Improving Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge

Learning something her3e is, I mean, to gain knowledge, skill improvement, or attitude development in a certain area. Sometimes these three points of learning target are abbreviated to “KSA.” Since Attitudes are obviously more important than Skills or Knowledge — after all, what is the barber going to do with that razor? — it might be better to turn it around to ASK! And it happens that asking, rather than telling, is perhaps the main difference between a teacher and a manager of learning. We ask, because maybe the learner already knows.

Maybe they know but haven’t realized that it applies in this situation. Or maybe they don’t know they don’t know. So we ask him, first. This asking comprises the first of the four steps of manager of learning, the Guided Discovery. A combination of attitudes, skills, and knowledge are usually needed to operate successfully in any specific area. Attitudes are the most important and are the most difficult to acquire.

Often a new attitude must replace an old attitude before skills or knowledge can be used. The manager of learning must be able to detect this situation and know how to effect the change. Counselling techniques are often used to enable a learner to see a need for change— a change in his attitude— and accept the help you or members of his patrol or others can give him.