Thoughts on Learning and Evidence Based Practices

"Knowledge is power"
Sir Francis Bacon

"Skill to do comes of doing"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Formal Learning:

Learning is the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill. Learning can be divided into formal and informal areas. We're well acquainted with formal learning, since we invested years in the educational process and countless hours in the classroom and clinic to earn our degrees. Formal learning has given us the knowledge and credentials to practice our profession. I have nothing against traditional formal learning, since my entire academic career in audiology centered on teaching students in the classroom or clinic. However, traditional formal learning does have its' disadvantages, too! Once you're in the workplace, how much time can you take off to attend classes or workshops? Another big issue is how much energy (time, money, brain power) can you devote to educational pursuits while maintaining your career, family and hobbies? Generally, sacrifices will need to be made and priorities will be revealed!

Informal Learning:

We don't often recognize informal learning, or harness its enormous potential in the workplace. Informal learning is a "lifelong process whereby individuals acquire attitudes, values, skills, and knowledge from daily experiences and the educative influences in his or her environment, from family and neighbors, from work and play, from the market place, the library, and mass media." ⁽¹⁾ However, we tacitly acknowledge the value of informal learning when we learn more about our profession at our practicum sites than in our formal classroom lectures.

Informal learning takes place even when you're not aware it's happening. It can occur any place, any time and surprisingly, informal learning is responsible for 80% or more of what we learn in the workplace! Cross ⁽²⁾ explained "...at work we learn more in the break-room, than in the classroom. We discover how to do our jobs through informal learning - observing others, asking the person in the next cubicle, calling the help desk, working with people in the know. Formal learning - classes and workshops and online events - is the source of only 10 percent to 20 percent of what we learn at work."

Informal learning can become self-directed and focused and more meaningful, as it's often directly relevant to your job and can be done in bits and pieces as your schedule allows. We can't always take time to attend a two-day workshop, but we can usually spend a few moments interacting with others, or online to query, research and resolve issues of interest.

Pareto's Principle:

Pareto, an Italian economist, formulated the 80/20 principle in l906 by observing that 80% of the country's wealth was controlled by 20% of its citizens. The principle has been generalized to state that 80% of effects or consequences are due to 20% of causes ⁽³⁾. This same concept is referred to as the "80/20 rule" and it has a multitude of applications in our day-to-day life, and has been referred to in recent management books and articles.

In practical terms, if you have a daily "to-do" list of 10 items, you might choose the two items of highest priority to accomplish first. Those two items likely represent 80% of the total value of your list, and you'll still have plenty of time to work on the numerous and less important items - after accomplishing the first two.

Just for fun, I have applied Pareto's Principle to the process of formal learning. When applied to formal learning, Pareto's principle cautions us that 80% of the useful information contained in an hour's lecture will be located within 20% of the time allotted, or just 12 minutes! The principle might also remind us that 80% of the information we hear in a lecture is forgotten by the time we get 20 feet away from the classroom door. Well, maybe that's stretching Pareto's Principle a bit too far, but you get the idea.