Peter Honey: There's No Such Word as Can't!
London (UK), October 2010 - In a though-provoking presentation, world-famous learning- styles "guru" Dr Peter Honey inspired and entertained members of the Charity Learning Consortium at its recent meeting. The title was, "Should Learning Always Be Fun? And Is the Learning Styles Questionnaire Sufficient to Help Promote Learning?"
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Even the unwilling can be helped to learn, says Dr Peter Honey, turning the assumption that "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" on its head. You could, he suggests, make sure the horse was really thirsty, perhaps ensure there were plenty of other horses drinking already to entice the horse to join them, or make the water somehow more attractive to a horse!
"You can't force horses to drink, but you can make it as easy as possible for them to do so", he says. He further points out that one can equally maximise the probability of learning by engineering a successful learning environment.
Dr Honey challenges similar assumptions in several ways. He states, perhaps surprisingly, "Of course the learning-styles questionnaire isn't sufficient on its own to promote effective learning" - as learners' motivation, external pressures, and their environment are all not taken into account.
Another strongly held belief - that learning should be fun - is further challenged by Honey. "I've never bought into the idea that every learning experience should be jolly. Don't we in fact learn from mistakes, which can be painful, and could there not be richer learning through adversity?"
"There is no correlation between the popularity of something and how much you learn! If it's not so enjoyable, you may have to put more effort in, and ultimately learn more as a result." But he recommends using a "force-and-support" principal: if you are going to "enforce" learning - for whatever reason - make sure there is support.
Peter Honey's memorable presentation was just one of the highlights of the CLC's members' meeting. At the initial roundtable introductions, one member commented, "I come here to learn from everyone else, steal your ideas, go back to work, and gain the glory for myself!"
Exchanging ideas is certainly one of the Consortium's strengths, and more than seventy charities have joined, providing them with access to a range of eLearning - including Microsoft Office, Personal Development, and Leadership & Management. Though charities might initially join because of the cost savings on offer, they soon recognise the benefits of networking with others working in L&D in the Third Sector, of being members of an exclusive online group, and of the valuable information they gain at quarterly members' meetings.
