Learning Kalidescope

As an assignment in AOD 5403: Facilitating Adult Learning, we were instructed to write introspective papers using the professor's own "kaleidoscope" model.  The idea is that a kaleidoscope shades or colors our view of the world as we look through it, and the kaleidoscope changes the view as we change our orientation around it.  This model allows for personal growth and development to change one's perspective.


The points of the Kaleidoscope Model are:

• We are each unique, based on attributes, experiences, memories, and guiding principles
• Each profile is distinctly formed through a lifetime of experiences
• These "elements" of an identity have different dimensions
• This profile constructs a lens through which an individual views the world (see the connection now?)
• One's identity profile is changeable and dynamic by nature, adjusting and readjusting to social situations and contexts
• One's diversity identity informs and influences conscious and unconscious diversity--related to thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

Trainers must accommodate for the diversity of their audience when presenting, and this paper was intended to help us explore how our own life experiences inform our training style as well as our learning style.  Through this paper, I explored several aspects of my personality and how they relate to my nature as a trainer.  As the course was focused on the specific learning needs of adults, I wanted to explore how my own background influenced my training style.

What is it that I enjoy so much about adults? I believe it comes down to the adult ability to connect seemingly disparate pieces of information to form a new conclusion. Let’s call this “connecting the dots.” Throughout their longer lives, adults have experienced a vast range of situations and interpreted huge sums of information. Each of these pieces of information represents a dot on a map. Alone, these dots are no more significant than their own face value. However, if the adult is able to connect one dot to any other dots, the relationship of those two pieces of information increases in relative value.  

To be able to “connect the dots” in this way, information must be organized appropriately upon being learned. Simple memorization will not achieve this. The mind must “index” each new piece of information with any potential connections to other issues to be able to efficiently retrieve it later. In this way, when another new “dot,” or piece of information, is added to the existing library of information at a later date, it can be connected with preexisting knowledge. I believe true learning is this ability to connect different areas of knowledge, not simply rote memorization.  

That being said, in my line of work as a Specialist at an Apple store, I daily encountered adults who are having to learn something new for the first time in a long time. Their ability to understand the devices they have purchased is limited because they are unable to connect the new information they are hearing (note that I did not say ‘information they are learning’) with preexisting information. They do not know how to connect this new information with preexisting information. As a trainer, I work hard to repeat connections between different pieces of information for my customers. I use consistent terminology and repeat concepts multiple times. I prompt my customers to repeat information back to me more than once. I cite examples of the same information being used in different steps, different apps, or even different processes, in an effort to help them to internalize this new information. I use analogies to compare iPhones, iPads and computers to analog devices that they may be familiar with. “The processor in a computer is like the engine in your car, a more powerful processor means the device can go faster, or haul a heavier load,” “RAM memory is like attention span, it is how many different tasks your computer can juggle at the same time.”  

Young adults often do not demand the same level of guidance because they already grasp the fundamentals of modern technology, but even they have questions about how some features work, or why a particular problem is occurring. As with their older counterparts, I employ analogies to familiar concepts and cite personal examples of how I use different hardware and software features. 

Note: as an introspective piece, this document may disclose information of a personal nature.  These disclosures may include information that hiring managers need to ignore.  Read the complete paper here.

Dr. Marie Amey-Taylor is a professor of adult and organizational development at Temple University and founding partner of InterACTion Consulting Group.  Learn more about Dr. Amey-Taylor on LinkedIn.