The Kash Model
Webmaster January 26th, 2006
The KASH Model consists of four phases: knowledge of a better way, attitude, skillful application of the new knowledge, and habit. Knowledge of a better way is trying to get learners to accept that there is a better of doing things. It involves selling the new way to the employee. Let’s use an example of a company implementing a new technology that will be used to make a company more efficient and profitable. There are two ways that can be used to implement this component. The first technique is to place fear into the employee by saying that they will lose their jobs if they don’t learn this new technology. This fear could be the motivation they need to be able to stay employed. This is happening with the new security screeners at the airport. Many of them are older people who have never touched a computer and are faced with the task to take the test on a computer. Many of them come away from the experience that they need learn how to use a computer.
The second component of the KASH model consists of ability or aptitude. Ability is something that can be taught, such as the ability to use a computer, ability to throw a football, etc. Aptitude helps to attain ability. Aptitude refers to any personal characteristics that relate to learning and thus can include a broad range of variables, such as styles of thought, personality, and various scholastic aptitudes. In most cases it is born, it cannot be taught, however it can be developed over time. For some people it can be a quick process, while for others such as those with learning disabilities, it can be a long drawn out process. This is why that one of the key skills for trainers is patience. Aptitude is another way of saying intelligence or levels of cognition. Aptitude can be seen as closely related to an individual’s self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief that one can do a particular task, therefore the level of an individual’s aptitude can increased over one’s lifetime. A person’s level of intelligence, or aptitude, can influence a person’s belief in doing a particular task. A person with high level of intelligence will generally exhibit high levels of confidence. On the hand, a person with low levels of intelligence will generally exhibit lots of frustration when performing a task. It is people such as the latter that need the support of a mentor to succeed.
For the third component of the KASH model, people must have the skill to develop a new and better way. How is skill developed? It takes lots of practice to get to a given skill level. It takes lots of practice to maintain that skill level. For example, learning to play running back for a football team is considered a skill position. It involves using your sight to look for the holes to develop. This also takes patience to allow the blockers to get into position to allow the holes to develop then using his speed to get through the hole before it closes. Another skill position in football that takes a lot of practice is the quarterback position. When teaching a new player to be quarterback, the best way to have the coach or another player call the plays in from the sideline. This will allow the new player to learn how plays are called in and what situation to use the particular play. Every year as they progress through the system, give that player some autonomy to call the plays himself from the huddle, while still retaining the play calling for situations such as the two-minute offense. Hopefully by his senior year, his skill level would be fully developed to call all the plays himself.
Can you teach a person with Down’s syndrome to throw a football? A person with Down’s syndrome, depending on the degree of severity, needs some assistance with day-to-day functioning. A person with Down’s syndrome can be taught the ability to play football, because they do have some level of aptitude to understand concepts of holding a football. The aptitude is much lower for this type of person so it will take much longer to teach this person how to play the game. You can do this by showing this person how to grip a football by placing the fingertips along the laces. Next, observe the person trying to grip the football. Don’t jump in immediately when they have trouble. Observe them as long as you think you need to allow them to try and figure it out. If they still can’t figure it out, then correct them. When they exhibit holding the football the correct way, give them some positive reinforcement to make them feel good. This will raise their level of self-efficacy to hold a football. Once you have taught him that skill, you can now move on to showing him, you can now demonstrate how to throw a football.
A habit is best explained as having the ability to do a task without any conscious thought; it becomes a routine. An example would be walking the grocery department at the start of your shift and making out your list of things to be done that day and prioritizing them by order of importance, because this routine has been ingrained into the individual that it becomes a habit. When learning a new skill we typically give our total attention to learning that skill. To make a skill a habit takes lot’s of practice. In the end, we are able to use that skill in a sense that it requires limited attentional capacity to be performed.
The KASH model is a good model for teaching learners that have knowledge and experience in a particular area. It is useful getting learners to think in terms of continuous learning, that there is a better way of doing a particular task. Whereas when teaching newcomers to an organization, Bloom’s Taxonomy would be an excellent model, since you are teaching learners that are green to a particular subject.
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