How Applicants Learn: Tailoring an Application to Ensure a Custom Fit
Mary Honas,
Overland Park, Kansas, USA
Carol Smith-Roach, Contributing Editor
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 36 No. 1, February-March 2000, p. 15.
Every application for leadership
is different. When we work with a Leader Applicant, we take into consideration
her experiences and skills. We can also try to match our work together
to the Applicant's learning style. What does this mean?
People have different "learning
preferences" or "learning styles." For instance, some
people can read a book or periodical about how to do something and apply
the information. They are "abstract learners." "Visual
learners" find it easier to do something after they've seen it
done. Yet others, "auditory learners," need to hear the directions
to best take in and assimilate information. Some people learn best by
experimenting rather than following written or oral instructions; they
are "kinetic learners." While most of us have an abstract,
visual, auditory, or kinetic preference, other approaches to learning
complement our stronger one. Most educators acknowledge that a combination
of learning styles is the most effective teaching or training plan.
So, how can we use learning styles to develop the most effective application
time? Let's take each of these learning styles - abstract, visual, auditory
and kinetic - and see how they can be used in an application.
Applicants are required to
read the most recent editions available to them of THE WOMANLY ART OF
BREASTFEEDING, the LEADER'S HANDBOOK, a comprehensive book on childbirth
from the LLLI Bibliography, and the pamphlets and tearoff sheets listed
in the Applicant Reading Set. With these materials, and others including
LEAVEN, NEW BEGINNINGS, Area and Affiliate Leaders' Letters and communications
from the Area, Affiliate, and LLLI, abstract learners can get most of
the information Leaders need to help mothers, lead meetings and manage
the Group. If the Applicant you are working with is an abstract learner,
she may have read most of the books in the Group Library and be happiest
when you offer her access to additional written references or conference
tapes. As you talk with her about the design of her application, you
will want to keep in mind that the abstract learner may think a lot
about how to help mothers and prefer to avoid practice. Be sure that
your plan includes many opportunities for this Applicant to use the
information she has gathered. After all, a Leader has to be able to
communicate what she knows, to make information accessible to mothers
who have different learning styles, and to practice many other leadership
skills.
Provide the Applicant who
is a visual or auditory learner with many opportunities to observe how
a Leader guides the discussion during meetings and continues to help
the mothers after the meeting is over. Show her how you use the Group
Library to provide information. The visual or auditory learner will
also enjoy being at Enrichment and Planning/Evaluation Meetings to learn
more about how Leaders help other women. Like the abstract learner,
the visual or auditory learner may be reluctant to participate in activities
that will help her practice leadership skills and approaches. So, as
you design the application together, plan to include short, frequent
opportunities for practice and discussion about what the Applicant observes,
other ways to do the same thing, and for use of written resources. The
Breastfeeding Resource Guide can be a helpful tool for discussing written
resources and how Leaders use them.
The Applicant who learns
best through doing has many opportunities to practice the skills that
she brings to leadership preparation. Planning a Series Meeting for
or with the Group Leader, planning and leading an Enrichment Meeting,
giving the announcements related to her Group job during a Series Meeting,
and role-playing are prime examples of how the kinetic learner can enjoy
using her learning style during her application. While you may need
to encourage the abstract, visual, or auditory learner to do the things
the kinetic learner enjoys most, as you plan with the person who learns
by doing you will need to build in ways to make research and discussion
interesting and attractive enough to be ongoing.
All Applicants need to read,
use information, and practice skills. Depending on her preferred learning
style, an Applicant will want to do more reading, listening, watching,
or practicing . . . it's only natural! Be creative. Find ways to include
exercises that utilize different approaches to learning. This way, each
Applicant can use and complement her preferred learning style. As an
added bonus, she can increase her ability to learn to communicate and
work with women with different learning styles. Let the Associate/Coordinator
of Leader Accreditation you are working with know what you and the Applicant
are doing to design the application. Working together, the Applicant,
Leader and LAD representative can tailor the application for a custom
fit.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:31:19 UTC 2007.
