1. How Adults Learn
Brett Dillon
RESNET Conference 2011, Orlando FL
Quality Passion Knowledge
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

2. Environment
Cognitive Load
Stress
Storytelling
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

3. Environment
• Daylighting • Noise
• Snacks • Trainer’s attitude
• Beverages • Student motivation
• Comfort • Room colors
• Neighbors • Room size
• Un-natural lighting • Distractions
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

4. Wednesday, March 2, 2011

5. Cognitive Load
1. Use diagrams to optimize 4. Explain diagrams with
performance on tasks words presented through
requiring spatial audio narration
manipulations
5. Use cues and signals to
2. Use diagrams to promote focus attention to
learning of rules involving important visual & textual
spatial relationships content
3. Use diagrams to help 6. Integrate explanatory text
learners build deeper close to related visuals
understanding on pages & screens to
avoid split attention
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

6. Cognitive Load
7. Pare content down to 11. Design performance
essentials aids by applying working
memory management
8. Eliminate extraneous techniques
visuals, text & audio
12. Teach system
9. Eliminate redundancy in components before
content delivery modes teaching the full process
10. Provide performance 13. Teach supporting
aids as external memory knowledge separate
supplements from teaching procedure
steps
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

7. Cognitive Load
14. Consider risk of 17. Use completion
cognitive overload examples to promote
before designing whole learning processing
task environments
18. Transition from worked
15. Give learners control examples to problem
over pacing & manage assignments with
working memory when backward fading
pacing must be
instructionally controlled 19. Display worked
examples & completion
16. Replace some practice problems in ways that
problems with worked minimize extraneous
examples working memory
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

8. Cognitive Load
20. Use diverse worked examples 25. Avoid interrupting reading of
to foster transfer of learning low skilled readers
21. Help learners exploit examples 26. Eliminate redundant content
through self-explanations for more experienced learners
22. Help learners automate new 27. Transition from worked
knowledge & skills examples to problem
assignments as learners gain
23. Promote mental rehearsal of expertise
complex content after mental
models are formed 28. Use directive rather than
guided discovery learning
24. Write high coherent texts for designs for novice learners
low knowledge readers
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

9. Stress Management
• Brain chemistry
• Amygdala
• Acute vs Chronic
• Contagious emotions
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

10. Stress Defined
• Stress is a process by which certain
work demands evoke an appraisal
process in which perceived demands
exceed resources and result in
undesirable physiological, emotional,
cognitive and social changes.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

11. Stress
• Perception
• Competent judgment
• cue sampling
• vigilance
• WM capacity
• closure
• task
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

12. Stress
• Related to information
• unclear
• faulty
• incomplete
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

13. Stress
• Narrows focus
• discards non-
essentials
• blinds
• Intuition vs Rational
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

14. Storytelling
• Incongruity + Absurdity
• Slurring the point
• Dropping a studied remark
• the Pause
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

15. Wednesday, March 2, 2011

16. Wednesday, March 2, 2011

17. Wednesday, March 2, 2011

18. Teach Them to Think
Intellectual Applied to Elements of Reason
Standards
Develop
Intellectual Traits
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

19. Brett Dillon
www.ibsadvisorsllc.com
@thebrettdillon
@ibsadvisorsllc
info@ibsadvisorsllc.com
210-448-1106
Wednesday, March 2, 2011