According to the Ebbinghouse Forgetting Curve, the average participant in educational activity begins to forget what they’ve learned almost immediately without the use of any practical activities to support the new knowledge.
Research suggests that there is a six to nine hour window before people forget up to 50% of what they learned if they have not completed any practical activities related to the new information or skills.
Some companies are now beginning to incorporate tailored models based on personality types into their L&D strategies. The company uses real world examples supported by actual practical activities, either designed on the spot or planned as part of the complete learning experience.
Personality types – and their impact on learning
Leading strategists pd training have determined four key personality types when it comes to L&D:
- Directive Driver: These self-directed learners will often have a high abandonment rate if the content of a learning program isn’t concise, or moments of realisation and understanding are not delivered quickly or frequently enough.
In a classroom environment, you will lose these people quickly if they are weighed down with history or unnecessary details.
Directive Drivers will happily take part in activities, but they need to be pointed and purposeful.
- Contemplative Advisor: These people need access to time and a quiet space along with a deadline that they need to meet. They will happily pore over online content – particularly if they have the time and luxury to work through case studies, facts and details.
In classroom settings, Contemplative Advisors are the least likely to be comfortable participating in role playing activities or group work, ahieving a greater outcome by listening, observing and performing written tasks. Asking them to join in could be met with resistance, and they could spend too much time worrying about being in the spotlight to absorb the content.
- Adaptive Coach: Self-directed in their approach to learning, Adaptive Coaches learn well using video based online content, preferable presented by a well-known or respected personality in the field.
Like the Directive Driver, they thrive on conclusions and results as opposed to the theory and academic rigour it took to find them.
In a classroom, the opportunity to interact with their colleagues and work towards a common understanding is something they relish.
Facts, figures and PowerPoint presentations will soon lose their attention, however.
- Consultative Counsellor: These learners need interactive people-based content, and like Adaptive Coaches, benefit from online video content presented by a known or respective person in the field.
They will be more likely to succeed when the details supporting the facts are available.
In the classroom, activities with strong explanations and clarity on how to go about them will encourage them to participate.
“By learning more about yourself and others in the context of a business course, the epiphanies people have about recurring scenarios can be life changing,” Paul Findlay, managing director of pd training claimed.
