Learning is a Change in Performance

 If you’ve heard me tell this story before, forgive me. It’s a touchstone. 

When I was getting my instructional design degree, my beloved professor said, “learning is a change in behavior.” If there is no change in performance, people haven’t learned. While this may be functionally true in a corporate setting, it’s profoundly untrue in real life.

As an undergraduate, I learned of an experiment where two sets of rats were given access to a maze. The first set of rats found a tasty snack at the end point of the maze. The second set of rats got no treat and were simply removed when they reached the end.

The first set of rats quickly learned how to reach the end of the maze. The second set of rats wandered around infinitely.

Then, the second set of rats received the snack at the end of the maze. During the second trial, every rat in Group 2 overwhelmingly beat the fastest rat in Group 1. 

Did Group 2 fail to learn until there was a change in behavior or was learning quietly happening in the background until there was a reason to apply it?

I’d argue that Group 1 learned how to find the snack while Group 2 learned the maze. 

Also, as an addendum, this is why not all learning should be ISD.