Chapter 4 Homework

1) What learning condition do you think is most necessary for learning to occur? Which is least critical? Why?
Most important: providing opportunities for trainees to practice and receive feedback.
Least important: allowing trainees to learn through observation.
It is the least important because although observation is important, the trainees must recognize and understand the prerequisites in order to complete their training.

2) What value would it be to know that you were going to be training a class of persons between the ages of 20 and 35? Would it influence the approach you would take? How?
This information influences the training approach. Knowing the ages of your trainees will allow you to determine what learning style that would be most effective for them. Gen Xers need feedback from their training, they also dislike close supervision. Nexters are optimistic, are willing to learn, and are technologically-literate, because they appreciate diversity they work well with gen xers. It would influence the training approach because each of the groups requires different methods to learn to the best of their abilities.

3) How do instructional objectives help learning to occur?
Noe says, "Different internal and external conditions are necessary for learning outcomes. Internal conditions refer to processes within the learner that must be present for learning to occur. These processes include how information is registered, stored in memory, and recalled. External conditions refer to processes in the learning environment that facilitate learning. These conditions include the physical learning environment as well as opportunities to practice and to receive feedback and reinforcement.

4) Can allowing trainees to make errors in training be useful? Explain.
Allowing the trainees to make errors during training can be important. Many people can learn from viewing the mistakes made by others, if someone sees a mistake they are less likely to repeat that mistake especially if the trainer is able to explain why it was a mistake. Allowing errors in training is much less destructive than an error on the production line.

5) Detailed lesson plans have important information for trainers. List the different types of information found in a detailed lesson plan. Also, indicate the importance of each type of information for learning.
Learning objectives or outcomes – important
Target audience – important
Prerequisites – important
Time – Very important
Lesson outline – important
Activity – less important
Support materials – very important
Physical environment – important
Preparation – important
Lesson topic – less important
Evaluation – important
Transfer and retention – important