In this episode, we offer up three independent segments. Matt Richter is joined first by Nidhi Sachdeva. Nidhi is both an evidence-based learning designer and a researcher. She just completed her PhD in the spring, and the two talk about the differences between learning and performance. Then, Guy Wallace is in the house. Guy needs no introduction, having been a performance analyst and instructional architect for a few decades now. We talk about his latest book, The L&D Pivot Point, published by LDA Press. Finally, in our third segment, the inimitable Thiagi joins Matt for a new series we will intermittently run called “A Person of Interest.” Thiagi shares his biography… his story with us.

You can find Nidhi most easily on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nidhi-sachdeva-toronto/, or her blog with Jim Hewitt here: https://scienceoflearning.substack.com 

Guy can be found here: https://eppic.biz/guy-w-wallace-2/ 

And, Thiagi here: https://thiagi.com. 

Nidhi references the work of Paul Kirscher, John Sweller, and Richard Mayer and their article, Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching. You can find it here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1207/s15326985ep4102_1?needAccess=true 

Matt & Nidhi refer to the cognitive architecture and instructional design when discussing complex skills. He references the Sweller, van Merrienboer, and Paas article from 1998: Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design found here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1022193728205 

They also deviate and start talking about SDT (Self-Determination Theory), and you can learn more about that here: https://selfdeterminationtheory.org

And, Matt wrote an article about SDT in the context of learning found here: https://ldaccelerator.com/lda-blog-1/open-the-motivational-door-and-let-the-learners-in-and-keep-them 

The 85% Rule for Optimal Learning can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12552-4 

Scott Rigby and Richard Ryan, Glued to Games: How Video Games Draw Us In and Hold Us Spellbound. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-01778-000  

Guy’s book, The L&D Pivot point can be purchased here: https://ldaccelerator.com/the-ld-pivot-point

Thiagi studied with Albert Elsen. Here’s more info about him: https://honorsandawards.iu.edu/awards/honoree/1453.html 

BEST AND WORST REFERENCES:

Daniel Willingham Tik Tok on the fallacy of rereading for studying. Ok… there are a ton of Tim Tok videos by Dan. We aren’t sure exactly which one she referred to, but after going through several to find it, we recommend the whole darn Willingham channel. It’s great. https://www.tiktok.com/@daniel_willingham