10.3 Learning Styles

Honey and Mumford have developed an approach to learning based on Kolb's work. Their research has shown that "learning style" is particularly influential in the training situation.

Dispensing with a fussy definition, they state: a manager has learned when:

They know something they did not know earlier and can show it, and / or
They are able to do something they were not able to do before.

From research they have identified four types of learner. The four types are not personality categories: they are habitual postures the same person may shift between depending on the topic and the moment, and the labels refer to the learning preference the trainee tends toward. The instructor's operational use of the taxonomy is to read which posture the trainee is currently in, calibrate the instructional move to it, and (over time) help the trainee broaden across all four.

Activists

Activists involve themselves fully and without bias in new experiences. They enjoy the here and now and are happy to be dominated by immediate experiences. They are open-minded, not sceptical, and this tends to make them enthusiastic about anything new. Their philosophy is: "I'll try anything once."

They tend to act first and consider the consequences afterwards. Their days are filled with activity. They tackle problems by brainstorming. As soon as the excitement from one activity has died down, they are busy looking for the next. They tend to thrive on the challenge of new experiences but are bored with implementation and long-term consolidation. They are gregarious people, constantly involving themselves with others, but in doing so they seek to centre all activities on themselves.

Reflectors

Reflectors like to stand back to ponder experiences and observe them from many different perspectives. They collect data, both first hand and from others, and prefer to think about it thoroughly before coming to any conclusion. The thorough collection and analysis of data about experiences and events is what counts, so they tend to postpone reaching definitive conclusions for as long as possible. Their philosophy is to be cautious. They are thoughtful people who like to take a back seat in meetings and discussions. They enjoy observing other people in action. They listen to others and get the drift of the discussion before making their own points.

They tend to adopt a low profile and have a slightly distant, tolerant, unruffled air about them. When they act, it is part of a wide picture which includes the past as well as the present and others' observations as well as their own.

Theorists

Theorists adapt and integrate observations into complex but logically sound theories. They think problems through in a vertical, step-by-step logical way. They assimilate disparate facts into coherent theories. They tend to be perfectionists who will not rest easy until things are tidy and fit into a rational scheme. They like to analyse and synthesise. They are keen on basic assumptions, principles and theories, models, and system thinking.

Their philosophy prizes rationality and logic: "If it's logical, it's good." Questions they frequently ask are: "Does it make sense?"; "How does this fit with that?"; "What are the basic assumptions?"

They tend to be detached, analytical, and dedicated to rational objectivity rather than anything subjective or ambiguous. Their approach to problems is constantly logical. This is their "mental set" and they rigidly reject anything that does not fit with it. They prefer to maximise certainty and feel uncomfortable with subjective judgements, lateral thinking, and anything flippant.

Theorist trainee in the simulator

The theorist wants to know why a procedure exists before they trust it. An SOP presented as "do this because we say so" reliably triggers the theorist's resistance; the same SOP presented with the underlying logic ("this checklist sequence isolates the affected bus before the load-shedding logic fires, so a wrong-side selection cannot cascade") lands cleanly. The theorist also prefers the manoeuvres-training phase of an EBT module to the scenario-based phase, because manoeuvres are bounded and analytical; scenarios are open-ended and require the theorist to operate outside their comfort zone. The instructional move is to deliberately expose the theorist to scenario ambiguity in a controlled way, so the theorist's mental set broadens to accept lateral thinking as a legitimate cockpit tool.

Pragmatists

Pragmatists are keen on trying out ideas, theories, and techniques to see if they work in practice. They positively search out new ideas and take the first opportunity to experiment with applications. They are the sort of people who return from management courses brimming with new ideas that they want to try out in practice. They like to get on with things and act quickly and confidently on ideas that attract them. They tend to be impatient with ruminating and open-ended discussions. They are essentially practical, down-to-earth people who like making practical decisions and solving problems. They respond to problems and opportunities "as a challenge". Their philosophy is: "There is always a better way" and "If it works, it's good."

Reading the four types operationally

The four types are not exhaustive and they are not exclusive. Most trainees show a primary preference and a secondary preference, and the preference profile varies by topic: the same pilot may be a theorist on systems and a pragmatist on handling. The instructor's job is not to type the trainee on day one and lock the type in; it is to read the trainee's posture in the moment and adapt accordingly. The four-type frame is a vocabulary for that read, not a typology to be applied.

Calibrate to the type, then broaden it

Two responsibilities sit on the instructor across the four types:

Calibrate the current instructional move to the trainee's current posture (give the reflector the pause, give the activist the variation, give the theorist the rationale, give the pragmatist the application).
Broaden the trainee's range over time so they can learn effectively across all four postures, because the line operation does not pre-warn which posture will be required by tomorrow's flight. The pilot whose only effective learning mode is theorist will struggle in genuinely novel situations; the pilot whose only mode is activist will struggle when a procedure has to be reasoned out from first principles.

The Kolb cycle that Honey and Mumford built on (concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, active experimentation) is the four-stage loop the broadening exercise is operationally trying to run.

Connections

10.2 The Trainee. The "Trainees Differ" treatment of which the four-type taxonomy is a specific operational tool.
10.1 Human Behaviour. Framing section; the laws of learning (readiness, exercise, effect) apply differently to each type.
10.4 The Instructor. The instructor side; the personal qualities that mark the good instructor include the ability to read across the four types.
2.2 The Learning Process. The earlier treatment of the learning process, which the four-type taxonomy operationalises at the individual-trainee level.
3.1 Introduction. The instructional moves the instructor calibrates to each type are catalogued here.

10.3 Learning Styles

#Activists

#Reflectors

#Theorists

#Pragmatists

#Reading the four types operationally

#Connections