Learning and subject expectations

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Reading Description: Gallagher, K. J. (2010). Foundations for personal development. In Skills development for

business and management students (pp. 19-37). Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Reading Description Disclaimer:

(This reference information is provided as a guide only, and may not conform to the required referencing standards for your subject)

Foundations for Personal Development

Chapter Guide

Student Viewpoint

Dawn, Lee, and Paula were studying for a part-time degree in Applied Management. At

the time of writing they had been working together for almost 2 years in the 'learning set'.

They were asked how useful they had found personal development within their course.

Their responses are given below:

good to have protected time to review and reflect own personal development, to analyse strengths

and weaknesses and to identify a plan

%1'- wouldn't normally look at personal development on a day-to-day basis but having to engage with the

exercises [as part of the course J has in fact proved very beneficial

'-' has helped me to look at career planning

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

* Apply a learning cycle approach to your own learning (we will look at Kolb, Honey

and Mumford)

* Outline the concept of learning styles (Honey and Mumford)

* Design your own learning jpurnal

* Explain the concept of 'self�efficacy' and how this is linked to experience

* Apply the principles of 'cognitive apprenticeship' to your own learning

* Describe conscious and unconscious competence

20 FOUNDATIONS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Introduction

The main thrust of this chapter is about preparing you for the personal development

exercises throughout the rest of the book. Essentially you need to be aware of the under­

lying learning philosophy. This is centred here around a reflective, experience based

('experiential') approach to personal development. The idea that you develop confidence

(self-efficacy) through having experiences is introduced.

Some of your learning experiences will be planned, others will happen anyway.

However, you should not think that you always have to go through this process alone. The

personal development process is ideally one that you share with others, where you seek

advice and appropriate help as necessary.

Chapter outline

The chapter begins with a reminder from Chapter 1 that personal development is impor­

tant from both academic and employment perspectives. The role that reflection plays in

POP (personal development planning) is introduced. This leads into a discussion of how

you learn through experience-experiential learning. Various models of this are given

and you are shown an example of a typical learning sequence using one of them. You will

then consider your different 'styles' of learning. To help you in your reflection, the discus­

sion then turns to how you might use a learning journal to record your progress and to

think about how you have learnt, and perhaps what you might do in similar situations in

the future. The final part of the chapter is about the help, support and advice you might

receive from a mentor or other person. This person may be able to tell you things about

yourself that are not obvious to you.

2.1 Introducing personal development plans

At university the focus of personal development plans is upon personal, academic and

career related goals during each of your years studying, with an eye to the future. lt is

important to fully engage with them, for as Garavalia and Gredler (2002: 221) point out

'students who set effective goals, utilize appropriate learning strategies, and evaluate

the requirements of learning tasks adequately tend to achieve at higher levels than other

students'.

In the world of work you will probably be given annual appraisals which look back

over the year and forward to the next in terms of your performance, training needs,

and career aspirations. Some professional institutions such as the Institute of Personal

Development and the Chartered Management Institute require that you keep your 'Con­

tinuing Professional Development' (CPD) up to date and keep an ongoing portfolio of

your professional development. Many organizations ask you to keep a diary or a log

of your personal and professional development. In other words, personal development

planning is going on not just in schools and universities but 'out there' in the world of

work.

2.2 The importance of reflection

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING 21

Personal development planning requires careful thought. You need to think about what

you want to improve. This means you need to decide what is important to you at the

moment and what is likely to be relevant to you in the future. You need to investigate and

somehow measure your current levels of skills and knowledge. To do this you may have

to look back in time (to reflect) to consider your recent performance. Armed with these

'baselines' you have the starting point of your plan and a means of monitoring future

improvements. Thus, reflection is part of the initial planning process.

Baud, Keogh, and Walker (1985) talk of reflection as 'turning experience into practice'.

They define reflection as:

Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experi­

ence, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it. it is this working with experience

that is important to learning.

(Baud et al. 1985: 19)

The whole purpose of a personal development plan is to give direction to what you

are going to do-those experiences which will allow you to develop your abilities and

knowledge. Reflection enables you to derive the fullest benefit from those experiences.

To do this you need to be constantly reflecting upon your learning experiences. You

should note that the term 'experience' can constitute all aspects of our actions, behav­

iour, thoughts, and emotions.

2.3 Experiential learning

You will recall from Chapter 1 that one of the ways through which you learn is by memoriz­

ing information-but there are other methods by which you learn, learning from experi­

ence being at the forefront. Kolb, Rubin, and Osland (1991) remind us:

For most of us, the first associations we have with the word 'learning' are teacher,

classroom and textbook ...

As students, our job is to observe, read and memorize what the teacher assigns and

then to repeat 'what we have learned' in examinations .... The textbook symbolizes the

assumption that learning is primarily concerned with abstract ideas and concepts. The

more remembered, the more you have learned. The relevance and application of these

concepts to your own job will come later. Concepts come before experience.

(Kolb et al. 1991: 59)

Of course we do need to remember facts and figures. But, as Kolb, Rubin, and Osland (1991)

go on to say:

As a result of these assumptions, the concept of learning seldom seems relevant to

us in our daily lives and work.

22 FOUNDATIONS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Kolb talks of learning from our experiences and he sees learning as a continuous process

in which you take charge of your learning. What you learn is what you decide you need

for your own particular situation. The following quote from Kolb, Rubin, and Osland (1991)

emphasizes that what you really need to acquire is the ability to keep learning from your

experiences.

And yet ... in a world where the rate of change is increasing rapidly every year, in a time

when few will end their careers in the same jobs or even the same occupations they

started in, the ability to learn seems an important, if not the most important, skill.

(Kolb et al. 1991 : 59)

In experiential learning it is not just the immediate content of what you have learned

that is important but your ability to think back to previous experiences and to make some

sort of sense of what has happened in a particular situation(s) and then to construct

plans for what you might do if a similar situation were to confront you in the future. You

also carefully consider the worth of any new learning in terms of their cost/benefit. Both

of these processes are 'cognitive'-they engage you in deliberate conscious thought.

Perhaps the most defining of David Kolb's work was his 'experiential learning cycle'

which depicted learning as a cycle of four consecutive stages. The four stages are: con­

crete experience, reflection, theorizing, and testing.

Concrete experience

Typical examples of learning experiences are:

• field trips;

• training sessions;

• mistakes;

• giving/listening to presentations;

• reading;

• arguments;

• team discussions;

• creating something;

• watching someone else do a job .

The list goes on. Experiences may be physical-that is feeling, doing, or thinking/

emotional-or a combination. They might happen to us or we might observe them hap­

pening as events and be affected by them in some way.

Reflection

The reflection stage is where we give our own initial thoughts on what happened. This may

also take into account initial observations from others. For instance, let's say that your learn­

ing experience was giving a presentation in class. Then, your initial thoughts may be 'yes, that

went well. particularly the concluding remark: At this point all you are doing is observing.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING 23

Theorizing

In the next stage-theorizing-you try to make sense of what happened. In this case­

why did people like that concluding remark? Was it because it was interesting? Was it

humorous? You will think of other similar situations that you have been in. Is there some sort

of general rule that you think applies? What have the textbooks told you about concluding

remarks?

Testing

At this stage you may decide to test out your ideas for improvement before applying

them to the next time that you have a similar experience. In the above case you might

want to try writing different types of concluding remark and experiment to see how

effective they are. You are, in effect, planning for your next experience. (Sometimes you

will see the 'testing' stage replaced by 'planning' for this reason.) The cycle was normally shown to start with the experience (or 'concrete experience' as Kolb

described it) in the 12 o'clock position, the cyclical arrow from this leading to the next stage

at 3 o'clock which was the 'Reflection' stage. The stages of Theorizing' at 6 o'clock and then

Testing' at 9 o'clock followed in the cycle. (You may wish to note, however, that Cowan (2006:

46) says that it is quite possible to begin the cycle at the Theorizing stage). Being cyclical,

Kolb said that we go around a new cycle the next time we have a similar experience.

Following on from the popularity of Kolb's work on the learning cycle, many other

theorists ad_opted the learning style approach, perhaps none more successfully than Alan

Mumford and Peter Honey. Indeed, over recent years their work on learning styles has

become the preferred choice for many trainers and tutors involved in management devel­

opment (and, by implication, for students studying business and management). Honey

and Mumford's model of the learning cycle is shown in Figure 2.1.

er> Having

an experience (Activist)

Planning next step

{Pragmatist)

\b Concluding from the

experience {Theorist)

Fig 2.1 Honey and Mumford's Learning Cycle

Source: Mumford (1997: 32)

Reviewing the

experience {Reflector)

24 FOUNDATIONS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Skills Example 2.1 The adult swimmer

To illustrate how the Honey and Mumford model in Figure 2.1 works, let us take

as an example James-a poor adult swimmer who wants to improve his swimming

technique. Tired of fit twenty-something swimmers who seem to delight in speed­

ing past and cutting in front of him, and embarrassed that he struggles to keep

up with the old-age pensioners in the pool, James has decided that he must do

something to improve his swimming finesse and pool image (note how feelings are

very important to spur us on to learning!).

1st cycle

Having an experience Relating James' learning to the learning cycle, you can see

that he has had an experience {swimming poorly).

Reviewing He has then immediately reviewed this experience; he is far from happy

with his performance. Had an instructor been present at the poolside, James' per­

formance might have been observed and he might have received feedback at this

stage, but in this particular case the feedback is the result of self-assessment only.

Concluding James then enters the 'concluding' position: he wonders what he is

doing wrong-he seems to be putting a lot of energy into not getting very far or

going very quickly. He starts to observe fast swimmers to see what it is that they

do which he doesn't. He finds this of limited use as it is difficult to see precisely

what they are doing but he notes that they don't seem to expend energy franti­

cally like he does. Then, browsing through his local bookshop one day he has a

breakthrough; there on the shelf is a book entitled 'Total Immersion' which almost

unbelievably says that by following a few essential changes in technique, the poor

swimmer should quickly be able to progress to competence. James buys the book.

He notes the main points: try to maintain a horizontal position so as to minimize

drag from the water; try to make yourself long and pointy in the water-like a

sleek yacht hull rather than a squat tugboat-for as long as possible throughout

the swimming stroke; finally try to think as if you are a fish slipping through a small

hole in the water in front!

Planning Armed with these 'theories' he progresses to the 'planning' phase-the

next time he is in the pool. Achieving a horizontal position in the water is difficult

at first but by following the book's advice on imagining oneself as swimming 'down­

hill' he manages this. He practises being long and thin in the water by trying to

glide in the water fully outstretched. He spends the rest of the session trying these

techniques, planning to incorporate them in his swimming in future. James has now

completed one learning cycle.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING 25

2nd cycle

The next time he goes to the pool he incorporates everything he has learnt in

to his swimming: this is his next experience. He might then go through a second

learning cycle. For instance, almost straight away he notices a significant improve­

ment in his swimming {reviewing). Amazing! The book was right. Later that night he

re-reads the chapter {further concluding). In future he can feed experiences into his

own theory. {Cowan 2006 talks about 'generalizing'-from our experiences we are

able to say 'aha ... so it would seem to me that in general the following seems to

be true .. .'). And so the learning cycle continues. James is now swimming faster and

with more efficiency. But note-it's not because he is fitter-it's because he took

time to review, conclude, and plan.

Activity 2.1 Learning from lntute

For this activity you will need to have access to the Internet. The aim of the exer­

cise is to learn something of value to you as a student and to analyse how you

learnt it in terms of the Learning Cycle.

You are about to use a website called 'intute'. The easiest way to explain the

website's function is to quote from the site itself: 'lntute is a free online service

providing access to the very best web resources for education and research. All

materials are selected by a network of subject specialists to create the lntute data­

base' (http:/ /www.intute.ac.uk/about.html, no date).

• On your computer, access the Internet and then go to the address http://www.

intute.ac.uk which will take you to the opening screen of the intute site.

• Now locate 'Internet Training' and click on 'Virtual Training Suite'.

• Next, locate the 'Social Sciences' column, and click on 'Business Manager (HE)'.

• This brings you to 'Internet Business Manager' and an interactive tutorial.

In this exercise you may choose what you spend your time on. However, it is sug­

gested that you spend half an hour on whatever section{s) this is (do not expect to

finish the whole tutorial in this time; you may decide to overview the whole tuto­

rial, or focus on particular sections).

Ql. Which sections of the tutorial did you access? (This is your learning

experience in the learning cycle.)

Q2. What, in particular, did you learn? Was it interesting? How easy did you find

accessing new information? (This is your initial review, the next stage of the

learning cycle.)

26 FOUNDATIONS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Q3. In general what can you say about what you have learnt in your chosen

section-for instance, how might you summarize this as an approach to

researching companies, government websites, famous business writers, etc.?

Does what you have learnt agree with any previous knowledge you have?

(This is the concluding stage of your learning cycle.)

Q4. Finally, how might you use what you have learnt (in future research, for

example)? What will you do differently in future as a result of this learning­

this can also include learning more about some of the websites, as well as

using them. (This is the planning stage of your learning cycle.)

Please note: As this web-based exercise is subject to change, should you encounter d ifficulties, you should consult the Online Resource Centre, where alternative exercises may be available, for further information.

2.4 Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles

In the late 1970s Peter Honey and Alan Mumford introduced their Learning Styles

Theory. This linked the four stages of Kolb's Learning Cycle to particular styles of

learning: an 'Activist' style corresponding to the Experience part of the cycle, a

'Reflector' corresponding to Reflection, a 'Theorist' corresponding to the Theoriz­

ing stage, and a 'Pragmatist' corresponding to the Testing/Planning phase. The four

learning styles in the Honey and Mumford Learning Styles Inventory are defined in

summary below:

• Activists like: to think on their feet; to have short sessions; plenty of variety; the

opportunity to initiate; to participate and have fun.

• Reflectors like: to think before acting; thorough preparation; to research and eval­

uate; to make decisions in their own time; to listen and observe.

• Theorists like: concepts and models; to see the overall picture; to feel intellectually

stretched; structure and clear objectives; a logical presentation of ideas.

• Pragmatists like: to see the relevance of their work; to gain practical advantage

from learning; credible role models; proven techniques; activities to be real.

(Honey and Mumford 2006: 19-20)

You can see how this maps on to Honey and Mumford's learning cycle if you refer back

to Figure 2.1. By completing a questionnaire students can be 'scored' against each of the

four styles. Honey and Mumford say that ideally someone has a balanced learning style

which means that he or she will go through all stages of the learning cycle. However, some

people have a strong preference for a particular style. Whilst this can have benefits in

terms of that particular style's strengths, it may miss out on the desirable qualities of the

other styles. Thus one of the uses of the Learning Styles Inventory is to allow the learner

REFLECTING-USING LEARNING JOURNALS 27

to build developmental objectives for expanding their competence in the under-represented

styles: for instance, some one who is a poor activist might deliberately plan to carry out

more activities to learn from; a poor theorist might plan to find out more about how and

why a particular experience turned out as it did. Alternatively, the learner might choose a

method of learning which best suits their particular learning style strength. Another use

of the learning styles inventory is to form teams of people who as a group exhibit all of

the four styles in a balanced fashion.

2.5 Reflecting-using learning journals

2.5.1 Why keep a learning journal?

You may be asked to keep a learning journal for your personal development. This helps

you in your reflection. lt helps you to move around the learning cycle. But, how many

of us keep a diary? Perhaps not many. Anna Boiling (1994} quotes the American novel­

ist Mark Twain writing in 1867- probably with tongue in cheek-'lf you wish to inflict

a heartless and malignant punishment upon a young person, pledge him [her] to keep

a journal for a year' before she then goes on to state that Twain did in fact keep many

journals himself.

If you have ever kept a diary or journal, it has likely been at a time when you were

reflecting upon your life-for instance when moving away from home for the first

time. However, the action of writing down our thoughts can be very powerful when

it comes to your personal development. You may see the term 'learning journals;

'learning log; 'personal review; or simply 'workplace diary' used when referring to

this activity.

Learning journals can come in many different formats: at the simplest they are merely

our notes recording what we did that day; they might be completed on a daily or regular

basis; they might be completed only when we feel that we have something significant to

say; they might be more akin to a series of question prompts which we complete; they

might be linked to our personal development objectives.

If you want to read up on the use of journals, the work of Jenny Moon is highly recom­

mended. She quotes Richardson as saying, 'I write because I want to find something out,

I write in order to learn something I didn't know before I wrote it' (Moon 1999}. She goes

on to add that journals offer the development of 'voice' (72}. Also, quoting Richardson

again, she points out that 'Journals acknowledge the role of emotion in learning' (27}.

Once again-feelings matter!

You may say things in your journal which you feel that you cannot say to others; for

this reason you may wish to keep your journal private. However, if you are required (for

example, by a professional institution) to keep a journal for professional development

purposes you may have to give access to certain individuals. Certainly journals can record

your fears, doubts, joys, highs, and lows in a very personal manner. You are encouraged

to keep a learning journal for these reasons.

28 FOUNDATIONS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

LEARNING JOURNAL: Name

Date:

What was critical incident concerned with?

Details of what happened

My initial thoughts

My initial feelings

What skills/behaviours did I use?

Performance rating of my skills (1 poor - 5 good)

Confidence rating of my skills (1-5)

What have I learnt?

What will I do differently next time?

Fig 2.2 Critical incident sheet

2.5.2 Thoughts on the learning journal format

Critical incident versus diary

Your learning journal may simply be a collection of such critical incident sheets in a folder

{hard copy or electronic). See Figure 2.2 for an example of a critical incident sheet. Alter­

natively, you may prefer to write in diary-fashion what you have learnt that particular day

or week. The important thing is that you establish a routine of entering comments.

Hand written versus electronic

If you decide upon a hand-written journal, buy a good quality hardback notebook which

can take a little rough treatment over the next 6 months or so. A good ringbinder file is

another option-this will allow you to add supplementary sheets. The beauty of hard­

copy is that you have the ability to easily add freehand notes, diagrams, and you are not

dependent upon technology. However, you may decide to keep your learning journal

electronically-you can devise your own, or you may already be using computer soft­

ware for this purpose (for instance capturing additional information such as photos and

relevant links to websites). Or you might have some combination of the two media-for

instance downloading key information to hardcopy.

ALBERT BANDURA: CONFIDENCE AND SELF-EFFICACY 29

Activity 2.2 A personalized learning journal

Read the above section on learning journals again. You are asked to:

1 . Choose or design your own learning journal format.

2. Write in your learning journal for 2 weeks.

3. Review its usefulness to you at the end of this period.

Requirements of your journal

As a minimum your learning journal should serve the following purposes:

• a record of your daily/weekly learning;

• a brief description of what you did/what happened;

• a reflection on what you did/what happened;

• your thoughts on what you have learnt.

Additionally you may wish to add sections which cover:

• follow-on actions;

• useful information sources/websites;

• ideas for future projects.

2.6 Albert Bandura: Confidence and self-efficacy

Were you to ask fellow students who had been working on a 6-month work placement

what they think they had learnt, one of the phrases you would probably hear them say

is 'increased confidence'. Ask a group of managers at the end of a part-time degree

in business studies what they had learnt and you are likely to hear the same phrase.

'Confidence' is not an easy concept to discuss; however, we should differentiate our

feeling of confidence in performing specific tasks from our general sense of self-belief.

In terms of learning theories what is often referred to is 'self-efficacy' which is our per­

ceived ability to achieve given results. This definition would seem to cover the notion

of feeling confident in performing given tasks but would not seem to be sufficient to

describe 'self-belief' which is much more complex, involving for instance, aspects of our

personality. This explains why a person may feel perfectly confident in one situation but

not in another.

30 FOUNDATIONS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Bandura, who views learning as the interaction between environment, behaviour, and

the learner's internal processes, has written extensively on 'self-efficacy'. He states (1997) that there are four sources of this:

• Mastery experiences-we become more confident after being successful doing

something which is difficult.

• Vicarious experiences-we observe others doing something and think that we

should be able to do the same (albeit at a lesser, similar, or greater level).

• Social persuasion-others tell us that we can do it!

• Physiological/emotional states-feeling 'good' emotionally and physically tends to

help us feel that we can achieve something.

There are links between our self-belief and the goals that we set ourselves in our per­

sonal development. Therefore, we will expand upon self-efficacy in Chapter 3.

Skills Example 2.2 Otto Rohwedder: sliced bread-his greatest

invention

Sliced bread-that packaged loaf you turn into sandwiches and put into your

toaster-is something you probably take for granted. Yet, it was not always so.

Before 1928 people had to be content with cutting their own slices of bread, a

process essentially simple in nature, yet infuriatingly difficult for some: slices of

uneven thickness, misshapen chunks, and squashed wedges of bread were to be

found in the lunch boxes of workers across those great sandwich-eating nations of

the United States and Great Britain. Then, along came Otto Frederick Rohwedder

with his US-patented bread slicing machine, and the world welcomed with open

arms (and mouths) the arrival of the uniformly pre-sliced loaf.

However, Otto's story is one of persistence in the face of technical and financial

problems, and ridicule from bakers who thought the concept of sliced bread was

fundamentally flawed (it would, they said, go stale). He formulated his original idea

in 1912 but it was not until 1916 that he began to build a prototype machine-thus

spending quite some time on the first phase of his 'learning cycle'. Then disaster

struck in 1917, when a fire burnt down his new factory and his precious machine.

Undeterred, he worked as an investment agent and saved until he had sufficient

funds to once again build a mechanical bread slicing machine. This he patented in

1928, the first sliced bread going on sale in the same year. The technical problems

Otto faced in successive learning cycles included: holding the cut slices together­

his first method, which involved temporarily securing it with metal pins, failed

(eventually a collapsible cardboard box was used); keeping the cut slices fresh-to

combat this he mechanized the wrapping process; and cutting multiple slices of

bread without crushing the loaf-a problem he solved by devising a system in

which the bread was sliced from different directions at the same time. Fortune too,

COGNITIVE APPRENTICESHIPS

played a part-the invention of the first pop-up toasters in 1926, with their own

appetite for evenly-sliced bread, fuelled demand.

We might conclude the following from Otto's example:

• learning takes persistence and self-belief: perhaps the most striking aspect

of this case is how Otto showed great determination throughout his new

project;

• the discovery of new knowledge can challenge the status quo-we need to

keep an open mind: Otto was up to the challenge, while other bakers were

not prepared to change their mindset;

• learning sometimes takes the form of an intuitive leap: Otto's initial idea of

producing sliced bread for a hungry workforce, for instance;

• learning often occurs as improvements through repeated cycles of experi­

ence: Otto's innovations to overcome various technical problems with his

machine is a good example of this;

• the internal and external environment (in this case financial backing and the

invention of pop-up toasters) can promote or restrict learning.

Sources: http:/ /www.desmoineregister.com/apps/pbcs.d11/article?AID=/99999999/

FAMOUSIOWANS/41217023 [accessed 25 July 2008];

http:/ /www.ideafinder.com/history/inventionslbreadslicer.htm [accessed 25 July 20081

http:/ I njspmuseum.blogspot.com/2008/07 I greatest -thing-since-otto-rohwedder. html

[accessed 25 July 2008].

2.7 Cognitive apprenticeships

2.7.1 Learning from others

'Do we always need to learn alone? Can we benefit from others helping us?' The clear answer

to these questions is: there are often times when the help of others is useful, if not essential,

if we are new to some aspect of learning. However, sometimes we need lots of help; at other

times we only need a reassuring word of advice. If we are going to make swift progress in our

learning and personal development then we should be aware of how others might help us. In

this section we explore these ideas further under the heading of 'cognitive apprenticeships:

2.7.2 Levels of learning

Collins, Brown, and Newman (1989) show that just as a skilled craftworker can serve an

apprenticeship under the guidance of an expert and go through various stages of development,

so too can a person be helped to develop in terms of their analytical and reasoning ability

31

32 FOUNDATIONS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

High

Low

Cognitive Apprenticeship Learning and

Development Strategies

Fig 2.3 Levels of student expertise versus learning and development strategies

in higher order (non-craft) skills. The example they cite relates to students becoming

better writers. The cognitive apprenticeship has five stages in its hierarchy: modelling,

coaching, scaffolding, fading, and exploration. Figure 2.3 shows the level of student

expertise increasing with each level attained. By way of comparison (and not to forget

that students might also simultaneously be engaged with them) the diagram also shows

other strategies and theories such as Personal Development Plans of increasing com­

plexity and the increase in expertise which comes from students completing successive

learning cycles using the experiential learning models of Kolb and Honey and Mumford,

as recently outlined. The section that follows will expand upon Figure 2.3.

Modelling

The idea of modelling is that of the expert demonstrating to the student the task which is to

be learnt, explaining at the same time what needs to be considered and the reasons for their

consideration. We have already seen an example of this from earlier in the chapter in the case

of James, the poor adult swimmer, which illustrated the use of Kolb's Learning Cycle in action.

Coaching

In the case of James, the reader was encouraged to think of an example of their own and

to follow Kolb's Learning Cycle through each of its stages. Under coaching conditions the

reader would be observed by the teacher or expert and, where necessary, be given advice

(either during the activity or upon completion of it).

Scaffolding

Scaffolding provides a framework for students as they engage with the task. This frame­

work is just sufficient for them to keep heading in the right direction, to keep asking

themselves relevant questions along the way so that they do not become 'stuck' and

MENTORS

unable to continue. Sometimes this scaffolding may take the form of cue questions such

as 'what, where, when, who, why, how' analysis. In the case of experiential learning, stu­

dents may also be asked questions such as: What can you conclude from this experience?

Are there any similarities to other experiences you have had? Are there any differences?

Are there any trends which you see emerging? Later on they might be encouraged to

consider cues such as: How do you now feel about performing this particular task? What

might you do differently next time?

Fading

As students become more proficient with the task, the need for coaching and scaffolding

reduces and so it is appropriate to provide less-the support is 'faded' gradually, leaving

the student to become more self-sufficient.

Exploration

Whereas initial tasks are quite explicit, demanding a fairly direct approach and probably

expecting that a particular technique be employed, more complex or ambiguous tasks

might require the student to frame the problem itself and then to decide which approach

would be the best one to use. This process is called 'exploration' and is much more rele­

vant to the 'real world of business': in a business context there are often unclear and

sometimes conflicting symptoms of an undesirable situation: is it a financial problem, a

human resources one, a marketing one, or a mix of these? What can be done about it?

2.8 Mentors

2.8.1 Need for guidance

One thing you will notice about Personal Development Planning-whether or not you

encounter it at university or in the work situation-is that it is an activity which will prob­

ably involve someone who takes it upon himself (or more usually is required as part of their

job role) to guide you through the process. In the case of the mentor at work this person

Activity 2.3 Cognitive apprenticeship

As a student, apply the model of cognitive apprenticeship, as given in Section 2.7,

to several specific aspects of your own personal development. Ideally your exam­

ples should show how the strategies of modelling, coaching, scaffolding, fading,

and exploration have been used by your tutor or mentor. However, you might have

learnt without such support; in this case say how further support might have been

useful to you.

33

34 FOUNDATIONS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Known to mentor/

Not known to mentor/ coach

Fig 2.4 The Johari Window

Source: McGill and Brockbank {2004: 151)

Known to Not known self to self

1. 2. Open Unaware

3. 4. Hidden Unknown

may well be involved in your annual appraisal; at university this person might well be

your personal mentor or tutor. The reason for this involvement is twofold: to help you

to complete the process stipulated for the organization and to help you to explore your

development objectives. Let's just take a little time to consider the second of these rea­

sons: it assumes that you are likely to require help in addition to your own self-analysis.

Why should this be? The answer, quite simply, is that often we are not capable of seeing

ourselves in all aspects and can benefit from the observations of someone who has worked

with us. The Johari Window, shown in Figure 2.4, is often used to illustrate this situation.

As you can see from Figure 2.4, what we know about ourselves and what others know

about us can be divided into four quadrants. In the 'open' quadrant we are aware of our

strengths and weaknesses, as is our mentor. We may know of some areas of ourselves

which we prefer to keep hidden from others-quadrant 3. Clearly we may decide to dis­

close more of this area, the more that we feel we can trust our mentor. Area 2 is the quad­

rant in which we are unaware of some of our strengths and/or weaknesses but which our

mentor can appreciate; this is an area where our mentor can guide us further. Quadrant 4

is that area of ourselves which exists but which neither ourselves nor our mentor are able

to investigate in any meaningful way.

2.8.2 Conscious and unconscious competence

An idea related to the above is conscious and unconscious competence as shown in

Figure 2.5. This tracks our progress from being incompetent (and being unaware of the fact)

through a growing realization of our shortcomings to a deliberate attempt to improve our

competence. At later stages of competence we may still continue to improve but may be

unaware of exactly how we arrive at our expert performance {unconscious competence).

At this latter stage the role of intuition is thought by some writers to have a profound

effect; they would argue that the feeling that we simply 'know' or 'feel' that something

is the right course of action to take, is in fact founded on a subconscious processing

in our minds of our previous formal learning/training coupled to all of our subsequent

experiences. Figure 2.5 gives a perspective of a learning process that takes us through a

Unconscious

incompetence

incompetence

Further reflection

Fig 2.5 Unconscious and conscious competence

Source: Adapted from Reay (1994)

Skills Example 2.3 Musical instrument

CHAPTER SUMMARY 35

Unconscious competence

Continued reflection and testing

Conscious competence

Using the learning of a musical instrument as an example: a child who picks up a

guitar and strums the strings will imagine that she is playing a hit tune but (unless a

child prodigy) will be producing merely a noise-unconscious incompetence. Soon

the child learns that the sounds produced do not mimic the hit tune-conscious

incompetence. By way of practising the child can be taught and can develop her

playing skill-conscious competence. At some point in the future the child may be

able to play a tune on the guitar as if on 'automatic' without even having to look

where to place her fingers or think about what particular chord is being played at

the time-she could literally play the guitar in the dark and perhaps concentrate on

her singing instead. This would be an example of unconscious competence.

journey from unconscious incompetence to conscious competence and is adapted from

the work of Reay (1994). This fits in well with the experiential models discussed earlier.

This chapter has covered a range of concepts that underlie the personal development

planning process. At the heart of this process are the themes of personal reflection

and experiential learning. The mainstream theories of experiential learning have been

36 FOUNDATIONS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

introduced; these have included the 'learning cycle' and 'learning styles'. Finally, the

concept of 'cognitive apprenticeship' has been covered, reinforcing the view that much

of our learning is a socially based experience in which we learn with and through others.

The fact that we can't always (accurately) see our own strengths and weaknesses lends

weight to the argument that others (e.g. mentors) can help us in our learning.

Exercise 1: Looking ahead

lt is sometimes useful to look at the broad picture. In terms of personal development this

suggests that you might want to think about not just your immediate situation but also

your past development in more general terms and think ahead to where you eventually

would like to be. Your present programme of study is a step in this process. Ideally it

should help you to achieve your broader, longer term goals. In Chapter 3 you will consider

the more specific personal development goals during your programme of study.

For this exercise, look back over your life to the present, in terms of key events or

times or achievements in three areas: personal life, academic life, work/career life (if you

have not yet had any work experience you will need to consider this only for the future

part of the Activity}. Use the template in Figure 2.6 as a guide.

Can you think of a picture that would show what you would like your future life to be

like-what you might be doing, how you would be feeling?

Exercise 2: Your strengths

Peter Honey (2008) and Malcolm Gladwell (2001) ask us to consider improving our

strengths, rather than focusing on our weaknesses. Sometimes, however, we do not

Positive feeling

1 Negative feeling

I First career job I

Fig 2.6 Personal, academic and career/workplace highs and lows

Time (years)

FURTHER READING

always appreciate fully what our strengths are {see Johari Window, discussed earlier in

this chapter). For this exercise you are asked to gather the opinions of others, specifically

on what they regard as your strengths. This may be dependent upon the context (work!

home/academic) so you should take this into account. You may wish to revise your own

opinion of your strengths in the light of what your friends/colleagues have said. How

might you develop these strengths in the short term/long term?

Exercise 3: Competence

Refer back to the section in the chapter on conscious and unconscious competence

and Skills Example 2.3. Think of an example from your own experience and, following

the model of Figure 2.5, relate how you progressed from unconscious incompetence to

unconscious competence.

Well worth a look for her work on reflection, are the books of Jenny Moon. The one below considers

learning journals in particular:

Moon, J. (1999) Learning Journals: A handbook for reflective practice and professional development.

2nd edn. London & New York: Routledge.

To read Bandura's original work on self-efficacy you may wish to read:

Bandura, A. (1997) Self-Efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: WH Freeman and Company.

Please go to the online resource centre for further information

found at www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/orc/gallagher

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