Surviving troubled times: Five best practices for training solutions

Although executives in the current economic downturn have often downsized human resource, training, and performance improvement staff, five strategies can help training and performance improvement professionals survive these trying times: (1) align efforts with business goals, (2) use training to address skill gaps, (3) craft job‐focused objectives, (4) create sound training, and (5) collaborate with others to promote transfer to the job.     

M.A.S.S.: A Model for Producing Transfer

Transfer is the application in the workplace of the knowledge, skills and attitudes learned in training. With transfer, trainers hope to link training to increased job performance. However, training alone will not produce transfer. To affect job performance as a result of training, trainers must intentionally promote transfer using a variety of strategies based on known principles of human performance technology. The MASS model, presented in this paper, brings together four of these principles. According to the MASS model, trainers who promote transfer (and who thereby become performance technologists) 1) Motivate trainees to learn and use the training material; 2) increase trainees' Awareness of when to use new skills and ideas; 3) enable trainees to master and to apply Skills; and 4) give trainees psychological and physical Support on the job. When performance technologists follow the MASS model, they can expect to produce trainees who apply at work what they have been taught in training. Use of the model is illustrated with two examples.     

Overview of Transfer of Training: From Learning to Performance

This article explores the background, current state, and emerging trends in transfer of training. Transfer of training can be denned as, ensuring full application of new skills and knowledge to the workplace. Typically, past training efforts have focused on ensuring learning by trainees, and not on supporting the transfer of that learning to performance on the job. Today's organizations recognize effective workforce performance as a strategic asset in the global competitive economy but face problems in attaining high performance. Experience of successful organizations shows that key stakeholders (managers, trainers, trainees, and others) must be closely involved in all phases of the design, development, and implementation of training and other performance improvement efforts, to achieve and maintain effective workforce performance. However, both managers and human performance professionals frequently overlook the need to gain stakeholder involvement to support full transfer of new skills to the job. A successful program in a government agency, and recommendations for transfer strategies for technology-based learning, illustrate the collaboration of stakeholders which is necessary to achieve high levels of transfer of skills to the workplace.     

International assistance to third world educational management training—A critical examination of alternative strategies

Recent years have seen an increase in international assistance to Third World educational management training. A range of strategies have been adopted by Third World governments and donor agencies to promote training improvement. The paper examines these strategies, drawing on the literature and the author's direct involvement in a U.K. funded research project concerned with developing materials for Third World Educational management training. The lessons from experiences are considered and an attempt is made to identify factors influencing the impact of alternative strategies, which may have implications for international assistance in this field. It is concluded that strategies can at best be catalytic and that a combination of integrated strategies focusing on all components of institutional and personnel development is most likely to contribute towards improvement. It is suggested that more flexible and innovative strategies could offer considerable potential and warrant greater attention by those concerned with educational management training development.     

Training Transfer and Transfer Motivation: The Influence of Individual,Environmental, Situational,Training Design,and Affective Reaction Factors

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of individual, environmental, training design, and affective reaction factors on training transfer and transfer motivation. To determine the relationship between these factors and their influence on training transfer and to test the model, the researchers collected data from employees in the Malaysian banking sector. Structural equation modeling with Amos 16 was used to test the model and determine the relationship. The study suggested that training stakeholders should manage the training program effectively. Transfer is maximized when trainees have social support, high performance self‐efficacy, and transfer motivation. Stakeholders (e.g., trainers, trainees, supervisors, and peers) are important to the training transfer process, as are learner readiness, trainee reaction, instrumentality, and training retention. This study revealed that perceived content validity and transfer design work together and influence the trainee's performance self‐efficacy. In other words, if trainers want to improve the performance self‐efficacy level of trainees, they need to explain how the trainee can transfer the learned skills at the workplace and make sure the content of the training is similar to the actual job. The main objective of training programs is to align the employee's expertise with organizational goals. Organizations can achieve their desired objectives only when employees transfer the learned skills on the job. Unfortunately, employees often transfer only a small percentage of skills they have learned in training. To effectively manage their training programs, organizations need to identify and focus on the factors that resist effective training transfer.     

Child Behavior Problems,Teacher Executive Functions,and Teacher Stress in Head Start Classrooms

Research Findings: The current article explores the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of child behavior problems and preschool teacher job stress, as well as the possibility that teachers’ executive functions moderate this relationship. Data came from 69 preschool teachers in 31 early childhood classrooms in 4 Head Start centers and were collected using Web-based surveys and Web-based direct assessment tasks. Multilevel models revealed that higher levels of teachers’ perceptions of child behavior problems were associated with higher levels of teacher job stress and that higher teacher executive function skills were related to lower job stress. However, findings did not yield evidence for teacher executive functions as a statistical moderator. Practice or Policy: Many early childhood teachers do not receive sufficient training for handling children's challenging behaviors. Child behavior problems increase a teacher's workload and consequently may contribute to feelings of stress. However, teachers’ executive function abilities may enable them to use effective, cognitive-based behavior management and instructional strategies during interactions with students, which may reduce stress. Providing teachers with training on managing challenging behaviors and enhancing executive functions may reduce their stress and facilitate their use of effective classroom practices, which is important for children's school readiness skills and teachers’ health.     

Training transfer: Not the 10% solution

Training transfer is a key concern for organizational stakeholders, training professionals, and researchers. Since Georgenson's (1982) article on transfer, his conversational gambit that only 10% of training transfers to performance on the job has been quoted often. This estimate suggests a low level of success with training programs in general, and given its pervasiveness, it has the potential to undermine confidence in using training as an intervention. Although there is considerable evidence that learning from training can and does transfer, assessing how much of it transfers in general is far from simple. Researchers conducting recent meta‐analyses of transfer studies have illustrated some of the difficulties in assigning a general effect size for training transfer. Measuring transfer is complicated by how data are collected, from whom, at what interval from the training event, and a number of other factors. Taking those factors into account, along with existing transfer evaluation methods, training managers and instructional designers should develop protocols to define how they will conduct transfer evaluation within their organizations.     

Web 2.0 and Transfer: Trainers' Use of Technology to Support Employees' Learning Transfer on the Job

We steer transfer research in a new direction by examining the use of Web 2.0 technologies for supporting learning transfer resulting from formal training. We report survey results from training professionals (N = 83) on how their organization uses such methods to cue and support workers’ application of learned knowledge and skills on the job. Guided by the technology acceptance model (TAM) theory, we examined predictor variables found to influence technology use based on empirical and theoretical support in the information technology (IT) literature. Results indicate that trainers are influenced by several individual factors (computer experience, computer anxiety, and computer self‐efficacy), as well as their organization's learning climate, to use Web 2.0 tools to support transfer of learning. Trainers also prefer to use social media, networking applications, and visual media to support transfer among learners. We discuss implications for using Web 2.0 technologies in support of learning transfer and provide directions for future workplace learning research.     

Measuring the Transfer of Training

This study examined the use of self-report to measure training transfer by comparing three training transfer assessment methods. Applying a framework provided by instructional alignment theory, the study tested the hypothesis that if training transfer is measured by assessment methods that vary in their degree of alignment with the post-training learning assessment, the training transfer scores would be higher as the degree of alignment increased. Instructional alignment is the extent to which stimulus conditions match across instructional components: intended outcomes, instructional processes, and assessment. Three training transfer assessments were administered to 40 telecommunications technicians approximately 60 days after they completed a training course. The moan transfer score for the job performance assessment with high alignment was significantly higher than the two self-report assessments of moderate and low alignment with effect size differences of 0.96 (p < .01) and 0.87 (p < .01), respectively. The mean scores for the two self-report assessments did not significantly differ. This study has implications for the extensive use of self-report to assess training transfer in both research and training evaluation programs.     

How much is transferred from training to the job? The 10% delusion as a catalyst for thinking about transfer

This article explores the common belief that only a small amount of what is taught in a training program is actually transferred to the job. After providing evidence of the source of the generalization and the acceptance of the notion despite the lack of empirical, behavioral evidence, we take the opportunity to examine the likely reasons for that acceptance. We present five questionable assumptions behind the generalization about minimal transfer. Based on this analysis, we offer four practical strategies for planning, assessing, and reporting training transfer. These strategies include investigating and accounting for variables influencing transfer, expanding the definition of use, stating realistic transfer goals, creating specific transfer objectives, describing observable indicators of use, setting quantitative standards of successful transfer, and reporting the complete transfer story. These strategies provide avenues for producing a more accurate picture of the training transfer experience.     

Design and Validation of MAPS for Educators: A Performance Support System to Guide Media Selection for Lesson Design

The importance of adopting technology‐supported performance systems for on‐the‐job learning and training is well‐recognized in a networked economy. In this study, we present a performance support system (PSS) designed to support technology integration for lesson design. The goal is to support educators in the development of appropriate and effective technology integration strategies for learning and training events. The system is based on the PSS design architecture created by Hung and Chao (2007) called Matrix‐Aided Performance System (MAPS). MAPS was created to minimize navigational confusion and enhance users' comprehension and synthesis of information gathered from the PSS. Fifteen educators and instructional technologists were invited to evaluate the system's readiness as well as to identify potential practical constraints that might hinder its use in a real‐world setting. Findings from a perception survey and focus group interviews confirm the beneficial effects of the unified interface on navigation and orientation of content materials. Feedback provided by participants to improve the system interaction and functionality are also reported to further validate the design architecture of MAPS.     

Oddity of visual patterns conceptualized by pigeons

Pigeons were trained to learn an instrumental oddity-from-sample discrimination involving visual forms. One group, the “few examples” group, dealt with 5 patterns in 40 different combinations. Another group, the “many examples” group, dealt with 20 patterns in 160 different combinations. After both groups had reached asymptotic performance and had learned to operate under partial reinforcement conditions, they were tested for transfer under extinction conditions with two different groups of 5 novel patterns, each in 40 combinations. All animals showed significant above chance transfer to both of these novel stimulus sets. Transfer performance with test stimuli of similar geometric design to training stimuli was better than performance with stimuli of markedly different design. The transfer performance of the “many examples” group was marginally better than that of the “few examples” group, even though the latter’s performance on the training stimuli was better throughout. It is concluded that pigeons can learn to employ an oddity concept and that this may be promoted by the use of many training exemplars. Furthermore, it is inferred that pigeons may normally use a mixture of strategies to solve oddity and identity problems.     

基于专业技能抽查的高职机电专业课程改革

湖南省高职院校毕业生专业技能抽查工作,是为全面提升高职教育人才培养质量而开展的一项创新工作。在这种新的形势下,高职机电专业的人才培养模式和实践教学体系都必须进行相应的变革。     

Training for innovation in India: Cultural considerations and strategic Implications

Global organizations with personnel in India rank innovation as a primary workforce development objective to stay competitive in the global market (NASSCOM, 2007 ). This analysis reviews relevant literature for evidence of cultural factors that stand in the way of innovative performance in Indian personnel and discusses implications for the design of interventions. Findings in the literature indicate possible knowledge gaps resulting from higher education quality assurance problems and high turnover in the job market, underrecognition of creative and practical intellectual abilities owing to testing practices, and restrictions on creative tendencies stemming from hierarchical structures and external pressures. Instructional design implications include the use of diagnostics, transformational learning strategies, and systemic reinforcement initiatives.     

Mechanisms of Innovation Diffusion Under Information Abundance and Information Scarcity—On the Contribution of Social Networks in Group Vs. Individual Extension Approaches in Semi-Arid Kenya

Abstract

Purpose: Training transfer has been examined for formal industrial and service organizations in developed countries but rarely for rural organizations in sub-Saharan Africa. This study sought to identify transfer system factors that best explain the transfer of governance-facilitation skills provided to leaders of farmers' marketing organizations (FMOs) in Uganda. Design/methodology/approach: Face to face interviews using interview schedules containing selected elements of the Learning Transfer System Inventory were conducted with 99 FMO leaders to collect data on the factors that could affect transfer of governance-facilitation skills. Findings: Hierarchical regression revealed that personal capacity to transfer, transfer design, supervisor support and feedback on performance were significant predictors of perceived transfer of governance-facilitation skills.

Practical implications: Results point to the need for extension organizations that work with rural farmers' organizations to design effective training methods and transfer approaches that enhance training transfer, as well as promote leadership that values and supports training transfer to FMOs.

Originality/value: The focus on member owned, participatorily run rural farmers' organizations to test factors affecting transfer of critical skills adds value to the training transfer discourse. Additionally, the role of trainee characteristics, transfer design and work environment factors in enhancing training transfer within developing country local organizations in rural Africa is confirmed.     

Got tools? Concept map

The International Society for Performance Improvement's journal Performance Improvement has invited readers to submit Human Performance Technology (HPT) tools for publication. These can include ready‐to‐use job aids or tools and templates used to facilitate gap analysis, process flow mapping, performance consulting, instructional design, e‐learning, on‐the‐job training, solution design, and performance measurement and evaluation, to name few. We're looking for a variety of instruments that are consistent with the principles of HPT, have broad appeal, and are applicable to a variety of workplace situations. In all cases, tools should focus on adding value to individual, team, or organizational performance. Our first submission is a Concept Map submitted by Aaron U. Bolin.     

A Phonetic Study of Young Children’s Speech

Abstract. The author examined the effectiveness of training in symbolic logic for improving students' deductive reasoning. A total of 116 undergraduate students (approximately equal numbers of men and women) enrolled in 1st-year university philosophy courses in symbolic logic participated in 2 studies. In both studies, students completed booklets of categorical and conditional syllogisms at the beginning of the course and again at the end of the course. In Study 2, students also specified their reasoning strategies. Results indicated that students' strategies changed with training (students increased their use of mental models and mental rules with categorical and conditional syllogisms, respectively), but their reasoning performance improved only moderately. The educational implications of these results are explored.     

Going beyond Kirkpatrick's Training Evaluation Model: The role of workplace factors in distance learning transfer

Abstract

This article emanates from a longitudinal study of the impact of a distance education programme for teacher training on graduates' job performance, in which the authors built on the findings of a previous pilot study. After using Kirkpatrick's Training Evaluation Model in a previous study, one of the authors found there to be a strong relationship between graduates' completion of the programme and their performance at school. However, the model does not probe factors that impede on transfer of learning. Quite a number of the graduate participants indicated that they were faced with this problem. In order to further probe this phenomenon, the authors fused Baldwin's Transfer of Training Model with the second level of Kirkpatrick's model by using a mixed-methods enquiry. It became clear that the organizational climate of schools has a strong influence on the transfer of learning in the workplace. Suggestions are presented on how educators and school managers can work together effectively.     

Got tools?: Modified six‐box model

The International Society for Performance Improvement's journal Performance Improvement has invited readers to submit human performance technology (HPT) tools for publication. These can include ready‐to‐use job aids or tools and templates that can be used to facilitate activities such as gap analysis, process flow mapping, performance consulting, instructional design, e‐learning, on‐the‐job training, solution design, and performance measurement and evaluation, to name a few. We are looking for a variety of instruments that are consistent with the principles of HPT, have broad appeal, and are applicable to a variety of workplace situations. In all cases, tools should focus on adding value to individual, team, or organizational performance. Our submission this month is from Aaron U. Bolin, CPT, PhD, of the U.S. Navy Human Performance Center.     

Solutions to Literacy Deficiencies in the Workplace; A Survey of Current Practices

Much attention has focused on employee basic skill (literacy) problems in recent years. Most authorities on the topic have focused their attention on two solutions alone: (a) offering in-house training to employees short-term solution intended to rectify existing basic skill deficiencies in the workforce; and (b) supporting public education as a long-term solution intended to ensure that future job applicants/employees possess basic skills adequate for beginning work. Few writers or authorities have suggested alternative performance improvement strategies to address basic skill problems. This article identifies a range of performance improvement strategies for addressing basic skill deficiencies and summarizes results of a recent survey of training and development professionals about how often these strategies are used in their organizations. In general, many survey respondents indicated that their organizations are using many different performance improvement strategies to address basic skill problems.