As a facilitator and instructional designer, I am responsible for assist learners in organizing that information in some optimal way, connecting prior knowledge to knew information. For example, in a simple activity in Members Matter Most, we have them triad a conversation on a flipchart about their best and worse customer experience and the specific behaviors and characteristics demonstrated by the sales representative. We take their stories they have stored and then translate it to our service level agreements helping them make those connections faster and stronger. In the cognitive theory it was said that ‘learning is concerned not so much with what the learners do, but what they know and how they come to acquire it’ (Jonassen, 1991 as cited by Ertmer and Newby, 2013 p.51). What I particularly like about this program and the relationship with cognitivism is that it’s important to make connections, draw on experiences and make sure the will be useful to the learner to want to use it. We draw on an analogy throughout our program between their role as a financial adviser to that of a role of a physician. We draw parallels to say when someone is having health issues, which means financial distress, you go to your doctor and your doctor doesn’t just recommend T3’s for your headache … rather they ask lots of questions to uncover the root problem. No different than if someone is having issues with meeting their financial obligations, we won’t just give them a ‘consolidation loan’ right off the bat to remedy the problem, rather we’d ask questions to uncover the root problem. In cognitive theory it’s usually considered more appropriate for explaining complex forms of learning, such as problem solving, explaining and processing information, comparing, contrasting and interpreting to name a few.
In the instructional design of our Sales & Service Program, as there is complex learning we’ve ensured to incorporate activities like storytelling, case studies, scenario based & problem-based learning, brainstorming, debates, reflection, observations, feedback, role plays and simulations to optimize and sustain the learning. An example of this in our Sales and Service Program is we have a capstone simulation where we have actors come in as ‘members’ and have learners participate in a 3 simulated advisory meetings moving from simple need to overcoming a challenge; where the learner needs to demonstrate the 5 steps of our sales and service model.
By engaging and having the learner actively involved and participating in the learning process, through good instructional design of serving bite size and chunks of relevant information, in a logical hierarchy of learning, which blends and connects with past experiences will support an optimal environment for learning.
Reference
Ertmer, P., & Newby, T. (2013). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.