"Roger Schank is a former professor of computer and cognitive sciences at Yale University, Stanford University, and Northwestern University. After thirty-two years of being a professor, he quit out of frustration and has been focused ever since on developing new learning systems based on delivering knowledge in an on-demand, need-to-know basis.
According to Schank, people learn by doing things that they want to do. In his study “What We Learn When We Learn by Doing,” Schank says:
According to Schank, people learn by doing things that they want to do. In his study “What We Learn When We Learn by Doing,” Schank says: To consider learning by doing from a psychological point of view, we must think more about learning in real life, which is, of course, the natural venue of learning by doing. There is, after all, something inherently artificial about school. Natural learning means learning on an “as needed” basis. In such a learning situation, motivation is never a problem, we learn because something has caused us to want to know. But school has no natural motivation associated with it. Students go there because they have no choice. The same is true of most training situations."
Schank aptly sums it up on his website: “Learning occurs when someone wants to learn, not when someone wants to teach.”
As trainers, teachers and simply those who want to impart our knowledge and experience to others, we need to remember... not everyone is ready to learn, even if they showed up to your class. Thus, it becomes even more imperative to create a culture of learning where learning is readily available when one is ready to learn, not when we are ready to teach!