How do we learn? Through experience, repetition, and engagement

One of our clients at Hornbill FX is in the business of training teachers on how to teach more effectively… based on how their young students learn.

Future Learning offers a course through which they teach teachers about brain-based learning and other psychological/scientific principles. The subject matter was quite technical and learners sometimes found it dry and difficult to relate to. 

Traditionally conducted in a classroom setting, practical constraints restricted the number of learners who could participate in their training sessions – a situation that was only exacerbated by the pandemic. Classroom training was supported by sharing a print version of the entire research report with learners, a vast text document with multiple pages of scientific research.

As it is a highly technical subject, Future Learning found that many of the trainees were unable to attain the learning outcomes desired.

HBX solved this by proposing a character-based narrative, creating a character the learners could relate to the students they encountered in their classrooms. This helped them understand the material in a contextual manner, and draw parallels with everyday classroom experiences. 

This was augmented with situational learning activities and assessments where they could apply the principles learned, again in the same relatable context.

To the client, success meant…

• Converting dry and complex curriculum into easily comprehensible modules
• Orienting learners to the practical application of the research done
• Leveraging innovative instructional design to attain desired learning outcomes

Here’s how we helped our client achieve their objectives

Since the technical research on how the brain works is not intended for doctors or psychologists, but to guide teachers on how to help students learn better, we redesigned the content delivery. Instead of talking about the structure and functioning of the brain, the module now focused on the way students learn.

The content was edited and tweaked to be as relatable as possible. Since the learners of the course are kindergarten teachers being trained on how to teach young children, we focused on delivering the content through examples pertaining to Meghna, a young girl just like the students that the teachers would work with at school. The “How the Brain Learns” module was thus made more specific, and designed to teach how Meghna’s brain learns. This made the technical content less abstract, and more relatable, to the teachers being trained.

Our team sat down to understand the raw content in detail. Using the principles of innovative and engaging instructional design, we converted it into well-presented content supported by an interactive menu system introducing each section. 

The training module was split for ease of comprehension into multiple sub-modules, each of which was structured to present an example of Meghna learning, the abstract principle behind it, how to apply the principle in practice, and a brief assessment exercise.

Each concept of the brain is explained in more detail based on how it relates to Meghna, her interests and how she learns and grows. This makes the course more accessible as the concepts are oriented towards immediate application.

Each content module has defined learning outcomes, tested by quizzes and assessments associated with each.

Moving away from a textbook style content delivery, the creation and usage of “Meghna” helped us deliver learner-led learning that focused on equipping trainees with the actual knowledge and skills that the course wished to inculcate. Rather than deliver a learning module based on the heavily data-oriented content that was shared with us as input, we at Hornbill reimagined the learning content delivery that could achieve the real intended learning outcome: to help kindergarten teachers understand how to help their young charges learn and grow through their classes.

While it’s important to share the factual content, the practical application was the greater requirement in this case. Understanding this through consultation with our client, the team at Hornbill FX designed the module accordingly.

If you are interested in similarly developing a learning module that brings out the practical application of technical course material in engaging ways, do contact our experts at Hornbill FX today.