Nov
5
5
Learning Styles: Saying Goodbye to a Shibboleth of Instructional Design
If you gave a prize for the most intuitively appealing idea in education, it would probably go to the theory of “learning styles.” The gist Read More →
Dec
11
11
When it’s not up to you: compliance training and decision-making
Training, as we think of it, involves decision-making. We design training for a particular job role by delineating the set of decision-making contexts—tasks—that make up the Read More →
Nov
1
1
Failure-driven Learning versus “Coloring Inside the Lines”
In my last post, I talked about the most common challenge to the theory of failure-driven learning. In this post, I want to address another frequent challenge, Read More →
Oct
26
26
Failure-driven Learning versus “Success-driven learning”
The heart of our pedagogical approach is the theory of “failure-driven learning,” which says, in a nutshell, that learning happens only when the world does something different Read More →
Oct
19
19
Reading John Dewey
John Dewey is arguably the greatest philosopher of education the world has seen. Unfortunately, for most of us, his stilted, formal prose causes unpleasant flashbacks Read More →
Oct
13
13
Unfair Tests and Natural Learning
A recent New York Times Magazine article (“Why Flunking Exams is Actually a Good Thing,” Sep. 4, 2014) describes a fascinating line of research by Read More →
Oct
5
5
Compulsion Loops and Addictive Training Games
These days, in learning, it’s cool to be gamey. So, not surprisingly, there’s a lot of hype. And a lot of bad educational games. To get past Read More →