Post 30: The Power of Pull

"Instead of fear of failure learning (i.e., push learning) such as experienced in most schools and many training settings, learning needs to be irresistible and help learners unconsciously acquire information. In effect, learning should be:

• Interesting, fun, interactive, collaborative, cool, compelling, exciting, social or friendly, challenging, authentic (simulations for instance), flexible (learn when want to learn), user generated, captivating (draw learners into it—learning is a perk not a terrible experience)
• Simply stated, an alternative to the regular classroom.

The Power of Pull: Imagine walking by a bakery and encountering the tantalizing smell of your favorite cookie being baked. It would be almost impossible to resist going in and partaking. Learning can, and should, present the same attraction for learners. Ideally, it should be irresistible. With the pull-technique:

• Draw the learner to the knowledge.
• All learners have different modes by which they learn best.
• The top three are visual, aural and kinesthetic.
• Some people learn by reading and seeing — they are the visual learners and will absorb information most effectively this way.
• The aural group learns by hearing. They need to hear information in addition to seeing it to fully absorb and embrace it.
• The third group needs to do, that is, have hands-on experiences to deeply seat the information in neural circuits.
• While one of these styles may predominate in an individual, it is important for training to incorporate all three modes to create a varied and interesting learning environment."
  

Gillette, Charlie. "The Power of Pull." Norwich U. (Jan. 1 2008):4.20 Jan. 2008 .