More on Leadership and Mezirow

I got a chance to chat with Megan this week about training experiences. She mentioned how she can feel the needs of her class and help them relax into the class and get more out of it. It was great to hear how she has the ability to break down walls, help the class to open up, and her perceptiveness to understand what is needed. These characteristics say a lot about who she is and how she works. 

What she wrote reminded me of a class that I help facilitate and developed on leadership within the industry I support. I've written about this many times because it is such a hallmark of our work (HERE). 

Most of the learners we support are men (probably 95% or more of our visitors to our training organization are men), and they are usually quite "gritty" and down-to-earth fellas. Think of shade-tree mechanics or guys who don't call subcontractors to help them because they can do it better. They're typically a resilient crew who are independent-minded and hard to influence. These characteristics make them extremely potent in their positions working in the industry and being able to problem-solve safely. 

One thing I've noticed throughout my years of teaching this community is the way in which these learners will come to class looking for or expecting confrontation. There is a look in their eyes that is usually unexpressed (although there have been times it has been expressed verbally) that "there's nothing you can teach me." They see a vast difference between someone who's gained experience working in the field vs someone who may have more theoretical or academic learning. What's interesting is that our style of facilitation and the way we have developed the class (generally) ensures that by the start of the second hour all walls are dropped and the class begins sharing, reflecting, engaging in a more powerful way. All of which contributes to a more colorful, rich, and deeper experience. 

I think in many ways that first hour is a time within which they are realizing that there is no "preaching to them" but rather a chance for them to learn without the ordinary problems, deadlines, or headaches that they generally have to deal with. We offer instead a place away, or oasis where all we want to do is draw on their experience and help the class learn as a group. Having studied it, I see now that it's a part of a transformative learning moment a la Mezirow. I wonder if that first hour isn't the disorienting dilemma that leads to self-examination, a critical assessment then recognition of shared discontent as shown in our reading this past week. Like most things I know that's these stages are distinct and formal, but rather are blended and blurry. That first hour of our training is proof of that. From back up, stiff-lipped, tense, to relaxed, open, and interested, the transformative learning process takes place and what's fun is hearing from the learners after the class just how much they enjoyed it, how it was "the best training they've ever had" and how it wasn't what they were expecting. 

I think part of what makes it powerful for them is the fact that they come in with pre-conceived notions and an expectation of negativity. Without that, I don't think it would be as powerful. Regardless, what makes me think about this is what Megan mentioned about how she works through this process naturally and based on her presence and perception. We do it as a part of a well-developed, scheduled, class. What I'd like to see is our trainers/facilitator become more like Megan where they are able to guide the learners through the class based on what they perceive and feel from them, rather than just following a curriculum. I think that would make our trainer/facilitators more potent and powerful but could also help make the course more impactful for more people.

Reference

Hoare, Carolyn (Ed.) (2011) The Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Development and Learning. 2nd Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0199736300 

Apply Dewey’s Concept of Experiential Learning to VR Courses

Lamoreaux and Taylor (2011) write that “…the crucial role of experience in learning is often traced to Dewey (1938) who held that all genuine education comes through experience” (Hoare, 2011, p. 84). In my work with virtual reality (VR) at HASC, a non-profit contractor safety, and skills training organization, experiential learning makes up a significant factor in the learner’s experience. The authors continue by discussing how Kolb believes that experience becomes knowledge through reflection (Hoare, 2011). 

Then several passages later the authors break down, using examples of what learners should ask of themselves to progress through Kolb’s cycle of a) concrete experience, b) reflective observation, c) abstract conceptualization, and d) active experimentation (Hoare, 2011). 

VR use as a medium for experiential learning and to involve learners in the cyclic process described by Kolb is not unique or new (Sankaranarayanan et al., 2018), but by applying more reflection and further experimentation, there is the possibility to make VR learning more effective for the learners that HASC serves.

HASC has been working for several years to find ways to make VR courses more impactful for our adult learners. Allowing the learner to experience the course in a safe environment is just one benefit of VR. The benefits of hands-on instruction over traditional computer-based training (CBT) and traditional lecture can be found in numerous studies (Daniels, 2006; Palis & Quiros, 2014; O. Ekwueme, et al, 2015). VR courses allow the learner to experience many of the benefits of hands-on instruction but, also allow for the application of procedures in an immersive environment, which can be programmed to display dangerous scenarios, in a safe, yet realistic setting (Sankaranarayanan et al., 2018). 

In 2020, HASC published a white paper describing a study of a VR course that included over 1800 participants. This study demonstrated that CBT courses augmented with VR exercises improved long-term memory recall for the participants (Health and Safety Council, 2020). By following Kolb’s experiential learning cycle more thoroughly there is the potential of helping learners improve that long-term memory recall beyond the approximately 10% that HASC found in the previous study. 

Lamoreaux and Taylor (2011) also discuss Brookfield’s view on experiences by citing; “Brookfield (1998) echoes that experiences don’t happen to us, events happen to us, in his view, mere sense data is not in itself an experience. It becomes an experience when we attend to it or according to Kolb (1984) reflect on it” (Hoare, 2011, p. 84). 

The task would be for HASC to find a way that allows learners to not just experience the VR exercise, and actively experiment with the procedure within the virtual world, but to complete all of the steps of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and allow learners to reflect on the observation and conceptualize abstractly. When providing examples of this observation and abstract conceptualizing, Lamoreaux and Taylor write about reflection with: “Why did I do it (that way)? What did I see, (notice, feel) and why? Does it always happen this way?” (Hoare, 2011, p. 92). About abstract conceptualization they write these questions the learners should ask of themselves: “What might explain different behavior or feelings? . . . Are there other explanations or perspectives?” (Hoare, 2011, p. 84). These are questions that HASC should be compelling our learners to ask, rather than simply ushering them through an experience within a virtual world.

Miettinen (2000) provides a visual representation of John Dewey’s concept of experiential learning according to Kolb on page 64 which has been reproduced in Figure 1 below. This diagram shows how adult learners absorb, process, reflect on, and reassess information with the end goal of moving from impulse to purpose. Miettenen (2000) also discusses how Tom Burke, a student of Dewey’s summarized this cycle of understanding and learning. This passage has been reproduced as an illustration in Figure 2. Taking both of these as models and applying HASC’s VR course, there could be an opportunity for making HASC’s VR courses more effective through re-evaluation, reflection,as shown in Figure 3.  

Figure 1

Reproduction of Mittenen (2000) John Dewey’s Concept of Experiential Learning According to Kolb (p. 64) 

 

Figure 2

Illustration of Tom Burke’s description of John Dewey’s Concept of Experiential Learning from Mittenen (2000, p. 64)

Figure 3

Illustration of HASC’s VR Course Development Model with Dewey’s Experiential Learning Concept

 

At this point, HASC uses a cycle of the type shown in the figures once. This single cycle does not allow the learner to re-evaluate or reformulate their previous hypotheses, nor reflect and reconsider. Although there are reasons that having further cycles of understanding might be difficult to implement, the chance of utilizing Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and Dewey’s concept of experiential learning would greatly benefit the understanding of HASC’s learners. Finding opportunities to help HASC learners through the entirety of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, provides the learner a better chance of developing more resilient, long-term memories and might allow HASC learners a better chance of using the procedures from this learning in the field environment. 

 

References

Daniels, N. (2006). The effectiveness of hands-on activities compared to paper and pencil activities when teaching reading to first through fifth grade students. Old Dominion University.

Health and Safety Council. (2020). Gauging Effectiveness of 3D VR for Memory Retrieval. Retrieved October 10, 2021, from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jvogEWVVL7BLQSZ08bab9S1RGS-llAwN/view?usp=sharing

Hoare, Carolyn (Ed.) (2011) The oxford handbook of reciprocal adult development and learning. 2nd Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0199736300

Miettinen, R. (2000) The concept of experiential learning and John Dewey's theory of reflective thought and action, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 19:1, 54-72, DOI: 10.1080/026013700293458

O. Ekwueme, C., E. Ekon, E., & C. Ezenwa-Nebife, D. (2015). The impact of Hands-on-approach on student academic performance in basic science and mathematics. Higher Education Studies, 5(6), 47. https://doi.org/10.5539/hes.v5n6p47

Palis, A. G., & Quiros, P. A. (2014). Adult learning principles and presentation pearls. Middle East African Journal of Ophthalmology, 21(2), 114–122. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-9233.129748

Sankaranarayanan, G., Wooley, L., Hogg, D., Dorozhkin, D., Olasky, J., Chauhan, S., Fleshman, J. W., De, S., Scott, D., & Jones, D. B. (2018). Immersive virtual reality-based training improves response in a simulated operating room fire scenario. Surgical Endoscopy, 32(8), 3439–3449. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-018-6063-x

The Smarter the Dumber

One of my favorite podcasts hosts always says; "that's so stupid only someone with a masters degree could think of it." He's also fond of saying;"You have to go to graduate school to say something so foolish." As if that "Peak of Mt Stupid" should be moved further down the arc in the image below.

Well, there are times when I agree with him, even though I've gotten my master and I'm in the midst of getting my doctorate.

Tonight I was reading for my Adult Development and Adult Learning book and ran across this passage. It was so convoluted, and so complex I read it twice. I still don't get it, and worse, I kinda don't want to. 

Much of the work focusing on deconstructing the hegemonic meanings from popular culture through critical dialogue facilitated by an adult educator as a critical pedagogue also relies, we argue, on a unitary notion of the self and on a traditional, linear view of the process of adult development; this view is similar to how Mezirow (1995) describes the transformative learning process and the vision of the self . . .

They go on to quote from Mezirow on Transformative Learning (a theory I really quite like) and for the life of me, I don't see the link. In fact, I think they've written a bunch of nonsense words, strung them together to sound smart, then (faux) linked them to Mezirow to give them credibility. 

The passage the quote from Mezirow is:

Transformative learning involves movement from alienation to agency, and "centering," movement from a lack of authenticity, being true to one's self, to authenticity . . . (as adults develop, they) often move to a more mature level of cognitive differentiation involving enhanced awareness of social context, psychological factors, individual and collective goals, and premises. Older adults become more autonomous, socially oriented, and dialectic . . . that are more likely to integrate logic and feelings. They may become increasingly critically reflective of assumptions if this is the mode of their earlier development. 

The Mezirow quote I can kinda get and follow, but that passage that led to it. . . . complete nonsense if you ask me. Only someone who has been told they are smart would think to write that and claim it as interesting writing. 

A Bridge to Adult Development

My colleague Elle, wrote a great post about keeping up cognitive engagement in later years to keep mentally active longer in live. Her post provides a wonderful view into a connection between our class and your everyday life. 

Although I don't have a story that is as uniquely and directly related, but I did underline a portion of the reading that dealt with keeping cognitively engaged through adult life. Specifically, I underlined the passage that stated: 

"We now understand that postie psychosocial attributes, favorable attitudes and motivation, a belief in personal agency, and enriched complex environments have dramatic, salutary effects on health and adaptive abilities." 

I think of my wife who loves to complete crossword puzzles or my mother who is an avid reader, or myself who tries to keep up and improve at the piano. But my mind goes mostly to my grandmother who had to go to her weekly bridge game. 

She would play with her friends religiously every Wednesday and play for pennies. As the "big weekly winner" she might come away with a whole "seven dollars" of winnings. But it was the cognitive engagement that made her and her friends the real winners. I played with her a few times. I've mastered Hearts, Spades, Hell, Speed, Gin, Poker, but Bridge takes them all.  You have to play as an individual and as a partner. You have to communicate both surreptitiously and upfront, you have to plan and maneuver. She died at 96. I feel that her being alert, aware, and sharp even in her last year was due in large part to her playing bridge and staying cognitively active. 

I got to play with my grandmother a few times when she was in her prime. It is CHALLENGING. I had one hand that beat them all. Every face card and Ace ended up in my hand. A seven no trump was my bid and my grandmother, who was playing as my partner told me I was crazy. She came over to check my hand and immediately said, "he's got the winning hand, everyone just lay down your cards. It's a grand slam." Most fun I've ever had playing a card game.

I am already working hard to find my own source of cognitive engagement like my grandmother had with Bridge. I just hope that the grand prize is a bit more than 7 bucks! 

Update Again

Someone at work asked me about my progress on my workouts (see HERE). Avid followers will remember I started a P-90X challenge for myself last year (see HERE), right after I did the running challenge (see HERE). 

One of the challenges I presently have is to run a fun run a month. Last month it was a 5K with my son. The month before that I was at the horse track at 7AM running with a mob of people. This morning I ran on a trail run with about 100 other people next to the Brazos River.

It was fun. And now I'm good to go for another month. But, I've pushed pause on P-90X. Not because of the workouts, but because of the trips. I have a trip coming up . . . one to Montana for a week, another to London and Scotland for almost three weeks. I don't want to get started on that third version of P-90 and then have to push pause. I'll just wait till I get back into the country. 

I've also lost 30 lbs in the past year. It's been wild too! I'm probably skinnier and thinner now than I was when I was just out of the Army or when I got married. It's been that long since I was at this weight. Some is the loss of muscle mass, but I'm still lifting. Most is just getting thinner and living right. The next step is to let it continue to help me run faster!

DISC in High School

One seminal transformative learning moment in my life was the experience I had immediately following a large merger between two companies. We got the chance not only to perform a DISC personality profile on ourselves, but also see the results and discuss the results from the entire leadership team. I've written about this servarl times on this blog (see HERE). 

What did I find out? Why was this such a transformative moment? 

DISC in High School

One seminal transformative learning moment in my life was the experience I had immediately following a large merger between two companies. We got the chance not only to perform a DISC personality profile on ourselves, but also see the results and discuss the results from the entire leadership team. I've written about this servarl times on this blog (see HERE). 

What did I find out? Why was this such a transformative moment? 

One of the first things that we did, once we were sorted into DISC groups, was to find similarities. For some reason, Curt, who was sorted into the S group with me, asked the group . . . "What do you guys do for lunch?"

Joe's answer was "I like to shut more door and read the paper."

Curt said, "I like to go for walks and get away from work."

Will said, "I usually go to the park and eat my lunch in quiet."

I said, "I like to go workout."

The similarity? We all like to get away and be alone. It was fun to see that every other "S" was similar in their lunchtime activities. We went on to find several similarities in our work lives. 

What's funny about this is that for all my life this has been my modus operandi. When I was in high school, when I wasn't in the gym lifting weights, I was in the library reading. What was I reading? Usually Alfred Hitchcock compilations. 

For some reason, I ran into this compilation of Alfred Hitchcock short stories that the high school library owned.  I tore through those quickly. I think they had five or seven books. After that?  I went to the local public library and read as many of those as I could. After that? I went online to find and buy them. Now, I own probably over 100 compilations of Alfred Hitchcock short story books. 

Lately, I've started to read them at night. They take about 15 to 20 minutes each to read. Most are very well written, and they're super fun. I just finished Murders on the Halfshell and I'm moving on to the next! 

I've been an S all my life and continue to be an S.

Acquiring New Skills in this Program

I really enjoyed a discussion with Megan, the colleague I mentioned the other day who is in my Adult Learning and Adult Development class. Although she and I don't have similar paths, it was fun and intriguing to read about her journey and compare it to my own. What I really enjoyed was her final question of "have there been new skills that you have acquired in adulthood that you never thought were possible?" 

The PhD journey that I am on is one of those skills. Well, to be more precise, the skills I'm developing going through these PhD classes are providing me the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge I never thought possible.

In our introductions the other night, I mentioned that I had been a contractor in construction and in refinery services. Other than being the Director of Training, I was also the Director of Career Development. This meant that I led the recruiting team in their efforts to replace our personnel each year. The refining industry goes through up and down cycles. During down cycles, many of the field workers leave their positions and go hunt, fish, take other jobs, or move around to follow other jobs. These are "project workers" who are looking for over-time and double-time rather than a long-term position with one company. We were an organization of 7000, with a 50% turnover rate. This meant we had to re-hire 3500 employees every year, especially to fulfill the needs of the clients for those peak work times. 

If anyone had asked me at that time what my career would include in the future it would have been more of the same. I really enjoyed the career development position. Meeting new employees and showing them the training that we offered as an organization. Getting to go out and train groups of employees and is the first person that they see to introduce them to the company, or hosting an advanced training course on equipment and helping old hands see their equipment in new ways. But by far the best part was getting to go with the recruiters to career fairs and hiring events. Being in interviews and helping convince people to become employees. What a rush!

Now not only do I get to find ways to make that training more substantial and valuable for the employee, but I also get that rush of interacting with field employees from thousands of organizations when I walk the halls of our building and discuss jobs, training, and learning with them. But the best aspect was that I never would have thought I would pursue a PhD. It took moving to a new position, a position with a non-profit training company, and my new boss to say "why don't you go get your PhD?" for me to have any thought or inclination to take classes to refine my understanding of adult learning and take my understanding of learning to the next level. 

In the last three months, I've given four presentations to different conferences and meetings discussing the experiments in VR and microlearning and other innovations we are using to make our learning more sticky. When I was a contractor I never would have thought that I would be in that position. 

Presentations

This past December my boss asked me to work to be seen more as an expert in the industrial cleaning committee in terms of adult learning. 

Among many other things, boards, abstracts, articles, etc, etc,  . . . I'm doing a lot of presentations. Alot a lot of presentations. I've done three in the past month. The one in the picture above is a presentation I was providing on the importance of using adult learning techniques and innovative learning tools to make training more effective. 

It was very well received. Most of my presentations go well. I think this is a combination of things. I've taken a slew of speaking courses through the years, I've even helped develop one. I have given many many presentations over the years so I get better and better each time. Lately, they've become quite fun. 

The other reason I think they're well-received is that the content is new and exciting for most of the audience. No one ever talks about innovative techniques with these folks. I think it's interesting to hear something new. You add in the fact that we are working with VR and Meta is starting to dabble in VR and it's a recipe for an interesting presentation. 

One problem I have is that my presentations are focused on visual imagery, not so much bullets. The image above is the first two slides of one of my presentations. See, . . . not a bullet or word in the bunch. I use a lot of imagery and try to let my speaking tell the story that the images show. In fact, looking at this presentation, I don't see a single word. There is some data I present, but no bullets or words. 

One of my presentations to our management was unique if only because I was presenting with all of the other managers. Afterward one of the managers mentioned that he wasn't happy having followed me. My presentation had image after image after image and videos and videos etc. His was all bullets, words, entire paragraphs of bullets. That was the standard for the other managers. I just can't do that. I have to be more freeform.

So, what's the problem with that? My boss wanted me to send him my presentations so he could read them and learn from them. 

No much to read or learn is there. I think the next presentation I'll have someone video record it and send that to the boss. 

Adaptive Learning

One technique or area that I think our organization should invest more time and energy in is adaptive learning techniques. Adaptive learning is defined as:

Adaptive learning, also known as adaptive teaching, is an educational method which uses computer algorithms as well as artificial intelligence to orchestrate the interaction with the learner and deliver customized resources and learning activities to address the unique needs of each learner.

 

When I discuss this at work I try to say that it would be as if we use the information we have in our database to create different types of training for our learners.

For example we might have an annual refresher training that would be perfect for a new learner, that an experienced learner would find boring and he might discount. If we had that information in our database, which we do, the we could provide one annual refresher to the new learner and a different, more rigorous course to the more experienced learner. 

Another aspect I try to weave into many of our courses, especially our leadership courses, is the idea of Transformative Learning moments. This is Mezriow’s idea of the following:

 . . . an orientation which holds that the way learners interpret and reinterpret their sense experience is central to making meaning and hence learning. Put in simple terms, transformative learning is the idea that learners who are getting new information are also evaluating their past ideas and understanding, and are shifting their very worldview as they obtain new information and through critical reflection. It goes beyond simply acquiring knowledge, and dives into the way that learners find meaning in their lives and understanding. This kind of learning experience involves a fundamental change in our perceptions—learners start to question all the things they knew or thought before and examine things from new perspectives in order to make room for new insights and information. Many learners and experts agree that this kind of learning leads to true freedom of thought and understanding.

In the article I’m reading about Piaget, the author writes that:

Experiences that promote congnitive development, in addition, are not only interesting, but usually place the child in a state of conflict . . .  The concept of conflict is involved in a fairly recent model of developmental change that Piaget called equilibration . , . In philosophy, Piaget’s equilibration model would be called a dialectical theory. Dialectical theory holds that change occurred when our ideas meet with counter-evidence that motivates us to formulate new and better ideas. 

I like to think about bringing these two worlds together in our work at HASC. If we could determine where different learners are in terms of their career and learning development, which we could do if we utilized Adaptive Learning methods more aggressively, then if we could tailor specific challenges to those learners based on that data in our database, we could provide more effective learning than we otherwise might. 

The one size fits all approach has been going on for quite some time, by using adaptive learning techniques combined with transformative learning moments, we could not only better serve our learners but also help them learn more effectively.