Creating Unforgettable Learning Experiences

On Friday, 25 January 2019, I joined members of the Learning and Development Network International at the monthly Learning Circle in Lagos. As the guest speaker, I had decided to talk about Unforgettable Learning Experiences: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Since individuals and organizations make huge investment in learning and development, they deserve value for money from the learning activities. Are you and your organisation getting good return on investment? A bad trainer or facilitator can ruin the learning experience leaving you and your organisation shortchanged. Can you remember the best learning or training experience you ever had? What about your worst instructor, trainer or teacher? What do you remember about them? Can you classify them into Good, Bad and Ugly? Some of the reasons why these experiences did not leave positive memories in your mind could be that there was no energy or enthusiasm from the facilitator or trainer.

Learning is meant to be the acquisition of knowledge or developing the ability to perform new behaviours while teaching is “imparting knowledge or skill to induce learning". Learning is a joyful experience. At the age of 87, Michelangelo said he was still learning.

After completing my postgraduate programme in human resource management at London Metropolitan University, I nursed the idea of teaching in the tertiary education sector but I was told I must hold a qualification in adult teaching and learning methodology. With that feedback, I enrolled for the postgraduate certificate in education (further education sector) at the Avery Hill campus of the University of Greenwich. I learnt many lessons from the programme. (1) Not everyone with subject knowledge can teach or train others. (2) Certificates do not confer competence. (3) Everybody does not learn the same way. (4) The efficiency and effectiveness of the learning process depends on the attitude and behaviour that an individual brings to a learning opportunity (5) It is not true that you can not teach an old dog new tricks. Up till the age of forty, I had never played any musical instrument. A chance lunch meeting with Dede Mabiaku, a professional saxophonist who played with the Afro-beat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti changed everything. I told him that I wish I could play the saxophone. He took me through some breathing exercises and recommended the alto saxophone. On my 40th birthday, I got the saxophone and started having lessons. I was soon able to play two songs and I keep learning! (6) An individual‘s preference for a particular learning style will tend to be reinforced over time and in this way become a habit.

What accounted for my relative success with the saxophone? (1) I wanted to have fun (2) I was self motivated (3) the environment was good for learning. According to Tamara L, Chilvers, fun combined with learning produces the best learning experience. Fun can be a good way of overcoming sophophobia, the fear of learning. I remember how we learnt about the major African Rivers in our childhood. It was through the use of music.

Some rivers of Africa…Nile, Niger, Senegal, (or Benue to suit local context), Congo, Orange, Limpopo, Zambezi!

This shows that learning can be easy and fun. One of my all-time favourite movies is The Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. In this 1965 musical film, Sister Maria, an aspiring nun (played by Julie Andrew) was a music-loving person who was released from the training programme at the local catholic convent because of her nonconformist behaviour. She was offered the opportunity to serve as governess to seven motherless children of the retired naval Captain Von Trapp (played by Christopher Plummer). Using her jovial and fun teaching style, she became a success with the children and improved their general interest in learning. Another favourite movie is Sister Act, a 1992 film featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Lauryn Hill. Whoopi plays Deloris, a cabaret singer who attended a Catholic convent school in her childhood. After witnessing a murder at the club, she is forced to hide from the mob in a convent as part of a witness protection programme. Under her assumed name of Sister Mary Clarence, she used her groovy music style to refocus the unruly students in the music class and convinced them that they could be a successful choir. She used her knowledge of getting the audience involved on the nuns who delivered boring song performances during Masses and they improved to the amazement of the parish priest and parishioners. Attendance at masses improved. She inspired the students choir to deliver great performances. Alfred Mercier was right when he said what we learn with fun, we never forget.

Research has shown that some people can and will learn in spite of bad teaching while some people will not learn even with the best teaching. I agree with John Silverman who said that “people are more likely to understand what they figure out for themselves than what you figure out for them”.

Let us take more lessons from my postgraduate adult learning programme. Some trainers use a style more appropriate for children when engaging adult learners. Adults decide what is important for them to learn. Thy need to know why they need to learn something. They would take in information based on their own experiences using active process of reflection and discussion and expect that what they are learning will be useful immediately. Do not forget that they have experiences and skills to share with you and other participants. People learn better when they participate in designing their own learning. Learning is about developing skills. There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says “One picture is worth a thousand words.” Therefore, use appealing styles to arouse learner interest. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”. This is my recommendation on how to create memorable learning experiences.