Design for How People Learn

In today's fast-paced world, learning doesn't stop when we leave school. With technology and knowledge advancing rapidly, we all need to become lifelong learners to stay competitive. However, not all learning experiences are created equal. Many of us have struggled through boring textbooks or found ourselves distracted during online courses. But what if there was a better way to design learning experiences?

Julie Dirksen's book "Design for How People Learn" offers valuable insights into creating engaging and effective learning experiences. Whether you're leading a workshop at work or teaching a course in your field of expertise, this book provides practical strategies to help your students learn better.

Introduction: The Importance of Effective Learning Design

Learning is a lifelong journey, but it's not always an easy one. Many traditional teaching methods fail to engage students or help them retain information effectively. Dirksen's book aims to change that by focusing on how people actually learn and remember information.

The key to creating successful learning experiences lies in understanding the learner's perspective. By considering how our brains process and store information, we can design lessons that are more engaging, memorable, and practical.

Know Your Audience: The Foundation of Great Teaching

The Importance of Understanding Your Students

One of the most common mistakes teachers make is focusing solely on their subject matter without considering their audience. Take Sven, for example, a graphic design expert leading a typography workshop for new hires. He's excited to share his knowledge, but he jumps right into complex topics without gauging his students' existing knowledge or interests.

To avoid this pitfall, great teachers take the time to understand their students before diving into the material. This approach allows them to tailor the content to their students' skill levels and motivations, making the learning experience more relevant and engaging.

Assessing Skills and Knowledge Gaps

Before you start teaching, it's crucial to determine whether your students are facing a skills gap, a knowledge gap, or both. For instance, if you're teaching a course on hiking the Appalachian Trail:

• Experienced hikers might have the necessary skills but lack specific knowledge about the trail.
• Novice hikers would need to learn both basic hiking skills and trail-specific information.

Understanding these gaps helps you structure your course appropriately, ensuring you cover all the necessary ground without boring experienced students or overwhelming beginners.

Motivation: The Key to Engaged Learning

A motivated learner is more likely to succeed than an unmotivated one. When designing your course, consider your students' motivations:

• Are they learning out of personal interest?
• Is it a requirement for their job?
• Do they have a specific goal in mind?

If students aren't naturally motivated by the subject, try to connect the material to their interests or goals. For example, if you're teaching French to a bassoon enthusiast who needs it for work, you might incorporate music-related vocabulary or discuss French composers to make the lessons more engaging.

Maintaining a Two-Way Flow of Information

Learning about your students shouldn't stop after the initial introductions. Throughout the course, create opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding and skills. This ongoing assessment allows you to:

• Identify who has grasped the material
• Determine who needs additional support
• Quickly correct any misunderstandings

Giving Students a Voice

Involve your students in shaping the course whenever possible. This might include:

• Allowing them to vote on the pace or structure of the course
• Giving experienced students the option to skip sessions covering material they already know
• Encouraging students to share their own experiences or knowledge related to the topic

By giving students a sense of ownership over their learning experience, you'll increase their engagement and motivation.

The Science of Memory: Creating Memorable Lessons

Understanding the Three Layers of Memory

To create truly effective lessons, it's essential to understand how memory works. Our brains process information through three layers of memory:

1. Sensory memory
2. Short-term memory
3. Long-term memory

Each layer acts as a filter, deciding which information to keep and for how long. As a teacher, your goal is to help information penetrate through all these layers and stick in long-term memory.

The Power of Chunking

One effective technique for helping information move from short-term to long-term memory is called "chunking." This involves breaking down complex information into smaller, more manageable pieces. For example:

• Instead of presenting a long list of instructions, break them down into step-by-step guides.
• Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to organize text and make it easier to digest.
• Group related concepts together to create meaningful "chunks" of information.

By presenting information in chunks, you make it easier for students to process and remember.

Creating Multiple Memory Connections

To ensure information sticks in long-term memory, it's helpful to create multiple "entry points" or connections. Think of long-term memory as a large closet with many shelves. The more shelves you can place a piece of information on, the easier it will be to retrieve later.

To achieve this:

• Help students make connections between new information and things they already know.
• Present the same information in different contexts or from different angles.
• Encourage students to apply new knowledge in various situations.

The Importance of Context in Learning

Leveraging Existing Knowledge

When teaching new concepts, it's helpful to build on what your students already know. For example:

• An English speaker learning Spanish can leverage similarities between the languages.
• When teaching a completely unfamiliar subject, like Finnish to an English speaker, you'll need to build new mental frameworks from scratch.

Understanding your students' existing knowledge helps you create more effective connections and explanations.

Environmental and Emotional Context

The context in which we learn something can significantly impact our ability to recall and use that information later. Consider these factors:

• Environmental context: Try to teach skills in an environment similar to where they'll be used. For example, teach court reporters shorthand in a mock courtroom setting.
• Emotional context: The calm atmosphere of a classroom often doesn't match the stressful situations where skills are applied in real life. Use role-playing exercises to simulate real-world conditions.

By matching the learning context to the application context, you increase the likelihood that students will be able to recall and use their new knowledge when they need it.

Principles of Effective Lesson Design

1. Action-Oriented Learning

Design your lessons to be hands-on and practical. Instead of simply presenting information, create opportunities for students to apply their new knowledge. For example:

• In a nutrition course, have students create meal plans rather than just lecturing about calorie intake.
• In a public speaking course, have students practice giving speeches rather than just discussing techniques.

Active learning helps reinforce concepts and makes them more memorable.

2. Desirable Difficulty

While it might seem counterintuitive, making lessons slightly challenging can actually improve learning outcomes. Psychologist Robert A. Bjork found that students learn better when working at the edge of their abilities. To implement this:

• Gradually increase the difficulty of tasks as students progress.
• Provide challenging problems that require students to apply their knowledge in new ways.
• Encourage students to struggle a bit before offering guidance.

Remember to balance challenge with support to avoid frustration.

3. Interactive Discovery

Instead of simply explaining concepts, guide students to uncover ideas for themselves. This approach is more engaging and helps students develop critical thinking skills. For example:

• In a workshop on job interview skills, show recordings of successful and unsuccessful interviews, then ask students to identify best practices.
• In a science class, have students design and conduct experiments to discover scientific principles rather than just reading about them.

By allowing students to discover concepts, you create a more memorable and engaging learning experience.

4. Habit Formation

Many skills involve a combination of conscious thought and automatic actions. To help students develop good habits:

• Identify triggers for desired behaviors. For example, performing a version control check every time a programmer saves their work.
• Practice the desired behavior consistently in conjunction with the trigger.
• Provide opportunities for repetition to reinforce the habit.

By focusing on habit formation, you can help students develop automatic behaviors that support their overall performance.

5. Environmental Knowledge Design

Not all information needs to be stored in a student's memory. Sometimes, it's more effective to design knowledge into the environment. Consider:

• Creating visual aids or checklists that students can reference.
• Developing job aids or quick reference guides for complex procedures.
• Using technology to provide just-in-time information when needed.

By offloading some information to the environment, you can reduce cognitive load and help students focus on applying their knowledge.

Effective Evaluation and Assessment

Designing Assessments from the Start

One of the most important tips for creating effective evaluations is to design them at the beginning of your course planning, not at the end. This approach ensures that:

• Your lessons actually cover the skills and knowledge you plan to assess.
• Your teaching methods align with your assessment goals.
• Students understand what they're expected to learn from the outset.

Ongoing Feedback and Assessment

Don't limit evaluation to a single test at the end of the course. Instead, incorporate various forms of feedback throughout the learning process:

• Provide informal feedback on tasks during or immediately after lessons.
• Encourage peer-to-peer feedback by having students review each other's work.
• Include self-evaluation opportunities, asking students to reflect on their own progress.

This ongoing assessment helps students gauge their understanding and allows you to adjust your teaching as needed.

Testing Recall, Not Recognition

When designing formal assessments, focus on testing students' ability to recall information rather than simply recognize it. For example:

Instead of asking: "Which of the following is a way to motivate learners? a) Tell them the material is interesting b) Tie content to their interests c) It's not the teacher's job to motivate learners"

Ask: "List three strategies a teacher can use to motivate unmotivated learners."

This approach requires students to actively recall and apply their knowledge, providing a more accurate assessment of their understanding.

Gathering Feedback on Your Teaching

Remember that evaluation is a two-way street. Collect feedback from your students about your teaching methods and course design. Consider:

• Using anonymous surveys at the end of the course.
• Encouraging open discussions about what worked well and what could be improved.
• Implementing mid-course check-ins to make adjustments as you go.

This feedback will help you refine your teaching approach and create even better learning experiences in the future.

Practical Applications and Examples

Throughout the book, Dirksen provides numerous real-world examples and scenarios to illustrate her points. Here are a few additional examples to help you apply these concepts in various learning situations:

Example 1: Teaching a New Software Program

Imagine you're tasked with training employees on a new project management software. Here's how you might apply the principles from the book:

1. Assess your audience: Determine their existing knowledge of project management and similar software tools.
2. Use chunking: Break down the software's features into logical groups, teaching one group at a time.
3. Provide context: Relate the software's functions to real project management scenarios the employees encounter in their work.
4. Design for action: Create hands-on exercises where employees use the software to solve typical workplace problems.
5. Implement desirable difficulty: Gradually increase the complexity of tasks as employees become more comfortable with the basics.
6. Encourage habit formation: Identify key actions (like regular progress updates) and tie them to existing work habits.
7. Design environmental supports: Create quick-reference guides or cheat sheets for complex functions.

Example 2: Teaching a Foreign Language

If you're designing a course to teach a new language, consider these applications:

1. Understand motivation: Are students learning for travel, work, or personal interest? Tailor your examples and exercises accordingly.
2. Leverage existing knowledge: Help students identify cognates or grammatical similarities with languages they already know.
3. Create multiple memory connections: Teach vocabulary through various methods – visual aids, contextual usage, and mnemonic devices.
4. Design for interactivity: Use role-playing exercises to practice conversations in realistic scenarios.
5. Match emotional context: Simulate the stress of real-world language use through timed exercises or mock situations (like ordering in a restaurant).
6. Provide ongoing assessment: Use regular quizzes and speaking exercises to evaluate progress and provide feedback.

Example 3: Corporate Safety Training

When designing a safety training program for a manufacturing company, you might:

1. Assess knowledge gaps: Determine what employees already know about safety procedures and where improvements are needed.
2. Use action-oriented learning: Include hands-on practice with safety equipment and procedures.
3. Create environmental knowledge: Design clear safety signage and quick-reference guides for emergency procedures.
4. Implement habit formation: Tie safety checks to existing routines, like starting a shift or operating specific machinery.
5. Provide context: Use real incident reports or case studies to illustrate the importance of safety procedures.
6. Design effective evaluations: Create scenario-based assessments that require employees to demonstrate their knowledge of safety protocols.

Overcoming Common Challenges

Dealing with Diverse Skill Levels

In many learning situations, you'll encounter students with varying levels of experience and knowledge. To address this challenge:

• Offer pre-course materials to help beginners catch up.
• Provide optional advanced content for more experienced learners.
• Use peer teaching to allow advanced students to support beginners while reinforcing their own knowledge.
• Design flexible activities that can be approached at different skill levels.

Maintaining Engagement in Long Sessions

While it's a myth that modern attention spans are shrinking dramatically, it's still important to keep learners engaged, especially in longer sessions. Try these strategies:

• Vary your teaching methods (e.g., lecture, discussion, hands-on practice) throughout the session.
• Include regular breaks and energizer activities.
• Use storytelling and real-world examples to maintain interest.
• Incorporate interactive elements, like polls or group discussions, to break up longer periods of instruction.

Adapting to Different Learning Styles

While the concept of fixed "learning styles" has been largely debunked, it's true that people have different preferences for how they receive information. To accommodate various preferences:

• Present information in multiple formats (visual, auditory, kinesthetic).
• Offer choices in how students complete assignments or demonstrate knowledge.
• Encourage students to experiment with different learning techniques to find what works best for them.

The Future of Learning Design

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the opportunities for innovative learning design. Some trends to watch include:

• Adaptive learning systems that personalize content based on individual student performance.
• Virtual and augmented reality experiences that provide immersive learning environments.
• Microlearning platforms that deliver bite-sized lessons for just-in-time learning.
• Gamification elements that increase engagement and motivation.

While these technologies offer exciting possibilities, the core principles of effective learning design will remain crucial. Understanding how people learn, creating engaging content, and providing meaningful feedback will always be at the heart of successful teaching.

Conclusion: Putting It All Together

Designing effective learning experiences is both an art and a science. By understanding how people learn and applying the principles outlined in "Design for How People Learn," you can create courses and training programs that are engaging, memorable, and truly effective.

Remember these key takeaways:

1. Know your audience and their motivations.
2. Design lessons with memory and context in mind.
3. Create active, challenging, and interactive learning experiences.
4. Build good habits and design knowledge into the environment.
5. Evaluate effectively and continuously improve your teaching.

By focusing on these elements, you'll be well-equipped to design learning experiences that resonate with your students and help them achieve their goals. Whether you're teaching in a classroom, leading corporate training, or creating online courses, these principles will guide you in creating impactful and memorable learning journeys.

As you apply these concepts, remember that becoming an effective teacher is a learning process in itself. Be open to feedback, experiment with different approaches, and continually refine your methods. With practice and dedication, you'll develop the skills to create learning experiences that truly make a difference in people's lives.

So, the next time you're tasked with teaching a workshop, designing a course, or even just explaining a complex topic to a colleague, think back to the principles in this book. How can you make the learning experience more engaging? How can you ensure the information sticks? By applying these ideas, you'll not only become a more effective teacher but also a more effective learner yourself.

In a world where continuous learning is more important than ever, the ability to design effective learning experiences is a valuable skill. Whether you're a professional educator, a team leader, or simply someone passionate about sharing knowledge, the insights from "Design for How People Learn" will help you create learning experiences that are not just informative, but transformative.