"Learn by doing"
Experts agree.
Leading experts in the field of education are agreed that experiential learning as apposed to lecture based teaching is most effective at many levels of education.

In a recent article in a Canadian magazine, Maclean's, a cognitive scientist and leading US scholar Alison Gopnik a psychology professor at the University of California at Berkeley who has two of her three children attending university has more than a passing interest in the kind of teaching kids today are encountering.  Ms Gopnik feels that lecture based teaching is ineffective. She agrees with many experts that human beings are hard-wired to learn by experience.  In a recent online symposium hosted by slate.com she said "It is no coincidence that modern science only began to progress when it abandoned the lecture clearly a medieval form of learning.

The most effective learning takes place with what she calls A "guided apprenticeship" when a learner tries different approaches and an expert provides feedback, much in the way sports and music are usually taught.

Ms Gopnik whose research is focused on children and how they learn feels adults as well as children explore, experiment and interact with things around them.  That kind of teaching is much closer to the natural way we learn.  Another irony is that many professors while still employing the lecture method admit their real passion is the research part of their work.  In fact, much of the teaching is farmed out to the adjunct teachers who are paid low wages and benefits.  Students attend top rated universities but in fact end up being lectured by someone whose academic qualifications are suspect.

She says "It's the shame of academia."  Some mid-sized schools offer more co-operative programs and courses where students are actively working and engaged than the large, prestigious schools.  Ms Gopnik feels that there is so much intellectual firepower at the big universities students do not get the opportunity to interact with best minds in the various fields.  Universities are struggling with reduced budgets, larger classes and exploding student populations.  Professors dealing with standing room only classes have little chance to interact with their students.

All this from Ms Gopnik just confirms that the interactive methods employed by training organizations are most effective in the field.

We at SpeakEasy continue to offer experiential learning as the most effective method of delivery.





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