Research on Transfer of Training

Professional development, supervision, feedback and coaching are sustained over time and focused

on the common instructional framework

Joyce and Showers

The research on the need for coaching:

• 5% of learners will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of learning a theory

• 10% of learners will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of learning a theory and seeing it

• Demonstrated• 20% of learners will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of

theory, demonstration, and• Practice during the training• 25% of learners will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of

theory, demonstration, practice, and corrective feedback during the training• 90% of learners will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of

theory, demonstration, practice and corrective feedback during the training - - when it is followed up with job-embedded coaching

Therefore:Transfer of a new skill (or continued

development of a complex skill such as coaching) involves:

• Learning the theory• Seeing it demonstrated• Practicing the skill• Getting feedback• Trying it on in a real life situation • Getting coaching (on your coaching)

Coaching involves reflection on Thinking/Feeling/Perceptions;

• About Action they have taken• In order to plan for Action• So that they can do deeper reflection while in

Action

• This is what we mean by Experiential Learning

Experiential Learning Cycle & Processing Questions

A Guide for Peer Observers

From: The 1979 Annual Handbook for Group Facilitators

Experiential Learning Cycle & Processing QuestionsAN INTRODUCTION TO THIS POWERPOINT

• If I presented a lecture on bicycle riding, then showed pictures of bicycles, next gave a lecture on balance, and ended my workshop showing a video of someone learning to ride a bicycle and struggling to balance until they finally “got it” participants in the workshop who had never ridden a bicycle would not have learned how to ride a bike.

• The most important parts of our learning is through our direct experience of the content and “doing” the content.

• I cannot teach you bicycle riding but you are able to learn it!• I need to have the experience of riding the bike and perhaps falling.

And if I am lucky someone would have provide a nice grassy area that if I fell I would not hurt myself. And in knowing that I would be less afraid although I might still have anxiety.

• If, as I am in learning to ride the bike, I am not on a safe grassy area and I have a “teacher” who is frustrated with me, critical, and “barking” directions at me. I may have the experience of learning to ride the bike and the experience of hating riding a bike. What I may recall every time I attempt to ride a bike again is my inner experience of fear, self-doubt, frustration with myself that I cannot learn very easily and I am not good at riding bicycles. I may even learn to be self-critical and bark at myself for making any mistakes in any new learning situation.

• When we learn any content, we are also learning about our self, the way we learn, our relationships with the teacher and others who may be present.

• The following pages will describe an experiential learning process that helps people to make more meaning of their experiences.

• To learn more about learning from experience:• “Learning to Learn from Experience”, Edward

Cell, 1984, State University of New York Press

• Experiential Learning has the potential to involve the whole person in the educational process, thinking, feeling, perceiving and doing

• Each stage of the learning cycle has objectives that move toward increasing the options available to a person in the face of new but similar situations

Five Stages of the Learning Cycle

• 1) Experiencing• 2) Sharing• 3) Interpreting• 4) Generalizing• 5) Applying

• Following an explanation of what is meant by each phase there will be slides with a list of questions to help people go through each stage

Processing Questions for each Stage of the Learning Cycle

• Since every facilitator or coach has experienced participant’s resistance to beginning, engaging or completing activities for learning the first questions presented usually are “no-fail” questions

No fail because they:

• Tend to break down the reluctance by allowing the participant’s resistance

• If resistance cannot be overcome, processing the blocking itself becomes the learning

• Can be used at any stage in the experiential learning cycle

Phases of the Experiential Learning Cycle

• Experiencing:• Generates individual data from one or more of

the sensing, thinking, feeling, wanting or doing modes

• Sharing the Information:• People report the data generated from the

experience

• Generalizing the Information:• People develop a testable hypotheses and

abstractions from the data

• Applying the Information:• Bridge the present and the future by

understanding and/or planning how these generalizations can be tested in a new place

Processing Questions Stage I Experiencing Stage

• What is going on?• How do you feel about that?• What do you need to know to . . .?• Would you be willing to try?• Could you be more specific?• Could you off a suggestion?• What would you prefer?• What are your suspicions?• What is your objection?• If you could guess the answer, what would it be?• Can you say that in another way?• What is the worst/best that could happen?• What else?• And?• Would you say more about that?

Processing Questions Stage II Sharing Stage

• Who would volunteer to share? Who else?• Who else had the same experience?• Who reacted differently?• Were there surprises/puzzlements?• How many felt the same?• What did you observe?• What were you aware of?

Processing Questions Stage III Interpreting Stage

• How did you account for that?• What does that mean to you?• How was that significant?• How was that good/bad?• What struck you about that?• How do those fit together?• What does that suggest to you about yourself/your

(school)?• What do you understand better about yourself/your

(school)?

Processing Questions Stage IV Generalizing Stage

• What might we draw/pull from that?• What does that suggest to you about ______

in general?• Does that remind you of anything? (back at

your school)• What principle/law do you see operating?• How does this relate to other experiences?• What do you associate with that?

Processing Questions Stage V Applying Stage

• How would you apply/transfer that?• What would you like to do with that? With what

you learned?• What could you do to hold on to that?• What are the options?• How could you make it better?• What would be the consequences of doing/not

doing that?• What modifications can you make work for you?

Final Stage of Processing the Entire Experience as a Learning Experience

• How was this for you?• What were the pluses/minuses?• How might it have been more meaningful?• What changes would you make?• If you had it to do all over again what would

you do?

• TASK: Reflect on the stages of experiential learning. What are the implications for your role as a peer observer?