Designing Training Programs

Zeace Nadler, Leonard Nadler

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136012891
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

First published in 1994. This new edition could be the single most important tool HRD professionals can have to create cost-effective, productivity-oriented training programs. It updates the unique training model, called the Critical Events Model, which HRD professionals can adapt to their particular training situation. The model is presented in a series of steps called events that provide the designer with a straightforward system for designing training programs to improve performance and efficiency in the workplace.

CHAPTER 1

Designing and Using Models

This book is concerned with learning, or more specifically, with designing learning experiences provided by employers. Various names are given to this activity, but we prefer human resource development (HRD), which is defined as organized learning experiences provided by employers within a specified period of time to improve performance and/or promote personal growth. Each element of this definition is discussed in Developing Human Resources [80],

Within HRD, there are three learning activity areas: training, education, and development. Training involves learning that relates to the current job of the learner, education relates to & future job of the learner, and development refers to learning that is not job-related.

The first eleven chapters of this book discuss the Critical Events Model (CEM) and ways to design training with it, while Chapters 12 and 13 explain how the model can be modified for education purposes. This book will not discuss a model for development.

Within the HRD field, some people make decisions about learning programs, while others actually design them. We call those people “Designers.” Although the major focus of this book is on using the Critical Events Model (CEM) in the actual design process, it will also help people who are even peripherally involved. The book should enable managers and supervisors to understand what the HRD Designer does. Therefore, HRD designers can use this book to communicate with their supervisors about designing learning experiences, particularly when they use the CEM.

THE DESIGNER OF LEARNING PROGRAMS

Human resource development personnel can fill many roles in an organization. We have identified the roles and sub-roles in Developing Human Resources [80, p. 127]. They include:

Learning Specialist

Facilitator of learning

Designer of learning programs

Developer of instructional strategies

Manager of HRD

Supervisor of HRD programs

Developer of HRD personnel

Arranger of facilities and finance

Maintainer of relations

Consultant

Expert

Advocate

Stimulator

Change agent

This book focuses on one of those sub-roles, the “designer of learning programs,” who will be referred to in this book as the “Designer.”

Of course, the Designer should be familiar with the other roles and sub-roles, particularly those in the learning specialist area. As appropriate, we will discuss how the Designer works with the “facilitator of learning” (facilitator) and the “developer of instructional strategies” (developer). Indeed, in some organizations, one person fills all three roles, though people are increasingly specializing as Designers.

One reason for this is that organizations have learned that it is possible to contract for the facilitator and developer. Although it is also possible to con-tract for the Designer, many organizations favor keeping a Designer on staff who knows the organization and the personnel involved.

LEARNING

As learning is the core of this book, let us take some time to discuss what is and what is not learning, as the term is used in this book. A more detailed discussion of learning theories will be found in Chapters 7 and 13. For now, let us examine the general area of learning.

Learning is the acquisition of new skills, attitudes, and knowledge. (The learning psychologist refers to these as “domains.”) This definition does not tell us anything about how learning is acquired or whether the learner can actually use the new learning outside of the learning situation. These are both major areas of consideration we will explore in depth as we move through the CEM.

Although some people include behavior in this category, we contend that a person does not learn behavior. Rather, behavior is a possible result, an application, of learning. That a person fails to use (that is, behave) what he has been taught does not mean that he has not learned. Since there can be many reasons to explain his unexpected behavior, his failure to act reveals something about the constraints on behavior. It also suggests that we should avoid teaching people things they cannot possibly use, unless the goal is to learn with no intent to apply. Although this would be a valid goal in development, it is inappropriate for training and education.

Incidental Learning

We learn through different modes. One is incidental, and we encounter it all the time. As we engage in various social activities and entertainments, such as watching television, reading, talking with neighbors, logging into electronic bulletin boards (BBS), we learn. This kind of learning is not planned, nor is it the primary reason for doing these things.

Although this area of learning is important, it is not our concern in this book. On the other hand, we cannot totally ignore incidental learning since it can be transmitted through the company culture and in other informal ways. We must be sensitive to incidental learning so that it reinforces rather than conflicts with intentional learning experiences.

Intentional Learning

In this book the focus is on intentional learning, that is, a learning experience in which the individual expects to be a learner. This learning experience consists of identified learning objectives, a specific time (allotted by both the individual and the organization) dedicated to learning, and some form of evaluation, planned either during the program or after it has been completed. From the organizational viewpoint, intentional learning requires an appropriate allocation of resources if learning is to take place.

Generally, large organizations allocate the physical and financial resources needed to provide intentional learning—the training and education activities of HRD—while small organizations, which contend that they cannot afford these expenditures, do not. Although learning continues to occur in those organizations, it becomes incidental.

Organizations of any size that provide intentional learning (HRD) reap many benefits, as will be demonstrated later in this book. The organization that does not provide HRD forces its people to rely on incidental learning, and often pays the price when employees learn the wrong things.

Shea demonstrates this problem in his discussion of new employees [99]. If an organization does not have a well-planned orientation program, one that goes beyond merely filling out the appropriate forms, the new employee is forced to learn by the incidental mode. The employer, who has no idea what the new employee is learning, may be surprised by the unusual behavior that results. It may prove more costly to correct the effects of incidental learning than to provide a good intentional orientation program.

Incidental and intentional learning can compete with each other within an organization. The grapevine (incidental learning) that exists in every organization may send out signals about how a particular job is to be done. If, in the absence of intentional learning, the performance of that job is below standard or even at variance with what the organization needs, the organization may have to counter the negative results through an expensive learning program. It is much more difficult to unlearn than it is to learn.

In the CEM, as described in Chapters 2 and 13, there is an event called Evaluation and Feedback, which enables the Designer to identify some of the behaviors that are acquired through incidental learning. Rather than looking at incidental learning as negative or undesirable, the Designer must be alert to the serendipitous possibility of integrating incidental learning into intentional learning.

As this book will essentially focus on intentional learning, the qualifier “intentional” will be dropped. The reader should recognize the two modes and remember that in this book,“learning” refers to intentional learning.

Teaching and Learning

Two words are often used interchangeably, in spite of their different meanings:

Teaching—what we do to others.

Learning—what we do for ourselves.

Teachers have many roles, but let us focus on that of being a facilitator.

Facilitation is the general process of enabling individuals to acquire learning. It uses people and machines to cover a wide range of behaviors. There are many variations. Facilitation can range from the “stand-up classroom presenter” to fully machine-mediated instruction. For example, teaching can involve a facilitator who does little more than help the learner find the appropriate resources for learning.

A common example of machine-mediated instruction is the use of computers and videos. Even though the facilitator and learner may never see each other, they may communicate through the machine, using a computer modem to contact each other. What the facilitator does, in that situation, changes dramatically—instead of being a presenter, the facilitator becomes a coach and a resource.

Both the facilitator and the learner are essential to the learning process. In some carefully designed learning situations, it is even possible to have them reverse their roles for the benefit of either or both.

The cliché “you can’t learn nobody nuthin” may be ungrammatical, but it expresses the truth that even the best facilitator is useless if the learner will not or cannot learn. The too often used saying “If the learner hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught” makes the situation one-sided. Learning is a trans-action that requires both parties, actively engaged, even though they may not be interfacing.

We will continue to discuss the learner throughout this book. Too often the learner is ignored or overlooked, while teaching is emphasized, as if the same teaching is appropriate for all learners.

If good teaching is to take place, the instructor must prepare and apply a carefully designed learning program. Keep in mind, however, that even a well prepared session can seem spontaneous and be enjoyable.

In any effective design process, the learner should be involved. It may not be possible to involve each learner in each event, but provision should be made to include all the learners. As we develop the CEM, we will make suggestions and give examples of ways to involve the learner. Indeed, being part of the design process can be a very effective part of the learning process.

Learning and Performance

Employers, who pay the HRD bills, are not as interested in the learning they have provided or the learning their employees may have acquired as they are in results of that learning; that is, improved job performance.

Learning does not necessarily improve performance and this is the challenge addressed throughout this book—how to improve performance through more effective learning programs.

The emphasis in this book is on learning for performance (training and education). We believe that other purposes of learning (development) are important, but they are beyond the scope of the model discussed here.

MODELS AND DESIGNING PROGRAMS

Individual creativity is wonderful—it should be encouraged and rewarded. Despite this, Designers should first explore existing models before they design a new one. Too many Designers start their work without realizing that many models already exist and that such models can be extremely helpful. Perhaps there is an ego factor involved, and a Designer would rather create something new, but using an existing model shows that a Designer is aware of resources and knows how to use them.

The Designer should not, however, take a model and apply it without some prior exploration. Before discussing some of the variables to consider when selecting a model, let us first discuss the concept of models.

Uses of Models

Models are meant to represent the reality of their developers. Developing a model is not a unique experience reserved for the privileged few. All of us “design models” as we try to make sense out of the everyday world. Without those models, it is doubtful if we could solve our daily problems.

Take a simple but common experience. You have decided to drive from New York City to Chicago. Before you start your trip, you do some planning (designing your trip), and a significant part of that process involves consulting a road map. The map identifies the roads you can take, as well as the major cities or other discernible points you will pass. The map can help you make estimates about the time it will take for such a trip, and even some of the costs.

You know that using a map will simplify your trip. In your planning process for that trip you are actually using a model. The road map is the basic part of your model. You know that it shows the roads, but they are not actual roads. You know that you could not put your car on any part of the map and achieve your goal. The map is merely a representation of what you can expect to find when you get on the road.

By consulting a map (model), you have a much greater chance of having a successful trip than if you started without it. Of course, it is also important to have the correct map—the appropriate model. Not every map will help you plan a trip from New York City to Chicago. Although airline maps, rail-road maps, or a map that showed the routes from New York City to New Orleans have their uses, none of them are appropriate for your trip.

Viewing a road map as a model should illustrate some of the questions you should ask when you choose a model for learning, such as:

• What is the purpose of the model?

• For what kinds of learning is it most appropriate?

• Does it tell the Designer what to look for in the process, or only the road to take?

• Does it help the Designer anticipate possible challenges and opportunities?

• Does it provide alternatives?

As we will see, the CEM provides positive responses to each of these questions.

An effective model is one that helps a Designer understand an essentially complicated process. Good models have foundations in theory. The Designer should ascertain the concepts that are embodied in any model. Von Bertalanffy notes that conceptual models represent reality in a simplified and the...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Series Editor
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• CHAPTER 1 Designing and Using Models
• CHAPTER 2 Evaluation and Feedback
• CHAPTER 3 Identify the Needs of the Organization
• CHAPTER 4 Specify Job Performance
• CHAPTER 5 Identify the Needs of the Learner
• CHAPTER 6 Determine Objectives
• CHAPTER 7 Build Curriculum
• CHAPTER 8 Select Instructional Strategies
• CHAPTER 9 Obtain Instructional Resources
• CHAPTER 10 Conduct Training
• CHAPTER 11 Support Systems for Training
• CHAPTER 12 Education
• CHAPTER 13 Using the CEM for Education
• Appendix INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES
• Bibliography
• Index