One of the more effective ways to learn is through other people. Specifically, through the experiences they have that you do not.
Everyone knows this. And it’s backed up by studies. In fact, 70% of learning comes from observing others.
Translation: observation and on-the-job experience significantly boost knowledge acquisition and retention.
This is known as the 70-20-10 model and is something that we’ve previously outlined this guide.
But now it’s time to go a little deeper and look at vicarious learning, what it is, its benefits, and a handful of examples.👇
What is Vicarious Learning?
Vicarious learning is a means by which information is acquired by learning from the experiences of others. This is a conscious process, one that involves understanding, feeling, even sensing and emphasising with others.
Basically, rather than acquiring knowledge or learning to complete a task through instruction, let’s say following a ‘How-to’ guide or attending lectures, vicarious learning fosters interaction by encouraging people to witness how somebody else completes a task, then applying what they’ve learned to their attempt.
So, let’s say you want to upskill your customer service department so they can provide a higher standard of service.
Why not promote mentorships between experienced and inexperienced employees? Encourage job shadowing? Foster collaborative peer-to-peer learning through, for example, role-playing scenarios or group activities.
These all encourage L&D and are clear examples of vicarious learning.
Why Does Vicarious Learning Matter to L&D, Corporate Training, and Education?
Vicarious learning is social and helps to create a supportive learning environment.
By providing opportunities for colleagues to observe and learn from one another, organisations can elevate their skills, reinforce positive behaviours, and foster a culture of continuous improvement and growth.
Social learning compels knowledge transfer free from the tedium of knowledge acquisition.
Remember, not everyone wants to sit for hours in a lecture hall or attend seminar after seminar just to acquire the requisite knowledge to perform a role!
What is the Psychological Foundation and Real-World Applications of Vicarious Learning?
Rooted in Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, which emphasises the importance of observing and understanding people’s learning behaviours, according to the specified learning model, the real-world applications of vicarious learning are clear, easy to understand, and well-documented.
Learners watch instructional, how-to videos, observe a colleague’s successful approach to completing their day-to-day tasks, and even attend a workplace conference to gain a greater understanding of a particular subject.
A more contemporary example of vicarious learning is any knowledge acquired through resources like social media which allows learners to understand and imitate behaviours according to how they are rewarded or punished for their actions.
So, as you can see, vicarious learning is quite prominent across both our professional and personal life which might explain why many people and organisations employ it to acquire knowledge.
How Vicarious Learning Differs from Direct Learning
There are several key differences between vicarious learning and direct learning. We’ve listed these below. Be sure to read them all to gain a thorough understanding of each and to decide whether vicarious learning or direct learning is the right option for you.
Vicarious learning allows individuals to acquire knowledge or skills through observing and imitating other’s behaviours rather than taking active participation in the learning process.
Direct learning involves actively participating in and experiencing the learning process for yourself.
It’s basically passive learning vs. active learning.
Vicarious learning might be considered passive learning, though it does require active cognitive processes like attention, retention, and motivation to be fully effective.
Direct learning is a form of passive learning because individuals seek the guidance of teachers to guide them through the subject matter through activities like listening and asking questions,
An Example of Vicarious Learning
A good example of vicarious learning is something as simple as watching a YouTube video tutorial to learn how to fix, let’s say, a leaky faucet.
You learn by observing someone else complete the task directly. Essentially, you’re gaining knowledge from another person’s experience through observation.
How Vicarious Learning Works
According to Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, the psychological process of vicarious learning is described in four phases. We’ve listed these below:
Observation: the initial phase, whereby someone observes another person performing a task carefully. Think of watching a YouTube video of someone troubleshooting an issue they’re facing with their laptop.
Mental Processing: the learner gains an understanding of the actions they need to take to achieve their aims, e.g., resolving the problem they’re having with their laptop, by understanding and reviewing behaviour.
Imitation and Application: once behaviours have been fully understood through observation and understanding, then comes imitation and application, reproducing the behaviours learned based on observed experiences.
Reinforcement & Feedback: the final phase involves affirming and reinforcing all knowledge obtained by encouraging feedback to others, including rewarding correct application and redirecting to correct mistakes.
Five Benefits of Vicarious Learning
An organisation that elects to implement vicarious learning is adopting a strategy that inevitably expands professional and personal knowledge and skillsets. It’s that simple.
But vicarious learning is so much more than that.
Learning from other’s indirect experience is memorable and can even be fun and build bonds between people.
Below are the five core benefits of vicarious learning.
Reduces Trial and Error Learning
During the learning process, nobody gets everything down cold the first time.
There’s always a degree of trial and error. Minimise this and you’ll flatten the learning curve.
By promoting learning from others through vicarious learning, you can reduce the lengthy trial-and-error process and quickly grasp what does and doesn’t work.
Improves Comprehension and Retention
Allow people to observe one another, participating in the learning process and they’ll feel more engaged in the entire process.
This is essential to forming strong psychological representations of the information.
The result?
A deeper understanding of the subject and improved memory recall, especially if this is combined with reflection and analysis of the information being learned.
Enhanced Workplace Training
Organisations that evolve and grow invest in L&D. One of the least risky ways to do this is to invest in low-risk development.
But what exactly is this?
Well, oftentimes it depends on the organisation, but one surefire way to mitigate risk is reducing costs and optimising time–L&D included.
By encouraging people to learn from one another, vicarious learning streamlines workplace understanding whilst mitigating some of the more pertinent risks, including the financial costs and loss of time that could be better spent elsewhere.
Encourages Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
Another primary benefit to vicarious learning is that it encourages people to communicate–and work with–one another, something that’s integral to a productive, successful workplace environment. This helps to foster a workplace with strong relationships and in-depth knowledge.
Facilitates Strong Digital Learning
In today’s modern L&D environment, one with a focus on all things digital, vicarious learning mirrors much of what organisations need.
From faster skill acquisition to increased engagement, even leveraging existing digital skills to become a greater value to organisations, the broad range of benefits vicarious learning offers enrich any organisation.
Vicarious Learning vs. Experiential Learning
Like some learning styles, vicarious learning and experiential learning do have some clear similarities, but other distinct differences. Let’s examine them clearly.
As we’ve already outlined, vicarious learning is learning through observing other people’s actions. Experiential learning is gaining knowledge through direct, hands-on experiences.
Basically, vicarious learning is learning by observing. Experiential learning is learning by doing.
Key points to remember:
Vicarious learning is:
- Learning through observing others’ actions, behaviours and outcomes
- Achieved through a range of methods, including in-person, online through videos, reading or listening to other people’s stories
- Consistently used in L&D to encourage understanding, knowledge acquisition and retention
Experimental learning is:
- Learning through actively participating in an activity or situation
- Something that requires reflection on the experience to extract lessons and meanings
- Commonplace within internships, simulations and hands-on projects
So, basically, vicarious learning=passive observation, which leads to indirect experience to learn, whereas experimental learning requires active participation through direct experience.
Why are Vicarious Learning and Experimental Learning Important?
There’s a very clear reason why vicarious learning and experiential learning are important to an organisation’s L&D: they allow individuals to acquire knowledge and skills by observing others’ experiences and actively participating in real-world situations.
This leads to deeper understanding, faster skill acquisition and better knowledge application within a workplace setting, whilst reducing the risk when learning through more direct experiences.
Shrewd organisations choose to adopt a blended approach of both vicarious learning and experimental learning.
This promotes faster learning, more efficient knowledge transfer, and encourages social learning whilst bolstering engagement, hands-on application, and personal reflection on the skills learned.
Examples of Vicarious Learning in Action
There are various ways of implementing vicarious learning in the workplace, an educational setting and across any L&D setting.
It’s important for organisations to choose the right way to roll out their L&D, and this includes vicarious learning to maximise understanding and retention.
Below we have listed examples of vicarious learning in three separate environments:
Workplace Shadowing
Arguably, the most common form of vicarious learning in the workplace is shadowing more experienced team members.
This allows people to learn through observation, watching how others have honed their expertise through application over a long period of time.
Workplace Mentoring
Another clear example of vicarious learning in the workplace is mentoring.
Like shadowing, access to more experienced individuals allows junior members of staff to learn from the experiences of others, only mentoring takes this a step further by having a mentor guide actions to quicker the L&D process.
Educational Demonstrations
Taking part in educational demonstrations is vicarious learning.
This is commonplace in educational settings, being how many of us learn from our earliest stages in education.
Think about building a simple circuit in a science classroom at the age of 12. The odds are the teacher demonstrated how to do it. The students watched. And then followed a series of instructions to do it themselves.
This is vicarious learning! Demonstrations have proven to be an apt way of learning across our whole life.
Case Studies in Education
To understand the context and how things have changed over time, identify patterns, address questions over development and continuity, even inform future decision-making, even explain context, there are few better examples than case studies.
This explains why they’re so prevalent in all areas of education, from formative to workplace.
Workplace L&D Video
Video is known for fostering learner engagement, and improving knowledge retention, whilst offering a degree of flexibility that allows learners to level up their aptitude at their own pace.
Better still, in today’s modern digital world, video is, arguably, the ley medium of choice people use when looking to acquire a new skill.
There’s a reason why so many people choose YouTube to discover how to, for example, learn how to fix an issue they’ve been frustrated with!
AI-driven Learning Platforms
Video learning has undergone an evolution in the last few years, thanks largely to AI blossoming in the workplace.
Sure, video learning is still valuable, in some contexts, the most valuable way to learn a new skill, but AI is changing the game.
Why?
It bridges the gap between standardisation and personalisation, allowing organisations to offer standardised L&D at scale whilst simultaneously tailoring the right career path for a broad range of employees.
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Like pretty much every way people learn, vicarious learning is not without its challenges.
Understanding these will give you a good understanding of the ways to approach how best to implement your L&D across all departments of the workplace.
Below is a list of the common challenges organisations face when implementing their L&D across all departments–and how to overcome them. If any seem familiar, you may just find the solution you’re looking for!
Passive Learning vs. Active Learning
One of the more common challenges of vicarious learning is the balancing act of passive vs. active learning.
Get the balance right and the learner will be actively engaged, receptive and eager to learn.
The key is to make sure that learners engage with and reflect on learned behaviours.
Lack of Real-World Exposure
Learning is only as good as its application.
Theoretical learning can provide a solid foundation for levelling up knowledge and skillsets, but real-world application is how you’ll test how valuable the effective the learning process has been.
Leveraging digital tools, like AI, VR, and interactive learning, will give you a clear advantage over the competition, and Thirst can help you.
Remember, learners shouldn’t be too afraid of not getting it right the first time.
Growth comes from setbacks. You almost must fail to succeed. Why not use every advantage, including Thirst’s AI-learning platform!
Measuring Impact
Implementing L&D of any description is only as effective as the impact it’ll have.
The question for organisations is how do they gauge this? Simple.
By using simple metrics to measure performance, especially where improvements have been made, understanding engagement, even attitude shifts, gives organisations the opportunity to understand the value of their L&D investment.
Final Thoughts
Vicarious learning is crucial to L&D professionals in acquiring and retaining vital knowledge and skills that bolster individual and workplace performance.
By allowing people to learn by observation, learners gain a solid psychological and first-hand understanding of the knowledge they’re aiming to acquire whilst stimulating a visual representation of the actions that need to be taken to achieve goals, i.e., knowledge acquisition and its importance to professional and personal growth to the individual and organisational growth.
From reducing what can become a time-consuming trial and error process and improving overall understanding and knowledge retention to encouraging collaboration, such as knowledge sharing and, of course, leveraging digital platforms to elevate the learning process, vicarious learning could be the solution that you’re looking for.
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Thirst is an AI-powered learning platform that helps L&D teams of all sizes boost learner engagement and create experiences tailored to today’s learners.
Take a guided tour today and see Thirst in action.
For more e-learning insights, resources and information, discover the Thirst blog.
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