Reflecting the Cognitive Learning Theory - Essay Example

Reflecting Report Reflecting Report First Experience My first experience was as a sales officer with Insurance Company. My main tasks were to make appointments with our clients through calls and then visit them in personal in order to tell them about our insurance packages and schemes. So, my main job was to observe people, predict their behaviour and convince them by giving those benefits which suits their needs. At the time, I joined my company the financial and job stability in the country was unsatisfactory and more people were interested in buying insurances for their home or money security and for their future sustenance. Therefore, right from the time I took the position of a sales officer, I got a big list of business clients and individuals to deal with and convince that our company provides adequate security against all financial problems and needs. The nature of my job demanded that I learn how people react to different things and what derive their motivation in buying something. Since, the market of insurance security was increasing, so was the market competition. Less than two years before I started my job, there were 4-5 new companies that have emerged in several regions of the country, making the market competition more intense. The first lesson that I got from my supervisor was on communication skills. He told me that winning people’s trust is the foremost thing in our job and that is only possible if we can make them realize that we know their situation and needs, and we value their time and money. This can be easily linked with the teachings of the “Constructivism Learning Theory” proposed by Jean Piaget (1896-1980). This theory explains that the learning and interpreting process of all humans differ from each other, and there response cannot be predicted on the basis of others’ responses. This method of learning has got wide acceptance in last few years one major reason is of cultural mix in the world. People with different need, values and cultural background have constructed their own set of analyzing and justifying information. Hence, a piece of information, which is totally relevant and convincing for someone, can just be absurd for other (Leonard, 2002). In my job of sales officer, I had to deal with diverse people and there were no hard and fast rules of how to manage and convince them. So, my first task was to analyze the status and needs of the concerned client or person and then present the plan on the basis of those analyses. Several times the insurance plan offered first does not fit to the need scale of the client and they losses their interest in our company right away. This trouble in presenting the right information first caused me to lose several of my clients at the personal visits and even at the phone calls. In the third month of my job, I was allotted with higher clients who have better financial status than those I visited in my first two months. What I leant in the first two months of my job is that, I have to talk about benefits of taking the plan first, and then I have to provide details of the plan. This enabled me to hold the interest of clients a little longer during which I can brief them about all insurance packages and ask them to pick one. The Operant Conditioning Theory can be applied here, in terms of the reinforcement technique. As defined by Skinner (1948), reinforcement is the tool that derives a particular behaviour of a person (Leonard, 2002). Positive reinforcement is defining all benefits associated with an action and negative reinforcement is outlining all drawbacks associated with a particular behaviour. My dealings with clients closely followed this learning theory as all conversations included all benefits of using our insurance and all drawbacks of not using the insurance (Leonard, 2002). Also, to highlight that at times I had to lie to clients just for the sake to present them that our insurance plans are the most reasonable and will provide the maximum protection. This was the need of my job as I was given monthly targets to achieve and I could not risk loosing customers by showing them the other the downside of our insurance packages. Some packages included hidden monthly charges and were limited in their secure plans to customers. However, we were forbid to disclose all such information unless the customer asks. Hence, it can be said that lying to our clients and customers was a part of the organization culture, in order to gain their trust first up. It was a little difficult to adjust with such a contradicting culture where employees were taught to be honest with their business dealings and on the other hand, were asked not to reveal some crucial information about the product. The “Interpersonal Deception Theory” tells that a business communications are often not neural, but is biased due to personal goals or subconscious intentions. The theory defines that the information giver and taker can be truthful in their individuality, but in the context of their communication their truthfulness can be challenged. Businesses are made of individuals, who have their priorities and goals which further fall under organization goals. This in its entirety effects the communication of a person with the other, and this is quite common in the corporate environment. This deception can lead a company towards short term benefits, but it has adverse effects in the long run (Carson, 2012). It was a case when the concealment of complete information resulted in a high conflict in the organization. We had around 4 groups, each comprising of 4 sales officers and one team head. One of the officers from other groups got a deal of $50,000/year from a manger of a computer service provider company. The manger got offensive when he learnt that another company is giving the same benefits in $40,000/year, and they are also deducting less monthly fees. We know this fact, but are compelled to not reveal it and keep saying it that out insurance packages are the best amongst all in the business. He was about to sue the company for the act of customer trust betraying, however the matter was solved by the marketing director of the company. I thought that after this incident, our team leaders would tell us not to hide any information from now on, but the practice of customer deception continued till the time I worked in the company. It was hard to adjust in the organization culture where employees are solely judged with the number of their sales and target achieved. Business sense, peer to peer relation, punctuality and corporate ethics were not considered in giving promotions or bonuses to employees. With such a sales-oriented culture, many times team leaders were pressurized to increase the sales rate of their team members. So, all employees were in some kind of pressure all the time as high sales was the only path towards promotion and even job security. The “Cybernetic Theory of Stress” explains that sales oriented culture can be a cause of motivation for employees to work more, but it can also disturb their rationale thinking ability and can in turn produce negative consequences. According to this theory, if employees are only appraised on the basis of profits they have made and not their overall performance and conduct, then the organization is very likely to compete within itself then with other organizations. Employees will try to beat their fellow employees and the essence of team work and collective efforts will soon dir from the organization. This was very much the scenario with my job, where everybody was directly and indirectly forced to improve their sales by whatever means possible. This was one major reason of my job dissatisfaction as even when I started to do good dealings, I was still behind some other senior sales officers and always reminded in a state of competition rather than collaboration. A reflection on my stress in the Insurance Company in the context of the Cybernetic Theory of Stress helps me in underling the areas where I could have acted differently to reduce my work stress. I was more concern with external praises and rewards than my internal satisfaction and self motivation. Even tough when I was making good sales, I was always eyeing for beating other colleagues so to get the attention of managers and executives, and this increased my work burden and stress. There were many senior employees who were earning less than me, but still they were satisfied and did not get exhaust from the job like me. This explains that the pressure build-up was also due to my eager to come in the lame light and get quick promotion. If I get a similar job in the future where the promotion criteria is based on targets achieved or sales alone, then I will try to maintain a balance between targets and stress. This will help me to be content with whatever profit I am making, and there will be less chances of getting exhausted by the workplace pressure and stress (Edwards, 2006). Second Experience I worked as a voluntary teacher in an NGO school. It is by far the best working experience of mine, as the nature of the job was tough competitive, but it was a positive competition. The school was initiated with a very good objective to boost the confidence and critical thinking approach of young children between 6-12 years of age. It was a community school which was established in different regions and was opened for all children irrespective of their financial background or aptitude. The classes were held once in a week and my job was to make planners of creative activities and games to be played in the weekly classes. The school was divided into three section, each having a specified number of children of same ages and around 5-6 teachers. The division was done on the basis of children ages; 6-8, 8-10 and 10-12 were the division criteria of the sections. I started teaching as a student facilitator or sub-teacher for the section of 6-8 years children. The unique thing about this school was that it discouraged the concept of traditional teaching and put emphasis on new teaching methodologies. For every week class, all section teachers had to decide a new topic and mode of teaching that can create a fun and learn environment in the class. So, we had to refresh our minds and think out of the box to come up with new topics or old topics with new teaching methods to foster children’s knowledge and ability to grasp things. The “Cognitivism Learning Theory” is helpful in analyzing my behaviour in this job. The theory explains that the knowledge generation process of humans is sequential and continuous. A person’s abilities and attributes develop or changes continuously with the on-going mental processes of recall, analyze, comprehend and assess. The theory explains that the learning capability of people is not simply based on their experiences and the information they receive, but also on system processing of their brains. This is the reason that some people are very good in memorizing things by elating them to other things while some fail to make links between things (Sincero, 2011). My teaching job demanded me to make links between the topic and children’s likeliness and enjoyment. Also, I have to evaluate results and experiences of previous classes, to design a lesson plan which can ensure better results than the previous class. This theory negates the concept of conditioning theories and elaborate that actions influenced by a result are limited in their applicability. This can be rightly link with my teaching experience in this job, as my mental processing evolved by comprehending the results of the previous classes and by reflecting and analyzing about what went right or wrong in the class. So, my behaviour in making planners, teaching and in communicating with children modified with the passage of time as I evaluate the nature and behaviour of children as an individual and their behaviour with me. Hence, it can be said that my cognitive learning process helped me in better dealing with children and changing my behaviour according to the need of children or the situation (Taylor & MacKenney, 2008). The cognitive learning process can also be linked with the way children’s behaviour and thoughts were evolved with the passage of time. There were several classes which turned out to be boring and uninteresting; tough it was taught in a new style and on a new topic than in the previous classes. On reflecting the Cognitive Learning Theory I now realize that due to the cognitive learning of children, they had already made up an opinion about the class before even the topic was introduced. It can be because the class started in the same fashion and that stimulated the cognitive processing of children to conclude that this class will be boring too. So, in the future if I come through a situation where I need to conduct a class after a tedious class, then I will ask some other teacher to start the class. Another method could be to change my complete getup, in order to build new memories in children’s mind rather than recalling the old ones (Sincero, 2011). Tough, all teachers in the school were voluntary but still there were power games and conflicts in the institute like in other organizations, but on a smaller scale. The main reason of conflicts between teachers was the dispute in planner making. All our planners were first discussed in front of all teachers and heads for the sake of improvements and modifications. Several times the topic or games of two sections came put to be similar and it was against the policy of the school. No two groups were allowed to conduct the same game or topic in their classes, and thus one group had to compromise over their weeks planning and resource arrangement. This objective of this policy was that to restrict teachers in taking an easy way out for planner making and encourage the habit of unique planners. Tough the objective was good, however the implication yield several conflicts and arguments as many times teachers were asked to redesign their entire planner which was like wasting a whole week’s planning. In my second month of this job, I was asked to make my first planner and basic information about the topic and planner designing was provided to me. Since it was my first planner, I did not have much idea about implementing games and activities. So, I searched it on the Internet and selected one game from a link on the first page of the search engine. Coincidently, another group had selected the same game for their other topic and I was asked to choose a different game for my class. I was very upset and annoyed with this as the in-charge of planner making did not ask the other teacher to change her planner. I had already bought chart papers, colours and other resources needed for the game and this decision wasted both my time and efforts. I refused to take the class, due to which my fellow teachers had to make the eleventh hour preparations and that turned out to be inadequate for conducting an effective class. My behaviour of in this situation was carried away by the unfavourable decision of the in-charge and giving no rationale for asking me to design a new planner. A mistake from my side was that I did not ask anyone before choosing the particular game and neither have I given any rationale for in against of the decision. This whole scenario fits nicely in the teachings of the Conflict Management Theory. The theory explains that conflicts are mostly created and not produce in the organisational environment. Many times the communication gap between employees and managers or supervisors becomes the basis of conflicts between them (Rahim, 2002, pp. 206-235). The theory also defines that if conflicts are managed properly then it can prove to be a source of improvement in the organization, but that needs proper management and collaboration strategy both from managers and employees. In the light of the theory, I can say that the conflict that arose in my situation was not dysfunctional as it was not aimed for any personal gains but to maintain the policy of the organization. Next time if I come across the same situation then, I can first prior inform the in-charge or supervisor about what I have planned about the class and other details. Secondly, if I’m asked to drop an activity or game idea, I would provide justification of how my idea is different from the other, to convince all that the institution policy is not broken (Rahim, 2002, pp. 206-235). List of References Carson, T., 2012. Lying and Deception: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Edwards, J., 2006. Cybernetic Theory of Stress, Coping, and Well-Being: , Oxford: Oxford: Oxford University. Leonard, D., 2002. Learning Theories: A to Z. New York: Greenwood Press. Rahim, M., 2002. Towards a Theory of Managing Organziational Conflict. The International Journal of Conflict Mnagement , 13(3), pp. 206-235. Sincero, S., 2011. Cognitive Learning Theory: Using Thinking to Learn. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 19 March 2013]. Taylor, G. & MacKenney, L., 2008. Improving Human Learning in the Classroom: Theories and Teaching Practices. Plymouth: R&L Education. Read More