Learning
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Why does cascade training fail?
Cascade training remains widely used in global health. Cascade training can look great on paper: an expert trains a small group who, in turn, train others, thereby theoretically scaling the knowledge across an organization. It attempts to combine the advantages of expert coaching and peer learning by passing knowledge down a hierarchy. However, despite its…
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The capability trap: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened
Here is a summary of the key points about the capability trap, from the article “Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened: creating and sustaining process improvement”. What is the capability trap? Core causal loops The capability trap The “capability trap” refers to the downward spiral organizations can get caught in, where…
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Making sense of sensemaking
In her article “A Shared Lens for Sensemaking in Learning Analytics”, Sasha Poquet argues that the field of learning analytics lacks a shared conceptual language to describe the process of sensemaking around educational data. She reviews prominent theories of sensemaking, delineating tensions between assumptions in dominant paradigms. Poquet then demonstrates the eclectic use of sensemaking…
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Education as a system of systems: rethinking learning theory to tackle complex threats to our societies
In their 2014 article, Jacobson, Kapur, and Reimann propose shifting the paradigm of learning theory towards the conceptual framework of complexity science. They argue that the longstanding dichotomy between cognitive and situative theories of learning fails to capture the intricate dynamics at play. Learning arises across a “bio-psycho-social” system involving interactive feedback loops linking neuronal…
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The design of intelligent environments for education
Warren M. Brodey, writing in 1967, advocated for “intelligent environments” that evolve in tandem with inhabitants rather than rigidly conditioning behaviors. The vision described deeply interweaves users and contexts, enabling environments to respond in real-time to boredom and changing needs with shifting modalities. Core arguments state that industrial-model education trains obedience over creativity through standardized,…
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How do we reframe health performance management within complex adaptive systems?
We need a conceptual framework that situates health performance management within complex adaptive systems. This is a summary of an important paper by Tom Newton-Lewis et al. It describes such a conceptual framework that identifies the factors that determine the appropriate balance between directive and enabling approaches to health performance management in complex systems. Existing…
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What is a “rubric” and why use rubrics in global health education?
Rubrics are well-established, evidence-based tools in education, but largely unknown in global health. At the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), the rubric is a key tool that we use – as part of a comprehensive package of interventions – to transform high-cost, low-volume training dependent on the limited availability of global experts into scalable peer learning to improve access, quality, and outcomes.…
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Pandemic preparedness through connected transnational digital networks of local actors
What is the link between pandemic preparedness, digital networks, and local action? In the Geneva Learning Foundation’s approach to effective humanitarian learning, knowledge acquisition and competency development are both necessary but insufficient. This is why, in July 2019, we built the first Impact Accelerator, to support local practitioners beyond learning outcomes all the way to…
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Reinventing the path from knowledge to action in global health
At the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), we have just begun to share a publication like no other. It is titled Overcoming barriers to vaccine acceptance in the community: Key learning from the experiences of 734 frontline health workers. You can access the full report here in French and in English. Short summaries are also available in three…
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Which is better for global health: online, blended, or face-to-face learning?
Question 1. Does supplementing face-to-face instruction with online instruction enhance learning? No. Positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. (It is more likely that positive effects are due to people doing more work in blended learning, once online and then again in a physical space.) This is…
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