Speaker Reflection: Dr. Mohan Yang

Dr. Mohan Yang presented a workshop titled “Transfer of Training: The pathway to performance improvement”. Dr. Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Training Specialist Program at Old Dominion University. One of his current research interests is the transfer of training. In this presentation, he discussed definitions, theories, and barriers to the transfer of skills, knowledge, and attitudes of learners.

Dr. Yang presented many interesting ideas that challenge the typical thinking about corporate training. Often, the first thing the training or education department is asked to do is create training to help increase employee performance. Instead of rushing into creating a training just for the sake of training, Dr. Yang used support from the literature to suggests we should understand the whole environment and how to maximize the transfer of the training.

There are multiple players in a training scenario, including the trainer, learners, and managers. All three players and pieces must work together before, during, and after training to maximize transfer of skills, knowledge, and attitudes. Research has shown that training is likely to fail to improve performance if a learner doesn’t feel supported by peers, the organizational culture, their working environment, and managers after the training. This was a key moment for me during Dr. Yang’s talk. As an instructional designer, I will work closely with managers and other key stakeholders to reduce barriers to transfer before, during, and after a training event.

I enjoyed this conversation and will take away the importance of seeing the bigger picture. This topic was very relevant to what we are currently learning in class and helped provide additional insight beyond our classwork. While the focus of this conversation was on corporate training, I believe it has application to both Higher Ed and K12 learning as well. We can replace “Trainee” with student, “Manager” with teacher, and “Trainer” with teacher and/or curriculum developer.  In this instance, the same ideas apply and can help us see the bigger picture of the learning environment to help students gain knowledge and skills.