A design problem, not a learner problem

Icebreaker

The Learning Path Map

Everyone walks in with a map already drawn. Most of us never look at it.

1. 1Divide a sheet into three: what helps me learn, what makes learning harder, and what I already believe about good training.
2. 2Fill it in using words, short phrases, arrows, icons or quick sketches. Whatever gets it down.
3. 3Pair up and talk your partner through your map.
4. 4Join another pair and find the themes that turn up on more than one map.

Working on your own? Draw the map, then put it away for a week and come back to it. The second pass tends to be more honest than the first.

Icebreaker

Stand, Sort and Share

One room, one session, and several different routes into the same idea.

1. 1Label a few areas of the room, then read a prompt out: I learn best by seeing examples. I prefer to talk ideas through. I need to try it myself. I want time to think before I answer.
2. 2Move to the area that fits, and say who you are and why you chose that spot.
3. 3Run three or four rounds with a new prompt each time.
4. 4Close by asking what it tells you that one room filled up differently every round.

Working on your own? Answer each prompt for yourself, then think of a session you sat through that only suited one of your answers. What happened to your attention?

Icebreaker

The Two-Minute Design Challenge

Teaching something simple well is harder than it looks, and faster to test.

1. 1Get into groups. Take an everyday topic: making tea, tidying a desk, a phone shortcut.
2. 2You have two minutes of teaching time. Design it so it works for people who take things in differently.
3. 3Decide what goes in and what stays out. A visual, a demonstration, something written, a question.
4. 4Introduce yourselves and run through your design, saying why each part is there.

Working on your own? Design the two minutes yourself, then teach it to someone who has no interest in the topic. What you have to change tells you most.

Journaling

From Delivery to Learning

Trying hard and still not getting it is usually a design fault, not a flaw.

1. 1Write for three minutes without looking at the chapter. What is its main point in your own words?
2. 2Describe a time learning felt hard even though you were putting the work in. Looking back, was that effort or delivery?
3. 3Write a paragraph on why attendance is a poor stand-in for whether anything was learned.
4. 4Finish the sentences: I learn best when. I lose focus when. One thing I will ask for differently is.

Working with a group? Keep the writing private and share only the patterns. Ask what people noticed about their own answers rather than what they wrote.

Problem solving

Find the Misalignment

Clear slides, good feedback, full attendance. Two weeks later, nothing stuck.

1. 1State the real problem. Why is lack of motivation too easy an answer?
2. 2Find three places where what the trainer delivered and what learners experienced came apart.
3. 3For each one, say what it cost: retention, confidence, or anything actually changing at work.
4. 4Recommend three changes to the next run of the session, and say what each one aligns better.

Working with a group? Have everyone diagnose it alone first, then compare. Groups usually agree on the symptoms and disagree on the cause, which is the useful part.

Worksheet

Clear Delivery or Real Learning

Two explanations for a session that did not land. Only one of them is testable.

1. 1Read Approach A. Good training means the content is clear and everyone receives it the same way. Quality sits in the material and the delivery. When results are weak, the explanation reaches for the learners: their motivation, their effort, their prior ability.
2. 2Read Approach B. Good training means the content is aligned to how people actually take information in. The material can be excellent and still miss, because attention, pace, cognitive load and application differ across a room. When results are weak, the design is examined first.
3. 3Compare them: where each one looks when outcomes are poor; what is assumed about difference in the room; same pace against different processing; what is counted as evidence of success.
4. 4Critique both. What does standard delivery get right? What does blaming motivation hide? What does alignment make visible? Why has this been hard to do at scale?
5. 5Make a judgement. The learning problem is structural, not motivational. Do you agree, disagree, or partly agree? Argue it from the chapter, and name one weakness in its position. Finish the sentence: The claim I would most want to test further is…