Work to Study, Study to Work
I am profoundly interested in people and learning. From a young age when I taught arithmetic to a rapt audience of teddy bears to leading departmental learning strategy for a global financial services firm, to now as a mature student at York University. I have always loved learning and enabling learning for others.
Transitioning from a career in corporate learning to being back in the student’s seat has been a uniquely interesting experience. There are a number of ways that the principles of adult learning, organizational learning and higher-education learning compare and contrast with each other. Often, I find myself relating them to each other, looking for similarities and opportunities for cross-pollination.
If university is often thought to focus on intellectual endeavors and organizations on practical ones, then I believe there should be more ways to bridge these experiences. Some ideas discussed here include allowing students to customize their learning experiences, developing interpersonal skills and encouraging curiosity.
Because you learned…You might also like…
Through innovative teaching models like Universal Design for Learning (UDL) or sophisticated learning technology for gamification, adaptive learning or use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, the traditional instructor-led classroom is more engaging than ever. However, often it’s not enough to just have the environment optimized for learning. How can learner preferences be taken into consideration? We have customized video streaming, shopping and dining experiences and we expect the same from our learning.
In organizations, after robust learner analysis are conducted, learners come in for specific topics of interest or job requirements and take what they require from the course and in the way they prefer to. In doing so, motivation to attend and complete courses is high and engagement built in from the start. I think balancing learner needs and wants at University could be an interesting way to ensure engagement with students. There are a number of preferences to source from students, perhaps how assignments are structured, what sub-topics are more interesting than others, what mediums of communication and presentation are deployed or how learning is consolidated and assessed. Even in cases where courses are mandatory, there might exist opportunity for instructors to gather feedback from students before and during the course and not just at course completion. This, then opens the doors to intelligently using learner preference data to shape future courses and content.
Offline Social Networking
Organizations place a tremendous premium on collaboration and interpersonal skills. Performance reviews asses them and qualities like “team player” or “well-known across the floor” are lauded above most others. I wonder how effectively we prepare students at university to navigate the social complexities of organizations. Social skills and learning, where learning is centered in social experiences could be an answer here. Given university coincides with a period of powerful social and personality change for students, how can safe spaces for students be created within the classroom itself to interact, build relationships and network? Perhaps the answer lies in promoting good-old fashioned offline social networking in all aspects of the learning experience. Specifically, in classes that are thoughtfully designed for students to experience how to present a point of view to others, acknowledge diversity in a room, challenge respectfully and explore effective ways to work with others.
Fortune favors the Curious
As someone with a lifelong curiosity affliction, I am incredibly curious about its workings! Curiosity, not just as an inclination to learn the new, weird or unclear but also why some people are more curious than others. Recent psychological research shows intellectual curiosity to be a formidable predictor of academic achievement (The Hungry Mind: Intellectual Curiosity Is the Third Pillar of Academic Performance). At an organizational level, curiosity certainly seems to be a differentiator. It often easily separates great employees from good ones, thoughtful managers from average ones and inspiring leaders from mere role-fillers. Beyond the workplace, It is often a marker of creativity, commitment and high conversation capital!
We see primary schools physically designed to capitalize on a child’s curiosity of the world with colorful classrooms and incorporation of play with learning, but how do we sustain that curiosity through higher-ed? As Susan Engels, an American psychologist suggests, offering opportunities for unusual, suspenseful and stimulating learning experiences and time for learners to pursue different lines of inquiry. Understandably, this would also mean tempering more free-flowing discussions with course completion timelines!
In 2019, more than ever before, we need to thoughtfully consider how students are being prepared for the rapidly changing world of work. One way for us to prepare students for this is by providing them with learning skills that facilitate adaptation to multiple environments and by making learning habits durable. Because, in the end, organizations need learners, not just students.
About the author
Nandini Asavari Bharadwaj is a mature international student undertaking a specialized honors degree in Cognitive Science and is a volunteer with the Teaching Commons. Her earlier undergraduate degree is in English Literature from Lady Shriram College, University of Delhi in India. She has over 7 years of professional experience across secondary school and organizational learning in Bangalore, India. She taught secondary school English Literature at a high school for 2 years and spent almost 6 years in human resources, across learning and development and recruitment functions, at a global financial services firm.