Exhibit 4.4: The vicarious learning circle
The starting point of vicarious learning is generalized knowledge and skills that are required for undertaking a job. These generalized skills have to be transferred according to the job-specific situation. It must be noted that vicarious learning process is just the reverse of virtuous learning cycle, as shown in Exhibit 4.4. While in the former, training reinforces learning, in this the whole learning exercise can become a futile effort. The role of trainer becomes very crucial in this because he can make or mar the entire process. If he performs his job effectively, he can convert the learning into a virtuous activity, where each process reinforces the advantages. If he is not very…show more content… Some managers who undergo training consider as useful or interesting or stimulating, they shall be willing to return to similar experiences subsequently. Others, who do not consider training as being useful to them, are relatively unwilling to attend in the first place and / or experience nothing like stimulation or utility during the course. All too often this can be traced back to the failure of courses to deal with the issues of what managers really do, and to deal with them in the ways most related to their normal managerial work…show more content… It will be no more than a promotional phrase if the learning processes necessary to secure it are not provided. For learning to be continuous, rather than simply a series of events, tutors need to equip people to learn effectively outside and around those events. They need to do so for the obvious reason that for most managers learning will occur or not occur ‘on-the-job’.
Principles of Learning
Educational Psychologists have identified several principles of learning referred as laws of learning. These are generally applicable to learning process. They provide critical insight into what makes people learn most effectively. Edward Thorndike developed the first three laws of learning, i.e., readiness, exercise, and effect. Since Thorndike set down three laws in early part of the 20th Century, three more principles have been added, i.e., primacy, recent, and intense.
1. Readiness implies a degree of single-mindedness and eagerness.
2. The principle of exercise states that those things most often repeated are best remembered. The human memory is fallible. The mind can rarely retain, evaluate, and apply new concepts or practices after a single exposure. Students learn by applying what they have been told and shown. Every time practice occurs, learning continues. The instructor must provide opportunities for students to practice and make sure that process is goal