02 What is accelerated learning?
Description
This article is from the Self Improvement FAQ, by Loren Larsen llarsen@cs.clemson.edu with numerous contributions by others.
02 What is accelerated learning?
Accelerated learning is a technique that was pioneered by the
Bulgarian psychologist named Lozanov during the 1950's/60's.
A typical session involves two stages - learning while in deep
relaxation, and consolidating through play.
In the first stage of a session, pupils are seated (or sit on
cushions) in a comfortable room and are encouraged to relax, get
themselves into a positive frame of mind and visualize a time when
they experienced real joy at succesfully learning something.
Once everyone is relaxed, the teacher will start some music. The
best music has been found to be Baroque music, by composers like
Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, at a tempo of about sixty beats per
minute (60bpm). The students are asked to breath in time to the
music to increase their relaxation - a common method is to breath
in for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, breathe out for four
seconds and pause, in time with the music.
The teacher then reads the material to be learned, again in time
with the music, and varying the tone and volume of his/her voice.
If the material is, for example, the basic vocabulary of German,
the teacher will read an English word, followed four seconds later
by the German equivalent.
The idea is the material will `imprint' itself on the minds of the
students, with little conscious effort by them.
The second stage involves revising the material through play, the
idea again is to make the session as relaxed and enjoyable as
possible.
The editors have no experience of the techniques themselves, so we
cannot say if they are of any value. Reports of the technique have
varied from wild claims of learning 2000+ foreign words in a day,
to murmurs of disapointment from people who found the sessions
uninteristing and repetitive. Many people have commented that
people who are good auditory learners seem to have more success
than those who are good visual learners, so Anthony Robbins fans
might want to check this out.
The only audio material being produced at the moment (as far as
we know) is by Colin Rose, who has also written a book on the
subject (called, strangely enough, `Accelerated Learning').
You also might want to dig out a copy of `Superlearning' by
Maria Ostrand), which describes the history of Accelerated
Learning in detail and gives a complete guide to doing it
yourself.
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