Learning Strategies

It goes without saying that effective training strategies motivate learners and ensure better results and outcomes from the studying process. It is possible to use instructional strategies to build confidence, to make success easier, to demonstrate relevance of the process as well as to engage learners to solve real problems. Actually, instructional strategies allow students to discover, to share and to explore the matters of particular interest for them. Classroom should be treated as gym. It doesn’t mean that desks should be replaced by balance beam. It means that significant shifts are required in instructional approaches.

The first effective instructional strategy is to integrate training with what students know. This strategy assists in building skills and knowledge of learners. Furthermore, it complements trainings they’ve already and prepares them for developing additional skills. This strategy suggests integrating new information with what students already known. It is necessary to set a comfortable tone in order to encourage sharing and participation and to motivate challenge of ideas and debates regarding the subject. The strategy emphasizes using if familiar metaphors and schemes. The objective of the strategy it to make learners share their personal experience, obtained knowledge of the related topic. Online discussions, groups meetings and e-mails are appreciated as well.

The second strategy is to connect training to relevant purposes and goals. This strategy helps to grab learners’ attention to the goals and objectives of the studying process. Instructor should be clear about the goals of the training, because it helps learners to move in directions which correspond to program’s goals and purposes. Learning goals should be related to personal goals of the learners. Actually, instructor has to encourage participatory goals setting, because students would work together in order to pick core performance goals. Also creating of action plan is appreciated as it would assist in customizing new and already existing knowledge.

References

• Pardes, Juan Rudel. (1994, July-August). Motivate Every Learner: How to Replace Motivation Myths with Strategies that Work. Retrieved March 6, 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0STR/is_n1_v104/ai_15669489/pg_2
• Creating Training that Motivates. (2001). Retrieved March 6, 2007, from http://seniortechcenter.org/archive/learning_paths/training/start_lesson/creating_training_motivate.php#strategies