Rose Colored Glasses

Learners are not “empty vessels” waiting to be filled with content pushed into it by an expert. Learning is something that happens between the learner’s ears–it’s a form of co-creation between the learner and the learning experience. We can’t create new pathways in someone’s head… our job is to create an environment where the chances of the learner “getting it” in the way that you intend are as high as possible.

Suggestion

When designing your courses provide a meaningful benefit for each topic, in the form of “why you should care about this” scenario.

Learning is much more effective if the learner’s brain knows why what you’re about to talk about matters. The benefit and/or reason why you should learn something needs to come before the actual content. Otherwise, the learner’s brain gets to the end of what you’re telling them and says, “Oh, NOW you tell me. If you’d said that earlier, I would have paid more attention…” This process of not-paying-attention is not completely within the learner’s conscious control so, like I said, even if the person is motivated to learn this thing, their brain can still tune out during specific parts that don’t start with a compelling benefit.

Technique

To find a “meaningful benefit”, play the “Why? Who Cares? So What?” game with someone else. Describe the thing you’re trying to explain, to which the other person asks, “Why?” Provide an answer, to which the person then asks, “Who cares?”. Provide an answer, to which the person asks, “So?” At this point, when you’re nearly ready to kill them for not getting it, you probably have the thing you should have said instead of whatever you said first (and second). The most compelling and motivating reason/benefit is almost always the thing you say only after you’ve answered at least three “Yeah, but WHY do I care?” questions.