Insight Is the Smallest Form of Microlearning- Workshop Tip #220

Insight is the highest form of learning. It is the juxtaposition of knowledge and bringing in one’s personal experience with the said knowledge.

See this transition leading to insights.

Knowledge: “I need to listen carefully to customers to learn what they want.”

Experience: “But sometimes I find it overwhelming when customers have so many requests and they don’t follow my suggestions.”

Insight: “Listening intently and waiting for customers to finish talking before I offer suggestions to help me understand their needs better.”

Joseph A. Raelin, author of Work-based Learning says,

There are three levels of reflection.

First Order Learning 

Reflecting and questioning prior actions that prove reliable may influence the choice to try something different.

Second-Order Learning 

Learning about concepts is deepened by looking critically at our own responses and transferring that understanding into other contexts.

Third Order Learning 

Realizing that how we have previously perceived the world may have been based on biases and not necessarily the truth.

As learners and workers move in succession starting from “questioning prior actions” to “deepened learning by critically thinking our own responses” to “acceptance that our perceptions may have been biased”, they are developing insight. Insight is the point where learners and workers form the conscious decision to make the change - then learning occurs.

Going through the three levels of reflection is a good method to incorporate when you develop microlearning. The process is very fast. The steps are clear. And the outcome of learning is more reliable.

I’ve said these repeatedly in my previous blogs, videos, and workshops. Microlearning isn’t just about reducing or re-sizing your content. It is an exercise in futility if we take away its usefulness in addressing the workers’ needs in the equation. We determine their needs based on their insight. This is critical in the effective design of Microlearning.

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"