Book review
How Do People Learn?
Research Report, Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development (CIPD)
Authors: Dr Jake Reynolds, Dr Lynne Cary, Prof. Robin Mason
Review by Donald Clark - Epic
This was one of the first things Martyn Sloman
commissioned when he joined the CIPD - and more power to his
elbow.
The CIPD has 40,000 training professionals,
yet their contact with research in the psychology of learning
is rare. In my 20 years in the profession I can count on one
hand the serious in-depth discussions I've had on learning
theory. This report is a welcome move away from faddish and
non-empirical training theory, to an attempt to summarise
the huge amount of research that has been completed on learning.
In most professions you learn the basic theory
before you move on to advanced practice. Yet in whole areas
of education and training, people are thrown into the learning
game with little or no training themselves in learning theory.
In the US the American Society of Training Directors
(ASTD) and the American Psychological Association (ASA) have
long provided good source material and books on learning theory.
The ASTD short papers on topics such as 'evaluation' are superb.
In the UK we tend to get the '100 practical tips' type texts.
This report rectifies this situation, aiming
squarely at training professionals. I really can't praise
it enough. It's well written, free from academic pretension
and, at 70 pages, concise (always a virtue in learning).
It is well structured, moving from background
and context, through the theory of learning to learning in
practice, e-learning and some closing perspectives.
If I have any disagreements with the authors'
findings it is that they are a little uncritical of old theory.
In areas such as learning styles, many competing theories
have been put forward: they can't all be right!
However, this is a great start to the debate
on a subject that should have top billing at e-learning conferences.
As it is, you'll find it strangely absent from the lists of
speaker topics.
Donald Clark, 2002
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