Accelerated learning is a process of fine-tuning the traditional instructor with the application of instructional delivery technologies. The natural mind is designed for accelerated learning. The key ingredients which I believe are as below:
- Movement Trumps Sitting
Molecular biologist John Medina, in his powerful book Brain Rules (2008), sums up the neuroscientific studies behind this principle: “Exercise boosts brain power” (p.7).Movement—any kind of motion— increases oxygen to the brain, thereby giving the brain a cognitive boost. Conversely, sitting for extended lengths of time makes thinking and learning more difficult to do because the oxygen levels in the body decrease.
- Talking trumps listening.
In his excellent book Informal Learning (2007), technology expert and author Jay Cross, explains this principle by saying, “Learning is social. We learn from, by, and with other people” (p. 63). When learners discuss what they’ve heard, they process the information three times: first, by listening to it; second, by thinking about it; and third, by restating it using their own words. An expert on the educational implications of brain science, Patricia Wolfe, sums this up in her groundbreaking book Brain Matters (2001): “The best way to learn something is to teach it”
- Images trumps Words
Wolfe also cites the research demonstrating the brain’s ability to remember images better than words. “The capacity for long-term memory of pictures seems almost unlimited”. When images, even simple ones like photos, stories, or metaphors are added to the lecture material, the entire learning landscape changes. Instead of separate visible parts—a clump of trees, a road, a signpost, a hill, a car—the mind pulls these parts together to create a seamless whole: a vacation adventure. In the previous paragraph, I used a metaphor to state the obvious: facts become more memorable when learners can use mental images to remember them.
- Writing trumps Reading
Writing is a whole-brain task, meaning that it’s almost impossible to write about one thing and think about something else at the same time. Writing is also multi-sensory, in that it is kinesthetic, visual-spatial, and tactile. Learners cognitively process information a second time when they write it after hearing it. Furthermore, most learners will remember content that they write longer than the content they hear, or the content they read. Jay Cross explains: “Taking notes is a valuable form of processing information… known to increase the likelihood of understanding and remembering material”.
- Shorter trumps longer.
The human brain learns best when content is divided into smaller “chunks” or segments of information. Patricia Wolfe illustrates this principle with the example of phone numbers. “Phone numbers are not remembered as a list of ten numbers but as two chunks of three numbers and one chunk of four” (2001, p. 100). Grouping facts into larger categories or major concepts is another way of chunking. So is dividing content-delivery into shorter segments of time—about ten or twenty minutes, rather than sixty or ninety minutes. John Medina describes this process thus: “The way to make long-term memory more reliable is to incorporate new information gradually and repeat it in timed intervals”
- Different trumps Same
The human brain is hardwired to notice changes in the learning environment and to ignore sensory data that remains predictable or the same over time. In his book, Brain-Based Learning (2000), author and member of the International Society for Neuroscience, Eric Jensen, states that “any stimuli introduced into our immediate environment, which is either new (novel) or of sufficiently strong emotional intensity (high contrast), will immediately gain our attention”. The implications are profound: the brain will eventually ignore anything that is routine, repetitive, predictable, or boring. Think about traditional lecture methods (facts, no stories), PowerPoint® slides that all look the same, or a sterile learning environment with little visual stimulation anywhere—all which the brain will eventually ignore
Resource Credit:
Brain-Based Learning. (2000) Eric Jensen Brain Matters. (2001) Patricia Wolfe Brain Rules. (2008) John Medina Informal Learning. (2007) Jay Cross
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