Accelerated Learning is now widely accepted by thousands of professional teachers, trainers and educational psychologists. It is a style of teaching and presenting material that is producing faster, sounder learning.

 

General findings of AL Teachers and Researchers:

 

Fact #  1 – Your brain has enormous potential. It is capable of much more than you have imagined. In fact, the more you use it the more associations and connections you make and the easier it is to remember, and learn more material. A rich, stimulating environment is the main factor in achieving high potential in young people and preventing deterioration in old age.

 

Fact #  2 – The left and right halves of the brain process information in different ways. The left brain is logical and likes to work on a step by step basis. The right brain responds to art, music and patterns – it process information holistically, grasps the whole picture quickly and is more sensitive to subconscious influences. Yet, most existing teaching is directed to the left brain.

 

Fact #  3 – Fully involve your right brain and you don’t just double your brain power, you increase it many times over.

 

Fact #  4 – Relaxation is important to create a stress free learning environment and conditions of ideal receptivity. Relaxation is associated with a predominantly alpha brain wave pattern. Relaxation releases energy for learning.

 

Fact #  5 – All new information enters the short term memory store, but only gets transferred to the long term memory store if it is rehearsed immediately.

 

Fact #  6 – Registering new facts depends on strong encoding. Strong encoding depends to a large extent on creating strong associations. Strong encoding is achieved by creating concrete images of sights, feelings, sounds, taste and smell. The stronger the original encoding the better the ultimate recall – just as the better the aides, the more usable the library. Recall is essential to learning and recall is different from and less easy to achieve than recognition.

 

Fact #  7 – Words linked to pictures are easier to learn/remember because you have achieved dual encoding. Recall depends on association, linking ideas together in a pattern.

 

Fact #  8 – Visual memory is essentially perfect. The key to memory and learning is to improve your visualization and to form strong visual association with new material. Interactive visual images are the most powerful.

 

Fact #  9 – The more time you spend learning, the better the learning. However, the way the time is utilized is highly influential. Practice distributed over time and in small intervals is the optimum strategy. Thus  the importance of the accelerated learning cycle.

 

Fact #  10 – Meaning is vital to memory, which is why nonsense phrases are so difficult to learn. There is no relationship available. The mind is always searching for meaning.

 

Fact #  11- Context is important. It provides an overview of what you will learn and facilitates meaning. A jigsaw is easier to do if you can see the whole picture.

 

Fact #  12 – Learning by example is better than learning by rote – but the more general the examples, the easier it is to apply the knowledge later in a broad set of circumstances.

 

Fact #  13 – Chunking or breaking information down into smaller components – is another important aid to memory.

 

Fact #  14 – Rhythm and Rhyme are powerful aids to memory. They stir the body’s reaction and they form an organized pattern which makes it easier to remember.

 

Fact #  15 – Music, especially Baroque music, is an ideal accompaniment to new material. It ensures left/right brain linkage, creates an auditory and rhythmic association with the material, an emotive link, and simultaneously promotes a state of relaxed awareness.

 

Fact #  16 – Individual words are less easy to remember than ideas or sentences, which are again a form of organization; so linking words together helps. Hence, it is easier to learn a language via stories – each new word building on and linking to the vocabulary already learned.

 

Fact #  17 – We all have the potential for photographic memory. The key is imagination!

 

Fact #  18 – Suggestion is a powerful tool for learning. Creating a belief in success and a positive self image will, when allied to a sound and realistic learning program, create great success. The subconscious mind appears to be controlled by the limbic system and is best accessed and influenced, not by left brain logic, but by an approach that incorporates an emotive appeal.

 

Fact #  19 – Learning is maximized when all the elements are focused on the learning process. Since possibly up to 90% of communication is at the subconscious level, the greater the number of subconscious stimuli that are orchestrated to aid learning, the faster and more effective is that learning. Such learning has been characterized as intuitive learning.

 

Fact # 20 – Presenting each lesson to the student in the three sensory channels – visual, auditory and kinesthetic – ensures that the presentation is in a style in which the student learns best, and that all three senses are coordinated to make learning highly effective. It also enables the student to deliberately extend the use of his senses.

 

Fact # 21 – The above program ensures early success and thus provides the motivation for extra attention and involvement. This fuels a virtuous circle.

 

Adapted from Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century by Colin Rose