
  the experiences offer

Question 22

Need to identify:

Answer 22

• What experiences are developmental and where they are
• People with the ability to learn from those experiences
• Mechanisms for getting the right people into those
  experiences
• Specific desired learning outcomes
• Interventions that promote the developmental side of
  performance-driven assignments

Question 23

Experience design

Answer 23

• Experiences are often understood as what people think
  and feel moment-by-moment – a story
• Thinking first about what is the desired impact on people
  and focusing on the consequences

Question 24

Coaching

Answer 24

• Action-learning process directed at building knowledge,
  capabilities, and commitment to more effectively achieve
  professional and organizational goals (Bennett & Bush,
  2014)
• Foster a situated learning environment by creating
  trusting relationships, nurturing experimentation, and
  engaging in reflective learning from experience
• Coaching is useful when one experiences a disorienting
  dilemma (Mezirow, 1991).

Question 25

Coaching Practices

Answer 25

• Establishing the Coaching Partnership
• Facilitating Goal Setting
• Cultivating Awareness and Experimentation
• Self-Awareness and Self-Management

Campone (2015)

Question 26

Rau et al. Out of the
Classroom and into the Deep End

Answer 26

• Experiential learning as a continuous, dynamic, and holistic process that involves feeling, reflection, thinking, and action and results in turning experiences into learning
• Experiential learning cycle consists of four stages:
  1. Concrete experience
  2. Reflective observation
  3. Abstract conceptualization
  4. Active experimentation
• Ideally, learners go through all four stages

Question 27

Facilitation

Answer 27

• To facilitate learning, environments must be:
  1. Learner-centered
  2. Knowledge-centered
  3. Assessment-centered
  4. Community-centered

Question 28

Learner-Centered
Environments

Answer 28

• When the facilitators and learners appreciate the
  knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs learners bring to
  the table
• Pair those with different skill sets when forming new
  teams or assigning new project leads
• (e.g. Tessly – international student coordinator at U of F)

Question 29

Knowledge-Centered
Environments

Answer 29

• Prioritize the development of sound knowledge
  structures, knowing that such structures are essential in
  planning and strategic thinking
• ICCM enhances its member’s metacognition
  ** awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes
• Analogous to the “principles” approach to transfer

Question 30

Assessment-Centered
Environments

Answer 30

• Opportunities for learners to continuously receive
  feedback consistent with learning goals and subsequently
  revise their work following the receipt of feedback
• New “DAP” system will be an opportunity in ‘22

Question 31

Community-Centered
Environments

Answer 31

• Learning is enhanced by social norms that value the
  search for understanding that allow students to make
  mistakes in order to learn
• By consistently using new approaches and techniques,
  members learn from the failure as well as successes
• “We are either winning, or we are learning”

Question 32

Simulated Training
Environment (STE)

Answer 32

• Mixed Reality methods
• Combining live, virtual, and gaming training environments
• “Enhancing the efficiency and realism of live training,
  building terrain familiarity, providing mission repetition
  and simulating combat”
• Enhances effectiveness over MILES training (Army Centric)

Question 33

STE

Answer 33

• Built on non-proprietary platforms
• Open access software that can be utilized by partners
• Utilizes exiting gear and optics
  ** Heads up displays
  ** Links to drones
  ** Links to night visions and sensors
• Real stress and fatigue (also able to be monitored via wearables)
• “Training should elicit a similar need for attention,
  perception of workload, and reactions or emotions that
  occur when operating in a live environment”
• Psychological fidelity
• Challenging from a data modeling and bandwidth
  perspective
• Already work on extending this model to industrial
  settings

Question 34

The Debrief

Answer 34

• The potential power of experiential learning depends on the
  quality of the debrief (and facilitator)
• After Action Review (AAR)
• “a technique that turns a recent event into a learning opportunity by systematically reviewing a task or event of
  interest”
• The AAR leads to an overall d of 0.79 improvement in multiple
  training evaluation criteria – MA by Keiser & Arthur (2021)