Transitional Learning Model
Transitional Learning Model
Transitional Learning Model
Principles
Value that sole nugget for its rich insight. But don’t ignore the gold seam
hidden below the surface. In this first chapter we dig down into that
wealthy lode, exploring how perspectives of learning merge into the
practice of training. Those principles shape the terminology we use and
the roles of those who facilitate learning. They also influence the Learning
System, the way in which training is designed, delivered and managed.
Finally, we will take a moment to investigate the implications of the
learning patterns of individuals, professions and vocations, and culture.
Non-formal Education
Contemporary training processes and methods had their beginnings in a
response to social injustice. Down the ages, knowledge and education
have been instruments of power and control over social roles and class
structures. Bernard de Mandeville (Hopkins 1985) wrote these words in
1714 AD:
To make the society happy and people easy under the meanest circumstances, it
is requisite that great numbers of them should be ignorant as well as poor.
Knowledge both enlarges and multiplies our desires, and the fewer things a man
wishes for, the more easily his necessities may be supplied.... Every hour those
of poor people spend at their book is so much time lost to the Society.... Men
who are to remain and end their days in a laborious, tiresome and painful station
of life, the sooner they are put upon it, the more patiently they’ll submit to it for
ever after.... Should a horse know as much as a man, I should not desire to be his
rider!
Extreme views! Can you imagine any person publicly airing such opinions
in our era? Yet, albeit in different forms, similar restrictive attitudes and
practices continued into our present age, subjugating many in miserable
social conditions.
Other voices were heard at that time but, for our purposes, it is enough
to acknowledge Freire as the one who largely influenced non-formal
education, particularly when his signature work, Pedagogy of the
Oppressed, was translated into the English language. Non-formal
education is distinguished from formal education (the structured,
organised education system extending from primary school to university)
and informal learning (the lifelong process of learning by daily experience
and exposure to the influences of family, other people, media and so on).
Non-formal education, an alternative to formal education (Brennan 1997),
assumes a training or education methodology that delivers functional
knowledge, skills or attitudes to be applied immediately in the day-to-
day activities of those who require it.
A Common Thread
If it appears that non-formal education and informal learning and their
implications for training are modern, then that is a misconception. Recent
history has merely produced a contemporary manifestation and
terminology. The premises of non-formal education and informal learning
are not new. As The Teacher said, “What has been will be again, what
has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”
(Ecclesiastes 1:9). Socrates (469-339 BC) and Plato (427-347 BC), Jesus
Christ, Rousseau (1712-1778), Dewey (1859-1952) and Paulo Freire
(1921-1997) are linked by the common thread of viewing learning as
instrumental, enabling learners to develop powers of thought and
reasoning rather than being passive recipients of knowledge. Discussion,
questioning, thinking, drawing conclusions to acquire knowledge, and
reconstructing and classifying personal experience, they agreed, are
desirable for learning.
Empowerment
Iqbal’s poetic word-power lifts us to the pinnacle of awareness that he
and others before him had scaled and where others after him would
arrive—and where we now sit. At that peak of realisation, we see training
from a new perspective. It is more than method (how we do it) or
educational psychology (understanding why we use such methods with
a given group of learners). Critical to methodology is the purpose or end
towards which method is applied. Over time, non-formal education
became an
...explosive power process (to assist) the poor and down-trodden majority of the
people to organise themselves so as to end the state of injustice in which they
have been forced to live. We can call this ‘dialogue and action’, ‘conscientisation’,
or, as in India, ‘redistributive justice’. No matter what term we use, non-formal
Chapter 1: Perspectives 11
Terminology
Empowerment Roles of the facilitator
The Learning System
Terminology
In the following chapters what will we mean by adult education, training,
transformational learning, learners, facilitators, transitions and Quality
Checks?
12 The Transitional Learning Model
Adult Education
Training
Transformational Learning
Make no mistake about the claim that the Transitional Learning Model
promotes transformational learning for both training participants and
facilitators of training. The point to be grasped is that they both are objects
14 The Transitional Learning Model
Learner or Trainee?
Facilitator
How do you see your role? Is it that of provider (and catch the fish for
the family) or that of a facilitator of a learning process (and show the
family how to make and use a fishing line)? If it is that of provider, then
you are emulating what Freire called the “banking approach”, simply
depositing information into a passive student. If it is that of facilitator,
then you
• give priority to the needs, prior experience and informal learning of
the learner;
• develop participants’ skills in problem-solving, and in resource
management to assess, choose, plan, create, organise and take
initiatives;
16 The Transitional Learning Model
Metaphor is a useful way to explore the facilitator’s role, as the role, like the
metaphor, is diverse and person- and situation-specific. Goad (1982) lists an
extensive range of roles: subject-matter expert, counsellor, leader/motivator,
learner, psychologist, manager, human being, listener, role model, friend, detail
person, handy-person, synthesiser, planner, evaluator, investigator, catalyst
creator, thinker, clerk, decision-maker, benevolent dictator and researcher.
Choose a metaphor for yourself from an aspect of daily life, such as business,
sport, the family, religion, gardening and so on. Explain how this reflects your
role in learner-centred training.
Metaphor Explanation of role
Chapter 1: Perspectives 17
Roles and metaphors identify what a facilitator is. But what does a
facilitator do?
Framing and guiding those activities is the Learning System (Fig. 1.2), a
complete circuit of four stages. Those stages are: assess learning needs,
design the learning plan, organise and deliver training and follow-through
on training. While the four stages are similar to other planning models
of training, the difference with the Learning System resides in the
underpinning assumptions of the Transitional Learning Model. In this
section I will simply introduce the four stages of the Learning System
and Part B (Chapters 3-7) will detail in full the relationship between the
System and the Transitional Learning Model.
learner’s ability to perform the task. Any findings are to be validated and
confirmed.
In Stage 2, Design the learning experience a plan is made of training
methods (e.g., discussion groups or field-visits) and training resources
(e.g., videos, handouts, overhead slides). A course is evaluated in the
delivery stage when we ask, What worked well? What could be
improved? That evaluation, however, is designed at this point.
The third stage is Organisation and delivery. Facilities, resources and
equipment, services, administration requirements and documentation are
to be organised. Delivery involves carrying out the learning plan and
evaluating the course.
Stage 4, Follow-through, completes the circuit or loop, forming the four
stages into a system of learning. My daughter, Amy, is at the black belt
level in one of the martial arts. She tells me that one of the secrets to
From what you understand of the Learning System at this point, in which stage
is your aptitude and experience the strongest?
In which stage do you expect to have to improve your skills and/or change your
approach?
Learner/participant Student/trainee
Individuals
Individuals may prefer particular learning styles because of the way they
personally absorb information or learn. Some will actively look for
concrete experience. Others prefer to sit back and, in reflective
observation, watch others do it first. Some like to start deductively with
abstract concepts and theory before moving to the practical. Others prefer
the inductive method to gain practical experience first and then learn
theory. While some like to know everything related to a particular task,
that only confuses others who want to focus on the central task. And, if
there are some who want to experiment with alternative ways of doing
things, others will want to learn about one, proven method, and stick to
it.
Professional/Vocational
Some professions or vocations give priority to particular learning methods
because of the way they use information. The creative arts tend toward
experimental, reflective learning. Biological and mathematical sciences
need equations, formulae and classifications to be programmed through
rote learning. In Pakistan health educators and radio programmers differed
in the way they perceived the relevance of learning methods to their
vocations (James 1996a). Respondents generated a list of 15 methods
and rated them according to their perception of professional relevance.
Health educators and radio program producers rated only four of the 15
methods equally. The remaining 11 methods were rated quite differently.
For example, a checklist was the first choice of radio producers but was
rated tenth by health educators while role-play was the second choice of
health educators but the eleventh preference of radio producers.
Chapter 1: Perspectives 23
Cultural
Culture is central to learning processes. Some societies actively encourage
problem-solving, initiative and self-responsibility for learning. In other
cultures, learning systems and methods tend to be more formal, instructor-
directed and content-oriented, primarily relying on lecturing and rote-
learning. The extremes are contrasted as, “Here is the information, take
it if you think it will benefit you” (learner-centred) and, “Here is what
you need; take it and remember it” (instructor-centred).
Not Prepared?
The facilitator decided to model participatory methods in the Training of Trainers
workshop. Rather than merely follow her own prepared plan for the opening
session, she asked the participants to suggest components they had experienced
during opening sessions attended in the past. “Get to know you exercises”, said
one participant. “Decide the start and close times, and times for breaks,” a second
contributed. With all suggestions written on the board, the facilitator asked for
their help to sequence them. Finally, she began the opening session—following
the order of the components suggested by the participants themselves. At the
end of the four-day workshop she was surprised to learn that the participants
had (at first) been uncomfortable with the opening session. They thought she
Chapter 1: Perspectives 25
was unprepared. After all, here she was, asking them questions as to how to start
a training course! Only afterwards did they realise she was modelling a style
they had not previously experienced—participatory learning. (In fact, the
facilitator had her own plan for the opening session in case the participants did
not participate.) Later, the facilitator realised she should have first prepared the
participants by making them aware of traditional non-formal learning patterns
in their society, such as stories, nursery rhymes, proverbs etc. Drawing out and
discussing these methods could have been followed by an explanation of
participatory, learner-centred training and its benefits.
What else could the facilitator have done to prevent or settle this situation?
Have you experienced a similar incident? How was it resolved?
Protest!
the males. That, he realised, was another factor causing females to remain silent
when he’d asked a question. He tried two methods to introduce a climate of
openness that would allow females to contribute. The first method was to ask
for anonymous, written answers to some questions, in the initial stages of the
training. He soon found he could organise males and females into separate groups.
It did not take long for all participants to freely participate in discussion and
problem-solving.
What else could the facilitator have done to prevent or settle this situation?
Have you experienced a similar incident? How was it resolved?
A-grade Student!
The participant burst into the facilitator’s room. He stood in the doorway,
trembling. His face was livid with rage. He waved his newly-graded assignment
in the air then flung it to the ground. “What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded
angrily. “I’m an A-grade student! I don’t get C’s! I’m more senior to the others
in the class.” The facilitator explained that the assignment was not correctly
completed. Unplacated, the participant stomped off down the corridor, leaving
the assignment strewn on the floor. The facilitator realised he had not considered
that senior, more experienced participants would be threatened by loss of face if
they did not perform well or better than their juniors and subordinates, attending
the same course. He took three decisive actions. Firstly, he cancelled the grading
system and changed the assessment to pass/fail based on whether the assignment
was done or not. Secondly, one-to-one tutorials with individual participants were
introduced to privately discuss and remedy weaknesses in their submitted work.
Thirdly, participants were organised to work with each other at their level of
seniority. The facilitator resolved to ensure that future training would more closely
consider the issue of mixing senior management and junior staff.
What else could the facilitator have done to prevent or settle this situation?
Have you experienced a similar incident? How was it resolved?