How Do People Learn?

In my experience, how people learn depends upon the target audience. I see both cognitive learning process and constructive learning process. I know that this may be an evasive answer, but true from my perspective. With the students that I teach, cognitive processing seems to be one method that these learners fit. These learners are active participants in their thinking. They receive information from the external world, categorizes the information internally that makes sense to them, and acquires knowledge (or learns from it). This approach to learning is somewhat structured, with information coming from teachers/instructors (external world). In the text, cognitive learning reflects positivist epistemology. Some of the characteristics of positivist are:
- knowledge exists independent of the learner
- this knowledge is transferred from outside source to learner
- classroom setting
- teacher directing/teacher driven
- objectives defined

I also see these students learning sometimes with the constructivism approach. These learners use prior knowledge to build a meaningful understanding of new content. Some of the lesson plans are created or built upon from previous lessons. Constructivism learning reflects relativism epistemology. Some characteristics include:
- learner is guided in constructing knowledge
- teacher facilitating/leaner centered
- goals negotiated

Example: In a desktop publishing class, students are taught about the different effects that color and aesthetics have on a publication (cognitive). Now relate what you have learned from this lesson and your knowledge of the Internet to construct a visually appealing website (constructivism).

I believe that a combination of the two may be the best approach to student learning and understanding. Sometimes new information must be presented and then internalized, other times the use of learned information is used to understand new concepts.

Instructional Design Job Search

I have located a Instructional Designer position on the ASTD website:
http://jobs.astd.org/jobdetail.cfm?job=2972012&keywords=instructional%20technology

I wanted to stay in the state of North Carolina and this position is located in the Davidson area. The company is called Aptara, Inc. and they have an opening an Instructional Designer/Project Manager. This position will be responsible for planning, analyzing, consulting, and managing new hire blended learning solutions. Other responsibilities include managing development and quality assurance.

Qualifications include experience in analyzing, designing, developing, and managing Instructor Lead Training and eLearning courses. Good training background along with a knowledge of learning theories and practice, technology is a plus. Also, experience in designing highly effective training materials would be helpful. The candidate must have good communication skills and writing skills and be able to work with subject matter experts (SMEs), programmers, designers, project managers and offshore teams.

This is a job that would interest me once I received my degree. I have worked with SMEs in my last job in the IT field developing not only customize software programs, but also training materials and conducted training courses to end-users. This position also refers to distance learning, which I will be certified when I finish my MS. Educational requirements are only a four year degree so I would exceed that expectation. The job is a contract job and some people may worry about this. But in today's corporate job market, they are all contract jobs. The definition of job security has changed in the past couple of decades.