Answer	Learning Principle	Example
	Goal setting	A. It takes 2 years of work to become a master diamond cutter. There are 30 industrial-grade diamonds at each of your work desks. I want you to mark each stone and indicate whether it should be cleaved or sawed for maximum brilliance.
	Meaningfulness of presentation	B. A sales instructor breaks the selling process down into steps, including eliciting a customers needs and presenting the product in a way that meets those needs.
	Modeling	C. All of you have some sales experience, and you are familiar with cold calling. Today were going to talk about how recruiting new employees is like cold calling.
	Individual differences	D. Let me show you how to use an air hammer to complete this project. Once youve seen how I do it, you can try it yourself.
	Active practice and repetition	E. An instructor outlines the objectives of the training prior to teaching the class.
	Whole-versus-part learning	F. An instructor offers students a choice of learning formats: audio, demonstration, or written.
	Distributed learning	G. When studying for this class, try to break up your time. Its better to spend 10 minutes per day than 10 hours the day before the exam.
	Feedback and reinforcement	H. I have good news! You all got 80% or above on the last exam, so Im taking the class out to lunch!

Training is more effective when it is based on established principles of learning. In the following table, you will see eight examples of things an instructor could say or do when conducting training.

Match each learning principle with its corresponding example by entering the letter of the example in the answer space next to the learning principle.

Goal Setting

In some cases, goal setting can simply take the form of a road map of the course or program, its objectives, and its learning points. When trainers take the time to explain the trainings goals and objectives to traineesor when trainees are encouraged to set goals on their ownthe level of interest, understanding, motivation, and effort directed toward the training is likely to increase. Allowing employees to undergo training in areas that they want to pursue can be very motivating, as can enlisting employees to train other employees with the information they learn.

Meaningfulness of Presentation

Trainees will be better able to learn new information if it is presented using terminology they can understand and the training is connected with things already familiar to them. This is the reason why trainers frequently use colorful examples to which trainees can relate. Such examples make the material meaningful. In addition, material should be arranged so that each experience builds on preceding ones. In this way, trainees are able to integrate the experiences into a usable pattern of knowledge and skills.

Modeling

The old saying A picture is worth a thousand words applies to training. Just as examples increase the meaningfulness of factual material or new knowledge in a training environment, modeling increases the salience of behavioral training. In other words, people learn by mimicking other people. For example, if you were learning to ride a horse, it would be much easier to watch someone do itand then try it yourselfthan to read a book or listen to a lecture and hope you can do it right. Modeling can take many forms. Real-life demonstrations and recorded demonstrations, visual aids, pictures, and drawings can get the message across. In some cases, even modeling the wrong behavior can be helpful if it shows trainees what not to do and then clarifies the right behavior.

Individual Learning Differences

People learn at different rates and in different ways. Visual learners absorb information best through pictures, diagrams, and demonstrations. Verbal learners absorb information best through spoken or written words. Similarly, some learners who do horribly in large lecture settings excel in small discussion groups. Trainers can help accommodate the different learning styles found among trainees in a variety of ways. The key is to avoid delivering the material in only one way. So, for example, instead of delivering a monologue, trainers should incorporate variety into their presentations. They should use visual aids, encourage learners' participation by including them in demonstrations, and ask them questions about their own experiences. Hands-on activities and breaking large groups into smaller groups for specific activities can also help trainers accommodate trainees different learning styles.

Active Practice and Repetition

Trainees should be given frequent opportunities to practice what they will ultimately be expected to do. An individual being taught how to operate a machine should have an opportunity to practice on it. A manager being taught how to train should be given supervised practice in training. Practice causes behaviors to become second nature. For example, when you first learned to drive a car, you focused a great deal on the mechanics: Where are my hands? Where are my feet? How fast am I going? As you practiced driving, you began to think less about the mechanics and more about the road, the weather, and the traffic. Other forms of learning are no differentby practicing, a trainee can forget about distinct behaviors and concentrate on the subtleties of how they are used.

Whole-versus-Part Learning

Most jobs and tasks can be broken down into parts that lend themselves to further analysis. Learning to sell a product is an example. This process can essentially be broken down into a few discrete steps: finding customer opportunities; uncovering a prospective customers needs by learning the proper questions to ask; presenting the firms product in a way that meets those needs; and finally, learning how and when to ask the customer to buy the product (closing the deal). If the task can be broken down successfully, it probably should be to facilitate learning; otherwise, it should probably be taught as a unit.

Programmed instruction, also referred to as self-paced learning, is often used to break down learning into sequences for employees to learn at their own pace. After being presented with a small segment of information, the trainee is required to answer a question, either by writing in a response or selecting one on a computer. If the response is correct, the trainee is presented with the next step (or screen) in the material. If the response is incorrect, further explanatory information is given, and the trainee is told to try again.

Massed, Distributed, and Continuous Learning

Another factor that determines the effectiveness of training is the amount of time devoted to practice in one session. Should trainees be given training in five 2-hour periods or in ten 1-hour periods? In most cases, spacing out the training has been found to result in faster learning and longer retention. This is the principle of distributed learning. Rather than a serious of events, continuous learning is an ongoing process whereby employees are continually acquiring new skills and knowledge via training, observing more experienced workers, collaborating with others, or simply performing the job itself.

A persons training progress, measured in terms of either mistakes or successes, can be plotted on a learning curve like the one in Figure 7.4. In many learning situations, there are times when progress does not occur. Such periods show up on the curve as a fairly straight horizontal line called a plateau. A plateau can occur because of reduced motivation or because a person gets discouraged when they do not always perform a new task as well as hoped. It is a natural phenomenon, and learners usually experience a spontaneous recovery

Feedback and Reinforcement

Can any learning occur without feedback? Some feedback comes from the task itself as trainees self-monitor their performance, whereas other feedback comes from trainers, fellow trainees, and the like. Feedback can help individuals focus on what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. Think about when you first learned how to throw a baseball, ride a bicycle, or swim. Someone, perhaps a parent, told you what you were doing right and what things to correct. As you corrected those things, you perhaps got better.

As a follow-up to training or as part of the training itself, managers can use relatively simple rewards to discourage undesired behaviors and encourage and maintain desired behaviors. This kind of reward system is a form of behavior modification. Behavior modification operates on the principle that behavior that is rewarded, or positively reinforced, will occur more frequently, whereas behavior that is penalized or unrewarded will decrease in frequency. The retailer Nordstrom has found that nothing more than words of encouragement and feedback are needed to strengthen employee behaviors. This approach is often used in smaller companies that dont have particularly formal or sophisticated rewards systems. However, more tangible rewards such as prizes, awards, and ceremonies can also help reinforce desirable behaviors. Encouragement is most effective when it is given immediately after a trainee successfully accomplishes a certain task