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Bill Lucas explores the growth of acceleratedlearning (AL) to establish its importance to

successful learning

The science behind

ACCELERATED LEARNINGAn exploration of the research, theory and results

July 2005     Training Journal 33

Is fast learning a good thing? Is it better achieved slowly,or does it depend on what you are learning? Is AL basedon good science about the way we learn? Is it a blend ofneuro- and psycho-babble masquerading as a theory of

learning? Or is it somewhere in between, with some usefulbits and some questionable assertions and propositions? Let’sexplore these questions in a little more detail.

What is AL?Search the Internet for ‘accelerated learning’ and you will findover three million sites to visit. The vast majority of these arepublishers, training providers and purveyors of educational orself-improvement resources. There are also journals, societiesand institutes. If you want, to you can become accredited as anAL practitioner. In other words, like any good idea, this wholefield has been commercialised.

There is no one accepted definition of AL today. I offer thissynthesis of the many definitions that I have looked at:

‘Accelerated learning combines aspects of adult learningtheory with “brain-based” approaches, in order to achieve afaster learning rate.’

Different thinkers also advocate different models of thelearning process, many putting emphasis on the engagementand demonstration stages. Let’s explore which aspects of adultlearning theory are relevant, and what it is about the brain thatpractitioners of AL think is important. Before we embark on ourjourney, however, let me try to tell the story so far.

A brief history of ALWhen it began in the 1970s, AL was revolutionary. Itsstarting point was completely different from anything on offerat that time. Educationalists still thought about curriculum,terms, courses and examinations. Trainers dealt in lectures,demonstrations, classes and workshops.

Suddenly, out of the blue, came an approach that seemedvery different. It argued that:➜ learners and active learning were more important than

teachers and courses➜ the way people teach and train was out of step with

the way the brain works, and➜ it was possible for learners to become much more

engaged and motivated in their learning and thereforelearn faster.

Early proponents talked about the brain, about emotions,about learning styles and much more.

Arguably, AL all started with the work of Georgi Lozanov1,a Bulgarian professor of psychiatry and psychotherapy, andhis philosophy of ‘suggestology’. This simple idea aimedat engaging all of the senses and many of our emotionsin an attractive learning environment, and harnessing thenaturally positive attitude to learning that we all have withinus. Lozanov’s thinking built on and paralleled work onexperiential learning – undertaken by David Kolb and othersat around the same time.

At roughly the same moment, in another part of the world,Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) was starting out, too. Imention this because NLP and AL have grown to share variouscommon characteristics over the years, so that sometimesit is difficult to see where one starts and the other ends.Approaches to motivation and non-verbal communicationare two examples of what I have in mind. Both AL and NLPwere early examples of learning ‘brands’ which were eagerly‘bought’ by many people disgruntled with the educationalsystem as it then was.

It’s worth remembering that these were very exciting times.Amazing things were happening in terms of scientific discoveries,and new technology was allowing us tantalising glimpses of theway the human brain works. You only have to watch what tookplace in the 1970s and 1980s to see the ways in which ALabsorbed much of the new thinking in neuroscience, and someelements of psychology, during these decades.

First of all, when Roger Sperry and, later, Roger Ornsteinproposed the idea of two brain hemispheres (left and right),this was absorbed. The same happened when Paul Macleancreated the idea of the triune brain (reptilian, mammalianand neo-mammalian), and suggested the brain had evolvedfrom the bottom, providing a model for how the brain works,

especially with regard to the impact of stress.So when in the 1980s Howard Gardner threw down a

gauntlet2 to the prevailing orthodoxy of IQ by suggesting thatwe have multiple intelligences, AL was only too ready to includethis as well. A few years later, when emotional intelligencecame along, much of this approach was incorporated, too.

KEY LEARNING POINTS

• AL embraces a number of different approaches to learning.

• Some of what is done in the name of AL is simply not based on anyscientific evidence.

• Much of AL draws on widely accepted and scientifically proven approaches.•  Training practitioners need to know what is true and what is learning ‘spin’!

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Throughout the 1990s, as alternative therapies anddevelopments in neuroscience have arrived thick and fast, soAL has embraced many of these too.

• visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning styles

• the Mozart effect, and• men are from Mars and women from Venus.

Theories of adult learningPart of the thinking behind AL draws on theories about adultlearning. Indeed, it essentially belongs to a tradition ofconstructivist thinking that goes back to John Dewey and alsoincludes David Kolb and the concept of experiential learning.In terms of its thinking about motivation, there are direct linesto the humanistic tradition espoused by Abraham Maslow, thenotion of a hierarchy of needs, and Carl Rogers.

Brain-based learningHowever, there are some elements of AL, many of which werethe very things that first made it seem so different, that had notpreviously been talked about by educationalists and trainers.These are mostly those taken from the realm of neuroscience.

And it is here that AL has sometimes been its own worst enemy,believers have often taken big ideas and appliedthem too literally, or approached really complexareas about which the science is still very muchin its infancy, and invested them with certaintyand with the simplicity of ‘pop’ psychology.

This has led to an outbreak of neuro- orpscyho-babble and has unnecessarily putpeople off. It has owed much more to brandingand the need to position AL distinctively in acrowded market than to good science.

The myths surrounding ALWe use less than 10 per cent of our brain power This is simply not true. It’s shock tactics to getpeople to pay undue attention to brain facts.The more we find out about the brain, the morewe realise that we are using many parts of itfor much of the time. If this were rephrased asa statement about people mostly only realisinga small percentage of their potential, then thatwould be true. But as it is, it implies that wholeparts of our brains are somehow shut down onlyto be opened up through AL!

VAK – We are all either visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learnersNo we are not! Certainly we acquire habitsand temporary preferences. But the simplisticsuggestion – present in much of the literature ofAL – that you can somehow work out which ofthese three types of learner you are is fancifuland occasionally damaging. For example, if alearner mistakenly assumes that VAK is like yourblood group, something that you are stuck withfor life, then motivation to learn to play a musicalinstrument may vanish if a low auditory scoreis ‘measured’.

The interesting thing about VAK is that itreminds us of the importance of understandingour senses and paying much more attention tohow we give out and take in data – something

about which neuroscience has made us much more aware.But though it may give individuals insights about how theyprefer to take in data in certain circumstances, VAK is not alearning style.

Think about it for a moment. Why do most people end upsaying that they are kinaesthetic learners? Because then theyare likely to be using all of the senses rather than just the oneor two involved in visual or auditory modes.

Our left brains are logical and our right brainsare creative While there are two hemispheres in the brain, most brainactivities involve both. This artificial division of the brain intotwo halves is largely an invention of pop psychologists. Sowhile it certainly helps to sell books about the eternal strugglebetween the sexes, there is little scientific basis to the claim andit is not clear what the implications for learners are.

Mozart makes you smarter The claims for baroque music are not proven. Apparently itimproves test scores in mathematics and, if played to your youngchild, will ensure that you bring up a genius. Music has many

Idea Validity Unique to AL?Only use 10% of brain power Simply not true Mostly

VAKVAK are not learning styles. Helpful if used to aidunderstanding the range of senses/data input methods.Damaging if leading to limited view of self as a learner.

Mostly

Learning stylesGeneral consensus that this is broadly true and helpfulif used as means of expanding repertoire of learner

and learner self-awareness.

No

Left/right brains Technically true (brains have two hemispheres) butimplied separation of hemisphere functions is largelyfalse and unhelpful.

Mostly

Mozart effectUnproven. While music affects mood and pace(sometimes), claims for its impact on performance areunproven.

Yes

Mind and bodyMind and body, intellect and emotions – helpful to takea holistic approach and supported by science.

No

Relaxed/alert stateIncreasing evidence to show that this is a beneficialstate to be in when learning, but human brain can (andneeds to) perform well under stress.

No

Importance of engagementprocess

Good literature in psychology and latterly neurosciencein support of this.

No

Multiple intelligencesDisputed area, but consensus probably in favour of this.Helpful for mind-set, unhelpful if it becomes a boguspseudo-psycho-metric.

No

Emotions matterEvidence to support this from all quarters, includinglong-term impact on immune system from negativeemotions.

No

Interest in memoryA curate’s egg. Some sound principles (primacy/recencyfor eg) but over-emphasis on tricks and tips.

No, though emphasison memory triggers is

Importance of demonstrationFor many aspects of skill and process learning this istrue.

No

Reflection Lots of good science. NoYou can accelerate yourlearning

A paradox: acceleration can be both helpful andcounter-productive. It depends!

No

 

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effects on us, mainly as a mood influencer, but there is scantevidence for its impact on performance.

Memory happens in the hippocampus

Everyone got very excited when it was thought that thehippocampus areas of the brains of London taxi drivers werelarger than ordinary people. At last, it seemed, the source ofmemory had been located. Indeed, some AL literature subjectsthe learner to a sort of ‘naming of brain parts’ experience, inwhich you are invited to play trivial pursuits with the geographyof your brain. This is as silly as assuming that the only method ofimproving your memory is to reduce everything to acronyms.

As well as drawing from neuro-science, AL has also absorbednew thinking from psychology, principally in describingintelligence. Following on from Howard Gardner’s thinking,much emphasis is placed on the eight intelligences that formpart of this approach. It is not uncommon for some kind ofassessment of each of these eight intelligences to form partof the learning process. As a consequence you becometemporarily labelled as smart at ‘intrapersonal’ intelligenceand less than smart at, say, ‘bodily-kinesthetic intelligence’.As to whether or not this is in any way helpful, the jury isvery much out. And at the same time, there is often a fairlyslavish adherence to Daniel Goleman’s interpretation ofemotional intelligence.

The good science Enough of the flaws! There is much that is good and scientificallyproven in AL. Notice that I say ‘some approaches’ becausethere is simply no way of knowing what different advocatesthink and practise.

Mind and body are involved That learning involves more than your head is well documented.However, the degree to which the expression ‘whole-brainedlearning’ is in any way meaningful is not proven.

The relaxed/alert state There is good evidence that, for creative learning to be mosteffective, you need sufficient levels of arousal to be alert but notto be too stressed to be relaxed. So this is a helpful concept.Where it can stray into neuro-babble is when assertions aremade about brain waves or when it is implied that all stressis bad for learners. Work by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi3 on thestate of flow4 also corroborates this. 

The importance of the engagement processMuch evidence is placed in AL on the need for learners toconnect with their learning, by giving them the ‘big picture’ ofwhat is to come, making the process active and ‘waking up’learners. All of this is good stuff, drawing on sound educationaltheory (being explicit about learning objectives, for example),on notions of experiential learning, for example as espousedby David Kolb and Kurt Lewin, and the psychological literatureon states of arousal.

We all have individual learning stylesIn a recent and very sceptical review of learning stylesby Frank Coffield4, an amazing array of approaches wasdescribed, including:

• Allinson and Hayes’ Cognitive Styles Index

• Apter’s Motivational Style Profile• Dunn and Dunn’s Learning Styles• Entwistle’s Approaches and Study Skills Inventory

for Students

• Gregorc’s Styles Delineators• Herrmann’s Brain Dominance Instrument• Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles•   Jackson’s Learning Styles Profiler• Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator• Rider’s Cognitive Styles Analysis• Sternberg’s Thinking Styles Inventory• Vermunt’s Inventory of Learning Styles

The science of learning styles seems to suggest that:➜ as a result of being individuals, we have different

underlying personalities➜ learning styles are not fixed➜ VAK is not a learning style but a way of describing

data input➜ effective learners learn to be effective in a range of

situations and using a range of different styles.

We have multiple intelligencesThere has been a big debate about Howard Gardner’s radical

view of intelligence ever since it was first suggested. Not allpsychologists or educationalists agree with him for a varietyof reasons. At issue are the cultural variables behind the eightcategories of intelligence, the way that each of them is not distinctenough, and the way talents and intelligences are confounded.However, a consensus seems to be emerging that:➜ IQ is discredited➜ it is likely that, in conceptualising intelligence, it is

helpful to think about it as a much broader conceptthan IQ

So, if you are asked to identify which of your eightintelligences is strong and which are weak in an AL session, you are probably wasting your time! But if, by thinking abouttalent in this way, you start to see your job as a trainer or a

learner as hunting out the areas of your undeveloped potential,it is probably a helpful idea.

The emotional elementsThat emotions are hugely important in all stages of learningand that there is no simple emotional/cognitive divideis widely accepted. But we are only just at the foothills ofour journey to understand their specific impact on memory(both embedding and recall), on performance under stress, andon resilience.

An interest in memory Over the last few decades, Tony Buzan has arguably been thepioneer in this field. AL has absorbed much of his thinking. The

use of mind maps and other memory techniques undoubtedlyaids the learning process for many people. The danger here isthat the emphasis can easily be on factual recall rather than onthe transfer of important learning processes.

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36 Training Journal  July 2005 

An interest in music The Mozart effect is simply unproven, as is much that is allegedwith regard to the power of music. What is not disputed ismusic’s undoubted impact on our mood and its legitimate place

in learning.The importance of demonstrationProving that you know something by doing it is well-founded.There is a growing body of literature about the importanceof certain kinds of practice if you want to become goodat something.

The need to reflect and consolidate This is soundly based in psychology and educational theory.

You can learn faster Of course you can! What used to take three years can nowbe done in one. There are efficiency gains to be found in allhuman activities. The big question is whether you want to learnfaster or whether, as many of us believe, you need to learnslower in many situations where complex issues are at stake.

The verdictWhere does this leave us? My conclusions are as follows.➜ AL is not a unified, or coherent set of theories or

practices.

➜ Much of what is undertaken in its name is soundlybased and helpful to learners.

➜ A considerable amount of its thinking is conjectureor learning ‘spin’, much of it benign. Such tenuous

connection with scientific evidence is potentiallycounter-productive.

Where AL works best in practice in my experience is wherethe practitioner effectively redefines the concept so that it simplybecomes a synonym for ‘effective modern learning methods’.Alistair Smith at Alite, Kimberley Hare at Kaisen Training andSuzanne Hitchen at Instep UK all come to mind as exemplarypractitioners of this approach.

The author of this article can be contacted at bill@bill-lucas.com or visit www.bill-lucas.com

References

1. Georgi Lozanov, Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy , Gordon andBreach, 1978.

2. Howard Gardner, Frames of mind; the theory of multiple intelligences,Fontana Press, 1993.

3. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity; flow and the psychology of discoveryand invention, Harper Collins, 1996.

4. Frank Coffield et al, Should we be using learning styles; what research hasto say to practice , Learning and Skills Development Agency, 2004.