How changing from passive to active learning is the best solution for your business.
30 years ago, Dr Alison King wrote the seminal paper “From the Sage on the Stage to the Guide on the Side”. This phrase sums up the change in pedagogy from a passive learning style to a more active one.
Let me show you why taking a more active learning approach will help your business. With me as your Guide on the side, we can bring about meaningful lasting change.
What’s so bad about the Sage on the Stage?
The teacher-centric approach to learning dominated western education for hundreds of years. This approach put the teacher, the source of knowledge at the centre. The teacher’s role was to impart their knowledge to their students. A good student would then pass a test, based on the knowledge.
It is often considered a cheap and effective way of passing on lots of knowledge to a large number of people. An industrial approach to knowledge transfer. Via this approach, a single Sage on the stage could impart knowledge to many hundreds in front of them in one go.
Yet, as with many industrial processes, what seems to be a cheap and effective solution often isn’t. Over the last hundred and fifty years, many voices have suggested alternative approaches. The alternative approaches all have a common theme, they put the learner at the centre. The learner becomes an active participant in the formation of knowledge.
Neuroscientists have shown that we learn best when we fully engage in the process. For most people being completely engaged requires a more active approach to learning. It is not enough to sit and listen, doing something is also needed.
Why do we need to rethink that Sage on the Stage?
Think about the last time you had to learn something from listening to a presentation or lecture. What can you remember?
The act of sitting and listening makes this a passive experience. The chances of you remembering all the content are close to zero. You remember a funny anecdote in the middle but was it enough to understand the concepts covered?
Did you have to do a test or a quiz at the end to show how much you remembered? Do you think you could get the same score now? It is possible if you are an expert in the subject covered. It’s more likely people attended so they could become subject experts.
Neuroscience shows us that our brains need ideas reinforced on a regular basis. The best type of reinforcement is to engage in a proactive way and use the knowledge for its real purpose.
A “Sage on the Stage” does not give us that flexibility. If we want to follow neuroscience, then we need to rethink our approach.
Enter the Guide on the Side
As a guide on the side, I am able to help you find the problems your staff and colleagues are experiencing. We can then work through those problems and find solutions.
When we find a need for a change in process that is difficult, we can create learning experiences. The best solution is often to give learners activities that reflect the real problem. We can ask them to choose the ‘right’ outcomes. Then giving feedback on their choices will help learners to understand possible consequences.
Using real problems and solutions the activities will help to support deeper learning. Learners can confront their potential life-changing mistake in a low-risk situation. They can repeat and resolve the problem, creating new knowledge. We can then reinforce it with more activities.
We can help learners reinforce new knowledge and skills through frequent refresher activities. These activities should be frequent to start and then less frequent as time goes on. Neuroscience shows that these methods will help support long-lasting learning.
A Guide on the side sounds expensive?
A “Guide on the side” must be more expensive than a “Sage on the Stage”. You’re making lots of activities, isn’t a course or presentation cheaper?
A traditional course is likely to be many slides and knowledge checks. Everything needs to be carefully controlled and checked. Then it is uploaded to the LMS, and everyone has to take it. You’ve worked many hours to get this course approved. All your colleagues have got a two-hour training course they have to undertake.
The hours that you and all your colleagues spend on this course will be significant. They will play a large role in figuring out your return on investment.
With my guide on the side approach, the focus is on creating effective meaningful change. This change should be measurable. Activities are short and tailored to the groups that need them. We are increasing the odds of success by taking an approach that is grounded in deep learning.
I mentioned it in passing above, the Guide on the side approach looks beyond the learning. I aim to help you to remove the obstacles that affect your colleagues, so they can complete their work. We look for the most effective solution, which might be a simple ‘job aid’ or a physical change in the environment.
My approach is about targeted actions to bring about meaningful measurable change. The return on investment is looking good.
Are you ready to leave the old Sage on the Stage?
Let’s connect, and discuss further how I, as your Guide on the Side, can help you.