Social Constructivism in Action
This week I had the opportunity to see some of the theories I’ve been reading about in action. It confirmed for me the importance of some of the musings I’ve been having about designing learning programs.
16 staff from my organisation spent all of last week undertaking their initial training to become fire fighters. The course has been designed around “adult learning principles” - information is presented, there is an opportunity for practice and coaching followed by reinforcement of the theory. There is then an opportunity for further coaching and reflection prior to assessment.
By the end of day 4 of the course the group was interacting well and seemed to be relatively comfortable with the new knowledge and the processes. During the revision session at the end of the day a discussion started regarding vehicle entrapment procedures which had been covered on day 2. It started like this…”After dinner last night we were talking…and I just wanted to check…”. Then other voices chimed in. What resulted was a twenty minute discussion on the information initially presented, what had happened during practice and some of the points that had been discussed amongst participants during the week. The conversation ended with 1 participant stating…”So, if this happens what I’m going to do is…” and others agreeing or putting their own slants on it.
While there is a set procedure to follow in this situation it was fascinating to watch how this group of people had taken that information, interacted and had dialogue with others around it and then created their own meaning from it.
What an opportunity for me, via interacting with others, to confirm my own thoughts and know that what I’ve been applying theoretically in my study of e-learning really does work. My learnings - to make sure that I do develop future learning programs using a social constructivist approach (it really works). My next challenge - how do I convey what seems like a “theoretical concept” to my 50 trainers/assessors and help them have their own “aha” moment about their practices.
