Page 106 - DMGT518_TRAINING_AND_DEVELOPMENT_SYSTEM

Unit 7: Learning in Training

7.2 Instructional Emphasis for Learning Outcomes Notes

To be present at a programme of training does not always ensure the trainee’s learning. He may
make genuine efforts to learn; and yet, at work he may make little use of the insights he
developed in the classroom. Training costs are unjustified if the participant does not, for whatever
reason, use his learning in his work, or if he has failed to understand how the classroom experience
relates to his job. The onus is on the trainer to ensure that (a) what is taught in class is relevant
to the participant’s experience; (b) the trainee gains sufficient understanding of what he learns to
be able to use it in his work. The understanding that the trainer contributes must enable the
manager to motivate his subordinates and improve the overall performance of his entire team.

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Caution It is to be considered that training’s best uses occur when an equation is satisfactorily
established between what is taught in the classroom and what the trainees use at work.

The trainee’s learning from a formal classroom situation depends upon:
(i) The trainee’s receptiveness;
(ii) The trainee’s rapport with the trainer;

(iii) The climate of training.
(i) The Trainee’s Receptiveness: The trainee’s general response to a course thus depends on
(a) the choice he himself exercises in coming to a programme and (b) the trainee’s perception
of how the top management previews training activity and how they integrate it with
overall management practices in the company. The following aspects of the individual’s
behaviour can be seen as generally significant:
(a) An individual develops his attitudes towards people, objects and situations through
his experiences in childhood, or in the formative years of his life. They are governed
by his interactions with parents, relatives, school, community and the like and
become an integral part of his adult personality. In adult life, the individual responds
to his peers, subordinates and superiors through his own values and attitudes.
(b) What an individual aspires is unique to his own personality. The trainee’s aspirations
are directly related to his history, his concept, his abilities, and his goals.
(c) Thus motivation is, for the trainee, an individual phenomenon. It is directed from
within himself. He directs his behaviour in the direction that enables him to reach
his perceived goal.
(d) Learning takes place not through isolated experience but by the reinforcement of
the same experiences of similar ones in a continuous series. From a given concept a
certain kind of behaviour would not be learnt unless the course provides appropriate
repetitions of the concept in different ways. Classroom learning will result in a
relatively permanent change if the individuals work after training provides
reinforcement of the idea used in training.
(ii) The Trainee’s Rapport with the Trainer: Training by itself does not induce people to learn.
The trainee’s receptiveness to learning is closely related to the climate of the organisation.

The main concern regarding the trainer is how he communicates with participants. There
are three difficulties in communication:
(a) Instructor’s concern for the trainee’s learning,

(b) Distortions in communications,

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