Managing Your Own Learning

This guide for independent learning and workplace training presents seven powerful strategies for staying ahead in today’s knowledge-based economy.
 
These days, perpetual learning is an essential professional skill and a vital part of any business. It’s important to have effective learning strategies that work for you and your team. This practical guide offers a comprehensive approach to creating a focused philosophy of learning, choosing the best approach to planning programs and activities, and developing appropriate systems for assessing results.
 
The authors cover seven powerful training strategies: Behavioral, Cognitive, Inquiry, Mental Models, Group Dynamics, Virtual Reality, and Holistic. They provide a detailed description of each, including the learning theory behind it, its strengths and weaknesses, practical examples of the strategy in action, and side-by-side comparisons showing its appropriate uses.

Based on well-researched theories of learning, this book is rich in examples from more than sixty-five worldwide business leaders—including Eastman Kodak, Motorola, SHARP, United Airlines, Norsk Hydro, ABB Atom, Boeing, TELEBRAS, and the U.S. Air Force.

JAMES R. DAVIS is a Professor of higher education and adult studies at the University of Denver. He holds degrees from Oberlin College and Yale University and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in higher education administration. Jim teaches courses on characteristics of adult learners, training, teaching adults, program planning and administration, leadership, and the uses of technology in instruction. He has served in numerous administrative posts, including assistant to the provost, director of the center for academic quality, director of the school of education—all at the University of Denver—and as academic dean at the historically black college, Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio.
ADELAIDE B.DAVIS served as a training analyst to COPASA MG, a government-sponsored public water and sanitation company in Brazil. She taught human resources management at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, where she also earned her masters degree in administration with a specialization in human resource management. She planned and facilitated numerous training workshops for her company and spoke at several conferences and annual meetings in Brazil.