Gerry Reid's Professional Development Tip
"L - Listen." Step One to L.E.A.R.N.
(This series, L.E.A.R.N., is an excerpt from A.S.K. for Success!)
Adults cannot be taught. Adults choose to learn. Classes, seminars, audio and video tapes, educational television shows and books are available for you, an adult, to use in helping yourself learn. You choose to learn or not to learn. Learning is your responsibility.
Adult Learning.
Many years ago I developed a model of adult learning based on my experiences and observations as a facilitator and instructor. Adult learning is a five step process.
1. Listen.
The first step in learning is to listen. A considerable amount of what we learn is what we are told by others. We hear what they say. Listening also includes reading words written by others, observing visual displays and illustrations, and sensing the feelings surrounding a situation. We listen to tone of voice, see body language and feel the emotions of the presenter.
Technical information is collected in the same way. We watch, hear and feel what is being shown, spoken and demonstrated. The internal conversation we may have with ourselves, even the handling of an object, is a form of listening. Taking something "in" is prerequisite to anything else happening, including learning.
Listening is the process of bringing information from the external world around us into the internal world of our brain and mind.
All of this listening is one way -- inbound. Effective listening in this step does not include judgment or comment. That comes later.
As we listen, we take the unedited information into our mind. Notice the symbolism of the word "information." We take something "in" and then let it "form" in our mind. This new presence takes on a "format" (either an attitude, a skill, or piece of knowledge) in the process of assembling into some usable "formation." Once we have listened to the world in this way, it is only then in the learning process we can express ourselves.