Abstract learning approaches

Many leadership development interventions take the form of courses; these can be as short as half a day in duration or may involve attendance over a long period of time, particularly when they lead to a qualification. There will normally be a prescribed set of learning outcomes to be achieved by learners on the programme and one of the first stages of evaluation is to attempt to measure whether or not these learning outcomes have been achieved. In practice, however, this is sometimes the first and final stage.

Donald Kirkpatrick's 'Chain Reaction' model of evaluation is the approach which most trainers and developers attempt to employ. It is based on the principle that there are five distinct stages of learning and change which can be measured to gauge the impact of the learning programme:

Training leads to Reactions which lead to Learning which lead to Changes in job behaviour which leads to Changes in the organisation

This model shown here is based on Kirkpatrick, D. (1959/60) 'Techniques for evaluating training programmes: Parts 1 to 4' Journal of the American Society for Training and Development

In this chain reaction model, evaluation starts with a formative look at the processes used on the programme, moving onto the measurement of reactions - how trainees felt about the programme and how they responded to various aspects of it. These reactions lead to learning, measured against learning outcomes set for the programme; in some cases, evaluators may also try to assess whether there are any unintended learning outcomes. This learning should result in individuals changing their behaviour in the workplace (in line with the learning outcomes) which will ultimately lead to changes in organisational performance.