Education Guide

What is Accelerated learning?

Simply put, accelerated learning is the ability to absorb and understand new information quickly, and also to be able to retain that information.

It involves the process of unleashing the abilities within us. Every one of us learn differently. Accelerated learning calls upon us to learn techniques of learning that exactly match our personal learning styles. When we are learning in our preferred ways, learning becomes natural, easier and faster. That’s why it’s called accelerated learning.

Basically, the brain can be thought of being made up of the “Left Brain” and “Right brain”. The left brain is the expert in language, mathematical processes, logical thoughts, sequences and analysis. The right brain specializes in rhythm, music, visual impressions, color, and pictures. Although each is dominant in certain activities, both sides are involved in almost all thinking. The point is that to learn the accelerated way, you must involve your whole brain.

Have you heard of the 8 intelligences? Can you name all 8 to me? There are 8 multiple intelligences : Linguistic, Logical-Mathematics, Visual-Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalist as put forth by Harvard professor of education Howard Gartner. In accelerated learning, we use our strongest form of these 8 intelligences and learning will then be more enjoyable.

To master the art of accelerated learning overnight is impossible. It takes time and effort to increase the rate at which you learn. Still, let me give a brief overview of the entire process of accelerated learning. The 6 simple steps to accelerating your learning are:

Motivating the mind – motivating yourself so that you are in a confident and resourceful state that best supports learning. There are several ways, including the use of visualization, affirmations, and goals-setting.

Acquiring the information – using your personal and preferred way of absorbing the information. There are 3 distinct styles of processing information that we use. We’ll use all 3 styles, only the degree to which we use them differs and that accounts for our varying styles of learning. The 3 styles are Visual ( seeing ), Auditory ( hearing ), and Kinesthetic ( physical activities and involvement ). So, your job is to find out your preferred style of learning and use methods of learning that correspond to your style.

Searching out the meaning – when what you’re learning has meaning to you, remembering it is will be an easy feat! Again, this depends on the most dominant form of intelligence in you and how you exploit it.

Triggering the memory – recall whatever you’ve learned at will with proven memory techniques. Such techniques may include the link method, the number-shape methods and so on. You have to consider the workings of memory and learn only when your memory is in an optimal state.

Exhibiting what you know – show that you know and fully comprehend what you’ve learned. If your learning and absorption of the information have been effective, you must be able to be fully capable of showing it anytime and anywhere. If you can really show that you know, you have absolutely comprehended the material you’ve learned!

Reflecting upon what you’ve learned – learning is a continuous process; we must learn from our mistakes. Self-analysis is important as it marks the end of the accelerated learning of a skill or new knowledge. When, upon finishing your learning of something, you reflect upon the process itself.

Of course, reading about the process and not taking action will not in any way serve you to master accelerated learning. If you’re still unsure of how to proceed to really go into deeper depth into accelerated learning, you may download my free accelerated learning ebook course at: [http://self-improvement101.uni.cc/free-self-help-courses/mental/accelerated-learning.htm]

Remember, the essence of accelerated learning is in using methods of learning that really suits your natural learning style. Good luck with your quest towards accelerated learning!

Although you may not currently be a student, learning is a life long process. Perhaps you need to learn something new for your job, or you would like to learn a new language before you take a vacation abroad, or you want to “brush up” on math so you can help your children with their homework. For many of us school and/or learning were not pleasant experiences, so we may hesitate to attempt to learn something new. Fortunately there are ways to enhance the learning experience to help make learning fun, easy, and successful. (This process works for kids too.)

“Accelerated Learning” is a system based on studies of the human mind and how knowledge is acquired. It is a powerful process that engages both the analytical and the emotional parts of the brain and uses both the conscious and the subconscious mind. The body is important to learning as well. Many of us need movement to learn. We also need to take into consideration our learning styles and our multiple intelligences. One of the important components of Accelerated Learning is the use of music.

Although any music can have an effect on your mind and body, there are particular types of music that can enhance learning, just as there are certain kinds of music that can interfere with learning. The founder of the Accelerated Learning movement, Dr. Georgi Lozanov, experimented with a wide variety of music in his research. He found that Baroque music affects the emotional centers of the brain as well as the heart and breathing. Today there are a number of composers who have designed music to enhance our learning abilities. I use both Baroque music and the specially designed music in all the classes I teach. At the end of this article there is a list of music that my students prefer.

This is by no means a complete list. Experiment to find out what suites you. One of the most important considerations is that the background music does not have words that you might sing consciously (or unconsciously), as that would interfere with information acquisition. You can use highly rhythmic music as a base for creating rhymes or raps or jingles to help you memorize lists or processes.

Preparation for learning is another key component of Accelerated Learning. There are several things you can do to assist your body and mind to get into a receptive state for learning. In addition to your traditional learning tools (books, computer program, paper, pens, etc.) you will need a cassette or CD player and your “learning” music in your learning space. If you prefer comfort to learn, you might choose an easy chair, if you need structure, a desk or a table would be better for you.

Before you open your book, or start your program, spend a few minutes getting ready to learn. Since an ideal state for learning is in a relaxed body with an alert mind, do a brief relaxation exercise with the music in the background. Then bring to mind a successful learning experience that you have had in the past – any kind of learning. Try to re-create the joy and pleasure you felt while you were learning and the satisfaction you felt when you succeeded.

After spending a few moments in this pleasant experience, begin your current learning experience. If you find that you start to tense up, pause, take a few deep breaths, listen to the music for a few moments, and resume learning. Take frequent breaks and briefly review what you have learned when you return.

Some Baroque selections include Handel’s Water Music, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Pachebel’s Canon in D Major and Mozart’s Symphony in D Major (“Haffner”). OptimaLearning has created several volumes of specially compiled Baroque music for learning and productivity. The Sound Health Series by the Center for Psychoacoustical Research includes classical music for learning, concentration, thinking, motivation, inspiration, and relaxation.

Some of the specially created music by Stephen Halpern has subliminal messages, but you can find his Music for Accelerated Learning and Music for Creativity without subliminals. He has a variety of relaxing CDs as well. Daniel Kobialka uses Pachelbel’s Canon in his composition Timeless Motion and it is my personal favorite.

So, use music, relaxation, and positive visualization to make learning easier and more fun.

Learning management systems (LMS) manage all aspects of education by automating and managing the administration, management, delivery, and end user experience of blended learning programs. This field guide will explore five critical steps to ensure that you get the most out of your learning management investments.

Introduction
Learning management systems (LMS) manage all aspects of education by automating and managing the administration, management, delivery, and end user experience of blended learning programs. Organizations that have invested in these systems cite a number of significant benefits, including:

oAutomate and standardize learning and training practices, processes, and content
oReduce administration and delivery costs while providing faster delivery
oEnable blending learning programs (online and instructor-led curricula, courses, classes, and coaching) to increase reach and impact
oMeet and maintain compliance, certification, and quality requirements
oAlign learning programs to overall organizational goals and strategies
oEnhance internal talent pools for succession and promote talent mobility
oMeasure and track the effectiveness of learning programs to facilitate continuous improvement
oFacilitate a more holistic talent management strategy by linking learning to other talent functions such as performance and goals, employee development, and on-boarding
oAutomate student registration, approvals, notifications, and communications

This field guide will explore five critical steps to ensure that you get the most out of your learning management investments.

Tip #1: Link Employee Development To Learning Delivery
Development plans help employees improve in their current role, better prepare them for a future role of interest (which is important in the context of succession planning), or both. While employee skill, competency, and behavior gaps are typically identified during the performance assessment process (or a 360 feedback process), learning delivery is the mechanism to close the gaps.

Learning for learning’s sake is an ineffective strategy. But learning to close skill, competency, and behavior gaps and therefore improve an employee’s contribution in a current role or help the employee better prepare for a future role, is something altogether different. Therefore, development and learning processes must be seamlessly linked from both a process and underlying technology perspective. Yet only 29% of organizations have actually made this connection, with another 23% planning to within one year, according to a global survey of 300 HR leaders conducted by Softscape in November 2009. [Note: this survey data will be referenced throughout the report]

The impact of linking these functions is significant. In the same survey, organizations that have linked employee development and learning delivery report:

oImproved workforce alignment to overall strategy
oMore quickly respond to changing business needs
oHigher revenue per employee
oBetter internal talent mobility
oImproved workforce productivity

A few key questions to consider to link employee development to learning delivery are:

1.Are recommended courses and programs automatically presented to users within their development plans to facilitate training and coursework?

2.Is the transition between employee development planning and learning management seamless to users (e.g., same user interface, look and feel, does not give the user the impression of a disconnected process)?

3.Is systems integration effort and cost required to tie development and learning delivery together, or do all the requisite capabilities reside on a common technology platform that natively connects the functions out of the box?

Tip #2: Align Learning Activities to Business Objectives
Part of the promise of integrated talent management is improving alignment between workforce activities and overall business strategies and objectives. This alignment is typically achieved through performance management and goals. Managers and their directs establish goals as part of the performance management process and align the goals up through the organization. Alternatively, the organization cascades goals down to the workforce. In either scenario, it is often the case that employees need specific training to achieve their goals.

If employees are not provided the proper learning resources to complete goals, the impacts can be severe:

oPoorly trained employees who cannot achieve their goals
oThe organization is unable to complete its strategic goals and objectives
oTurnover at all levels due to frustration and inability to complete goals

Today, only 34% of organizations have linked learning and performance management to enable training as a key component of employee goal completion. An additional 31% of organizations plan to do so by 2011.

Part of the challenge in linking these functions has been technical in nature. Many organizations continue to use multiple systems (e.g., performance system, learning management system) that are not integrated. Yet as many organizations continue to gravitate toward single platform solutions that natively connect functions such as learning, performance, and goals, the technical integration challenges can be eliminated. These single platform solutions also make it much easier to report on key metrics such as the effectiveness of learning programs on performance since all of the data resides in a centralized repository. With this data in hand, HR leaders are better equipped to monitor and continuously improve their learning processes and programs.

A few key questions to consider to align learning activities to business objectives are:

1.Does your current learning system enable you to dynamically link business objectives and goals with specific learning activities?

2.Does the system natively integrate learning, performance, and goals vis-à-vis a broader talent platform? If so, does it also provide a robust reporting and analytic capability that enables you to monitor and continuously improve your processes and programs?

3.Does your learning system provide capabilities to dynamically push content to users based on their goals? Can assignment rules be easily created to support this dynamic push?

Tip #3: Maintain Regulatory Compliance
Learning management systems (LMS) are an important mechanism for managing compliance and certification training within an organization. Without a central tracking repository, and no way to report globally, organizations can quickly fall out of regulatory compliance. The potential negative impacts to this are fines and work stoppages, not to mention the high overhead and costs associated with managing compliance activities and reporting in a manual fashion.

Competencies also play a key role, especially from a quality standards (e.g., ISO 9000) perspective. A rigorous competency-based training program is a key mechanism for ensuring ongoing compliance to quality standards. As such, competency management plays a critical role in learning management strategies. The system employed, whether an LMS or a broader talent management platform, must instantiate a flexible competency library as a central component that is seamlessly exposed to all other functions within the system or platform.

A few key questions to consider to maintain regulatory compliance are:

1.Can compliance-related courses be automatically assigned to new hires as a part of the on-boarding process? Can triggers and alerts be established to automatically inform employees when they need refresher training?

2.Does your current learning system provide a library of pre-defined competencies? Does it provide tools for managing competencies, including competency categories, supporting definitions, behaviors, on-the-job activities, and development opportunities? Can you easily import your existing competencies into the system?

3.Does your learning system include robust reporting and analytic capabilities to facilitate compliance reporting? Does it come with out-of-box standard reports? And is the complexity of the reporting and analytic engine abstracted so that non-technical users can run their own reports without IT intervention?

Tip #4: Track Learning Effectiveness Throughout the Organization
Within many organizations, there is no systematic way to track the impact of learning programs on organizational outcomes. These outcomes may include workforce productivity or even individual performance. In fact, only 21% of organizations are currently measuring the impact of training on performance, with another 34% planning on doing so by 2011. Overall learning program effectiveness fares somewhat better, with 35% of organizations currently measuring overall learning effectiveness.

The impacts of not tracking learning effectiveness can be significant:

oMoney spent improperly on ineffective curricula and courses
oEmployees spending time in courses that are not effective
oInability to distinguish between which courses are working and which are not

Part of the challenge lies in the fact that data is spread out in various silos across the organization and there is no common employee system of record. A single, fully-connected talent platform that covers the gamut of HR functions and processes, including learning, can alleviate some of the problems since the data is all in one place. And with a robust analytic and reporting function, previously unavailable insight can be gained.

By shifting to a more measurement-oriented approach to learning, organizations can realize numerous benefits:

oSpend the right time and resources on effective courses
oEliminate or change ineffective courses
oAllocate training budgets more accurately
oIncrease employee engagement (employees are not wasting time in ineffective courses)

A few key questions to consider to track learning effectiveness throughout the organization are:

1.Does your current learning system leverage a robust and industry standard analytics engine which provides interactive graphical displays of all data?

2.Does the system abstract the complexity out of the analytics engine so that non-technical users can conduct their own analyses via an intuitive, web-based interface?

3.Are you able to conduct reporting and analysis across modules? For example, can you easily glean insight into more strategic metrics such as the impact of training on performance?

4.Does the analytics system reduce administrative overhead by leveraging the same comprehensive security access rights and rules as the learning system so that security policies only have to be established once?

Tip #5: Create Seamless On-Boarding Plans for Employees
An effective new hire orientation and on-boarding program is essential to ensuring the long-term success of new employees. Yet employees – and their managers in many cases – often find it difficult to know which training courses to take, especially if development planning is not a part of the on-boarding process. As a result, a lot of time and frustration can occur early in a new employee’s career within the organization, which can lead to an early engagement deficit or even increased turnover.

Today, only 32% of organizations have linked learning with hiring and on-boarding to facilitate automatic scheduling of courses for new hires. Fully 46% of organizations have no plans to link the processes at all. To fully understand the impact of integrated learning and hiring/on-boarding, Softscape’s global survey of HR leaders conducted reveals that organizations that have explicitly made the linkage report:

oImproved workforce alignment to overall strategy
oBetter internal talent mobility
oDecreased voluntary turnover
oFaster on-boarding (time-to-productivity)
oImproved workforce productivity

This data reinforces the importance of integrating disparate talent functions, and the role that single platform HR solutions can play in facilitating the integration. Single platform solutions also make it much easier to report on and analyze key cross-functional metrics such as on-boarding effectiveness.

A few key questions to consider to create seamless on-boarding plans for employees are:

1.Can courses and curricula be automatically assigned to new hires as a part of the on-boarding process? This is especially important for compliance.

2.Do new hires have transparent visibility into their on-boarding plans, including learning and training activities, so that expectations are aligned from the start?

3.Does your current learning system have the capability to measure the impact of learning programs on hiring and on-boarding effectiveness (e.g., time-to-productivity, voluntary turnover, new hire engagement)?

Conclusion
To get the most out of your learning management investments, linking and aligning seemingly disparate HR and talent functions is essential. Learning, development, performance and goals, and hiring and on-boarding. All must come together seamlessly to fully realize the benefits of a learning-driven culture. Single platform solutions that natively connect all of these functions facilitate the linkages, and also provide the mechanism to measure, analyze, and relate deep analytic views across functions.

To summarize the top five tips to effective learning management:

1.Link Employee Development to Learning Delivery

2.Align Learning Activities to Business Objectives

3.Maintain Regulatory Compliance

4.Track Learning Effectiveness Throughout the Organization

5.Create Seamless On-Boarding Plans for Employees

The first question I am usually asked is why? Why are you interested in prisoners? For me that is a simple question. I am interested in prisons because a family member went to prison and I got curious. What was prison really like, what would they be like when they got out, what would they learn from the experience? As a family member of a prisoner I have personal experiences which influence my perception of what prisoners learn during their incarceration, I have my own stories and experiences of previous research into the phenomena of prisoner learning. Being in the field did affect me deeply, my research diary states ‘I think about the lives housed in the buildings I see before me, and those who have passed through the gates, I think about the children who visit their mums and dads, of the tears and the pain experienced by the families. I think about the visits that I had with my family member and the tears that I shed each time I walked out and he went back in.’ I have felt the pains of imprisonment as a family member of a prisoner and I have also felt pain as a victim of crime and the family member of a victim of crime.

As an adult educator and a passionate lifelong learner, I started to research what prisoners learn while they are in prison – both what they can access formally in education and programs and what they learn from their everyday lives as prisoners, today I will discuss with you some of the things that I have learned so far, particularly in regards to the barriers prisoners face. But for me, research alone is not enough – sharing knowledge and developing understanding are even more important, so in 2008 I started an organisation called the Australian Prison Foundation – to encourage information sharing, research and supportive relationships for all those touched by prisons in Australia.

What is Prisoner Learning?

Life is a tangled web of experiences which form and develop us into unique individuals. Our thinking and behaviour is formed by our experience of the world around us. Our social and familial relationships, our physical environment and our genetic code all effect our behaviour and what, how and why we learn. Learning is at the root of personal change and growth. Our social world and physical environment sets the stage for individuals to ‘act’. The roles individuals play includes those characterised by their involvement with others such as mother, wife, or brother; or with activities such as student, teacher, or officer; or with the environment such as prisoner, patient; or with our race such as Aboriginal, Maori, or Caucasian. Indeed we may play a wide variety of these roles simultaneously during different stages in our lives. What we experience whilst we play those roles contributes to our learning and our development as people. This brief article will focus on the key concepts of learning which occurs within prisoners whilst they are experiencing the social and physical environment of prison.

Learning may be categorised as formal in that it is accessible through formal institutions, such as social and educational institutions, set up by our society to assist in our personal learning. Formal learning usually leads to recognised qualifications or learning outcomes. It is, however, informal learning which comprises most of our learning experiences. Informal learning is any activity that involves learning outside of formal learning (Connor, 1997). Foley (1995) defines informal learning as that which occurs when people consciously try to learn through their experiences, whereas formal learning is distinguished by curriculum, organised by professionals and occurring within an institutional setting. Informal learning occurs in a variety of places, involves a heterogeneous population and uses a wide variety of methods. It does not reflect the political and socio-legal frameworks of formal learning patrimonies and therefore does not reflect the ‘narrowness’ of formal learning. It encompasses a diversity of arrangements, actors and practices (Cullen, et.al., 2000). “It reflects subscribed, emergent and highly contextualised needs, rather than the ‘operational’ needs of formal education and training policy and practice” (Cullen, et.al., 2000, p. 4). Often participants when engaged in informal learning, do not see themselves as learning (Cullen, et.al., 2000). Informal learning is embedded and often taken-for-granted by learners (Livingstone, 1999).

Adults tend to engage in multiple types of learning on an everyday basis with a variety of emphases and tendencies (Livingstone, 2001). Learning is a natural human process, neither good nor bad of itself, however, the outcomes of learning may have moral, cultural and social consequences (Jarvis, Holford, & Griffin, 2003). The moral context of learning is influenced by the attitudes, values and behaviours of the surrounding social environment (Garratt, 2000). Learning is an individual process of change and as individuals develop their potential it may challenge the existing status quo of the culture and social environment in which they are situated. Learning can therefore develop a political dimension (Jarvis, et.al. 2003).

In differentiating between formal and informal learning available to prisoners, we are in essence also differentiating the control of that learning. Formal learning is “approved”, it is controlled by prison administration, the criminogenic and non criminogenic needs of prisoners is assessed by “experts” and may or may not reflect the needs and wants of the individual. This will affect the choices available to prisoners, the learning climate and learner motivation. Informal learning may not be “approved”, is more likely to be controlled by the learner and is more likely to occur in informal social settings (Knowles, 1980). Informal learning is an under researched area probably due to its difficulty to measure and its grounding in experiential knowledge within social groups (Livingstone, 2001).

Learning is a result of the learner interacting with their environment (Hartel, Fujimoto, Strybosch & Fitzpatrick, 2007) and is constructed in a social environment (Bickford & Wright, 2006). As such the learning which occurs within the prison environment is unique to that prison and to the prisoner. The social, cultural and historical contexts, along with the learner’s position within these contexts, all impact on the content and methods of the learning experience. People learn from and with other people and as such social relations impact learning (Jarvis, Holford, & Griffin, 2003).

A significant factor in adult learner motivation is supportive social relations. Indeed it has been proposed that the quality and strength of social capital is a strong influence on the propensity to commit future offending behaviour (Vold, Bernard, Snipes, 2002). The social environment then, not only shapes what is learned but why the learning is important. A focus on the social dimension of learning allows for a greater understanding of the impact of informal learning within a prison environment and how learning about criminal activity occurs. The social relations within the learning environment also reveal much of the hidden curriculum (Jarvis, Holford, & Griffin, 2003). In essence the social environment answers for prisoners the question ‘what does the ‘prison system’ say about the importance of learning and what should be learned’.

One aspect of informal learning within a prison environment is the learning of criminal behaviour from others and that during this learning process, norms, values and behaviours are internalised. Thinking of crime in the same way as any other behaviour leads to exploring the social environment including such things as peer groups, family and other role models and how they encourage or discourage crime. Miller, Schrek & Tewksbury (2006) propose that criminal behaviour is learned in interaction with others through communication and within intimate personal groups. These authors (Miller, Schrek & Tewksbury, 2006) contend that the process of learning criminal behaviour is no different from learning anything else. This is in direct contrast to criminologists and others who view criminals as “defective”. Burke (2005) based on work by Ackers (1985) focussed on four central concepts: the patterns of interactions with others, the personal meanings applied to personal behaviour, the actual or anticipated consequences of behaviour and imitation as a process of observing and copying what others do.

It is possible that prisons are a school for crime, that they damage to a greater degree than they heal (Abramsky, 2001). If this is the case it is probable that the ‘school for crime’ occurs as informal learning within the prison environment and that the damage is as a result of a combination of social acculturation, informal learning and a lack of positive experiences. It is for this reason that informal learning, which is difficult to distinguish from social acculturation (Livingstone, 2001), warrants attention from the community and those concerned with the prison system. Despite interest in informal learning growing within the corporate sector (Connor, 1997), among education and employment policy makers (Cullen, Batterbury, Foresti, Lyons & Stern, 2000) and also in the area of recognition of competencies in the vocational education sector (NCVER, 2008), informal learning is mentioned only briefly in research conducted into corrections education. There is, however, wide interest among the corrections community in the role and benefit of learning through education and training for individual prisoners’ and for corrections systems. This interest stems from a desire to understand the most effective approach and means of delivery, so as to achieve positive outcomes for prisoners’ and for society as a whole (Bearing Point Inc., 2003).

Conclusion

Understanding prisoner learning is a complex thing, but something that is incredibly worthwhile, because the outcomes of prisoner learning can create a better life for individuals, can help to create better families and better communities. By working to understand and break down these barriers we can create a better future.