Australian site

Page content

This page introduces Old Way New Way^® Learning, including the basic theory underpinning the method, and available training programs in this unique approach to behaviour change and continuous improvement.

Old Way New Way Learning^®

• Why don't they learn?
• Old Way New Way^®
• Habit pattern interference

Ordering

• Sport generic
• Golf
• Swimming
• Lawn bowls
• Workplace safety
• Manual handling
• Driving
• Music performance
• Misconceptions
• Spelling
• Reading Home User
• Reading Pro Version
• Nail biting

Recipient of European Athletics Association Coaching Science Award

Golf swing improvement

Tennis stroke correction

Lawn bowls technique improvement

Swimming stroke correction

Glass cockpit conversion

Flight training

Safety training and work habit correction

Manual handling

Driver education & training

Education Network Australia endorsement

Adult learning

Spelling

Music performance

Violin

Handwriting

Maths teaching

Science teaching

Management training

What is Old Way New Way^® Learning?

An experienced flight instructor once said this about the tendency for people to keep falling back to old ways - "The problem is not learning the new; it's forgetting (unlearning) the old!"

Old Way New Way^® offers a new theory of learning and a cost-effective, user friendly method of continuous improvement and change management in sport, workplace safety and training, health professions, education, defence forces training and personal development.

Endorsed by Australian State governments as an innovative and effective learning method, Old Way New Way^® is a fascinating synthesis of past and emerging research into the psychology of learning, sports psychology, training science and coaching science.

It explains why adaptation to change takes so long; why performance slows and errors increase during the transition; why people initially appear to improve and then forget their learning under pressure; and why they keep falling back to old ways under conventional, i.e., currently available, methods of coaching, teaching, training, therapy and personal development.

Old Way New Way^® empowers people, accelerates learning and reduces the extended period of adaptation to change that typically accompanies conventional change methods. Understanding, knowledge and skills improve quickly so performance becomes more skillful, safer, more flexible and adaptable.

These claims are backed up by evidence from Government funded research, workplace trials, published experimental research in professional refereed journals, independent university evaluations, and case reports from sports coaches, teachers, instructors, golf professionals, sport psychologists, therapists, students and parents.

Demonstration of the brain mechanism that makes old habits die hard

Try your hand at learning some new tricks and test your own readiness for change. This brief colour chart demonstration is used in all our courses and workshops. It is a good conversation piece as well as offering an opportunity for self reflection.

This simple but intriguing activity is a demonstration of the powerful interference effect caused by prior learning.

Exactly what it means for you personally will become clearer after you have done the two short tasks and you interpret your scores.

Now, please read and follow these instructions carefully.

INSTRUCTIONS

TASK 1
1. You will need a watch to record how long it takes you to finish this task. Record the time to the nearest second.
   
2. Just read each word aloud as you normally would when reading. Start at the top, go left to right, line by line, as quickly as you can and correct any mistakes. For example, the first word is "green", the second is "brown" and so on. Remember to record how many seconds you take to finish.

TASK 2
1. Again, use your watch to record how long you take to finish this task.
   
2. This time, instead of reading the word, you have to name the colour of the ink in which each word is written, going left to right, line by line, as quickly as you can and correct any mistakes. Speak up and say it aloud for greater effect. For example, the colour of the first word is "pink" so you have to say "pink" instead of "green". The second is "red", not "brown" and so on. Do the whole list from top to bottom. Don't forget to record how many seconds it takes you to finish.

green     brown    black     blue      green    pink

blue        pink       brown    green    black    red

blue        red         black     brown    black    pink

green     red         brown   green    pink       blue

  red         blue        black     pink      green    brown

red        green     green     black    brown   blue

pink       red         blue       brown   green    black

pink       black      blue       brown   red         red

   pink       red          pink       black    brown   brown

green   green     red         pink      brown   blue

  black    pink        blue        red        pink       black

black    brown   green      blue       red        blue

Now proceed to an interpretation of your scores; a new theory and explanation of why old habits die hard; and how to use it in sports coaching, education, workplace safety training, driving instruction, music performance improvement and flight training.

Why don't they learn?

Trainers, teachers, instructors and sports coaches try to get it right the first time with their students, trainees and athletes but invariably end up spending a lot of time trying to correct errors, misconceptions, non-compliance, technique faults and bad habits that somehow develop.

Because these errors were not corrected early, and were inadvertently repeated over and over (i.e., practised), many error patterns are actually learned, habitual and automatic and therefore much harder to eradicate.

For example, John always writes "recieve" instead of "receive"; Mike always has to be reminded to wear his safety goggles; Mary always slices her golf swing; Susan always follow cars too closely when driving; and Geoff is mentally still following the previous aircraft’s pre-flight checklist even though he's converted to another aircraft.

We all know that old habits die hard and many habit patterns are resistant to conventional change methods.

These limitations of traditional teaching and training programs are apparent in all settings including sport, workplace training, education, therapy and personal development.

Re-training or re-education, the typical solution to these problems, improves things only slowly, if at all.

Although learners may appear to pay attention during instruction and practice their new, correct, skills and knowledge over and over, the next day when placed under pressure or when unsupervised and left to their own devices, they seem to have forgotten what they’ve learned and the same habit pattern errors (old entrenched attitudes, beliefs, misunderstandings, work practices and routines, faulty procedures, poor techniques and unsafe behaviours) resurface.

A prolonged adjustment period and poor transfer of learning are the two most typical outcomes of education, training and coaching efforts worldwide.

All this wastes talent and resources and makes change and transition programs so much less cost-effective. There’s got to be a better way.

Fortunately, a cognitive science discovery called Old Way New Way Learning offers:

1. A new perspective on the transfer of training problem.

2. A fast and practical method of transition training.

3. A cost-effective and user-friendly method for rapid skill and technique correction, and habit eradication.

This page introduces Old Way New Way^® Learning, including the basic theory underpinning the method, and available training programs in this unique approach to behaviour change and continuous improvement.