Training

Often training refers to delivering education to adults, rather than educating young learners. The learning styles for adults (andragogy) are not the same as those of children (pedagogy). Malcolm Knowles, a proponent for adult education, believed there are four distinct differences between adult learners and young (child) learners:

1. Self-concept: As a person matures their self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being.

2. Experience: As a person matures they accumulate a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.

3. Readiness to learn: As a person matures their readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of their social roles.

4. Orientation to learning: As a person matures their time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application. Accordingly, their orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem-centeredness.

Training programs for adults generally fall into one of three models, each designed to elicit a specific change or result. These outcomes are either focused on individual change, organizational change, or community and societal change.

To address this change the development of training materials first includes a needs assessment.

At Whatever Productions

During the needs assessment we determine if training is a necessity. If it is then the next steps include identification of:

• Causes of prior poor performance
• Content and scope of training
• Desired training outcomes
• Performance measurements

Once a thorough needs assessment is conducted, the process for the design and development of training materials is very similar to the instructional design process.