Cognitive flexibility tries to avoid oversimplification. Traditional training design believes there is a single, best way to teach skills. A set of objectives are set for a course. Instructors choose cases and examples which determine appropriate action for a job. Content is organised in prepackaged structures that communicate the reliability and regularity of its contents.
Typical instructors treat their courses as well defined, well structured for learning.
But the learning that comes from these training sessions is also prepackaged and rigid. Some course designers believe it is impossible to pass on real complexity to novices who have limited, relevant world-knowledge when they come into the training room. Concepts have to be simplified in order to make them understandable. So the instruction filters out the complexity and the variations which exist in most real-work domains. The result is shallow understanding by learners when they return to work That situation may be accepted by a trainer for a novice, or a trainee who is under the constant care of an experienced mentor.