Page 83 - OHS, June 2020

Forget what you thought about students needing
to keep their eyes on their own work.
social learning and providing a range of learning activities are all key elements in transforming humdrum safety training into dy- namic learning sessions.
Motivation
Motivation is a crucial aspect of learning. Safety training is about changing behavior, and people are incentivized to learn and change when they can connect their own emotions and beliefs to the learn- ing material. Adult learners are more engaged when they are en- couraged to bring their own values and experience into the learn- ing environment.
Adult learners are better able to process information if lessons are based on their own experience, and new information will only make it into long-term memory if it’s connected to their outlook and emotions. This means that safety training should use realistic examples, and allow some time for learners to process new con- cepts and consider how they relate to their life experience.
For training to be successful, it also needs to pass the what’s- in-it-for-me test by demonstrating as clearly and early as possible that the lesson is relevant and participant-centered. Notably, safety trainers should describe the benefits to the participants from their point of view—saying that the training session will reduce the com- pany’s recordable rate won’t cut it.
Surprisingly, many employees are relatively unmotivated by re- ducing their own risk of injury. The majority of workers already believe they’re safe enough, have confidence in their own skills and generally don’t believe that additional safety training will improve their ability to look out for themselves.
However, there’s one almost universally effective motivator for safety training. Regardless of industry, job function or years of experience, nearly every single employee is interested in keeping their family safe. Connecting the training goals with their innate desire to protect their loved ones will dramatically increase the rate of learning.
Social learning
Forget what you thought about students needing to keep their eyes on their own work. Motivated adult learners will pay more attention to safety training. But in order for them to actually un- derstand what’s being taught, they also need to engage in social learning. Adults are much more used to learning things in a social context as opposed to a traditional classroom. Working in pairs, group discussions, a mutual sharing of experiences and leverag- ing collective strengths are all ways that workers can learn from their peers’ perspectives.
This can be as simple as re-imaging the classroom layout. Seat- ing people in groups around a table rather than in rows will make it clear to everyone that this isn’t going to be a typical lecture for- mat. Table group discussions work well in most North American workplaces, and by setting up a more collaborative classroom from the outset, adult learners will be less likely to check out as soon as they sit down. Groups of four to six are ideal, although the seating arrangements can be switched up as the learning activities rotate from group tasks to paired discussions and large group debriefs.
Which brings me to my final and perhaps most overlooked piece of advice: the benefit of using a variety of learning modes.
Varied Learning Activities—
and an Emphasis on Demonstration
Safety trainers should teach using a variety of methods and provide as many ways as possible for participants to demonstrate learning. Groups of adult learners usually have a diverse range of learning preferences and abilities. This is especially true for safety training. As a result, trainers will struggle to reach most adult learners unless they use a range of activities in the class to keep the learning fresh, from short presentations and paired discussion to skills practice.
Further to that point, perhaps the most overlooked element of adult learning in safety training is the need for workers to dem- onstrate new knowledge and skills. Traditional training operates on the assumption that if adults are exposed to a bunch of in- formation, they will absorb it. This is rarely the case, as nearly everyone is already bombarded with more information than they can take in. Adults need to do something active and useful with new information.
One of the main issues with the information-firehose approach is that adults already have plenty of knowledge, some of which may not align with the new information. Active learning is the most effective way to get past adults’ inner gatekeeper so that they value and adopt the new safety knowledge and skills.
All of this points to the need for workers to demonstrate safety learning in a number of different ways. Having options that go be- yond tests or verbal quizzes will boost knowledge retention and increase motivation. Techniques that work well in safety training include having learners explain the key teaching points aloud, make a diagram that illustrates a concept, demonstrate a skill, solve a problem, give a situational example of how knowledge can be used, teach someone else, complete a quiz correctly and write a short quiz for someone else to complete.
All of this is easier said than done, especially for EHS managers and other professionals with dozens of responsibilities that all feel more urgent than updating safety training. Fortunately, incremen- tal changes to safety training can still show surprisingly remarkable benefits. Even small modifications can create a better learning en- vironment, and an additional learning activity or an added element of social learning can improve learning results without requiring a total overhaul.
If adopting these learning principles in training sessions feels beyond reach, then consider using them as a shopping list the next time you purchase new safety training. Many safety ven- dors tout the efficacy of their off-the-shelf training programs. Keep these adult education best practices in mind as you evalu- ate safety training, as they will let you peek under the hood and see whether the training actually has what it takes to help your workers learn.
Pandora Bryce is the Vice President of Product Development at SafeStart, where she leads a team of instructional designers and safety experts in creating safety programs. She holds a PhD in Education and has delivered conference presentations, training programs, masterclasses, and university guest lectures on four continents.
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JUNE 2020 | Occupational Health & Safety 79