Learning Styles LO19349

Cowan, Keith (kcowan@ORION.GLOBALDEN.com)
Thu, 24 Sep 1998 10:31:43 -0700

Replying to LO19233 --

At de Lange at email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za wrote:
>...
>1 A learning style must begin with experiences and end with
>experiences. In other words, it must be heuristic (emprical).
>Sometimes this tenet is also called experential learning. But in
>essence experential learning is just that which is common to all
>learning styles.
>...At de Lange

As a natural fan and practitioner of heuristic learning experiences, I
wanted to elaborate on the notion articulated so well here. It appears to
me that some people have the natural ability to learn from experience and
others do not. This is often described in the corporate world as

"...making mistakes is OK because that is how we learn but do not make the
same mistake twice..."

In fact, the tolerance to make mistakes and the ability to learn from them
and avoid repeating them is a key element of a learning org IMHO. The
challenge is how to manage all these mistakes without having to repeat
them in every individual and in every location.

Attempts to systematize the corporation usually involves rules and
procedures and these tend to stifle learning and creativity. The ideal is
to create the learning in an environment where the cost of the mistake is
not high.

The one thing I have accepted as a given is that it is not possible to
shortcut the learning curve either individually or collectively (i.e.
organization). The speed of following the stages of the curve can vary but
none of the steps are skipped.

Anyone who has experience to the contrary, please contribute. Anyone who
can amplify how the speed of corporate learning can be accelerated. please
comment. For the fun of it...Keith

Keith Cowan
kcowan@orion.GlobalDEN.com (CIS:72212,51)

-- 

"Cowan, Keith" <kcowan@ORION.GLOBALDEN.com>

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