Assumptions Associated With the Inhibition of Accelerated Learning in Schools

By: Deon Melchior



What sort of assumptions will discourage acceleration in our schools?

One of the chief assumptions that will discourage the promotion of acceleration is the belief that the focus of teaching should be on the pure memorization of facts and the repetition of drills. The notion is sort of teaching that was once the basis of the entire educational system. Wherein students were confined to their seats and expected to work on lessons outlined in workbooks. Everything was uniform and confined, and students in essence taught themselves by performing the required tasks sequentially from the beginning of the day to the end. While a few students could excel at this sort of drill work, it lacked the personal meaning that is associated with long-term recall of course material. Students felt little attachment to their work and so were less likely to recall it in other contexts later on.

Another assumption that will discourage acceleration is that emphasis should be placed on order, with students confined to their seats to work in solitary. This is very closely related to the emphasis on the “drill” style of teaching, because such teaching requires that order be maintained constantly, and the surest way of doing so is to isolate students and confine them to their seats. Of course, this does not really place emphasis on learning but rather on producing desirable behaviors. The children in these situations are not necessarily learning how to be clever and intellectual thinkers; they are merely learning how to present an appearance of order and industry that reflects well on the ability of the teacher to maintain order in his or her classroom.

A third assumption that will discourage acceleration is the belief that students are unable to learn material that is more challenging than the conventional curriculum, and that they lack the self-control needed to do so. This is especially seen in the more traditional remedial classrooms, where students are not given adapted material to help them catch up but rather left, to do the very simplest of work, with the assumption that even mere adequacy is beyond them. This discourages children who might otherwise easily have caught up with their peers from attempting more challenging tasks both academically and professionally, becoming a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

A fourth assumption that will discourage the introduction of an accelerated learning program is the misconception that those students who are “different” in their academic abilities are automatically deficient or have some sort of learning disability. This belief stems from the once-widespread misconception held by educators that all students learned course material in more or less the same way, leaving them unprepared for students who have different learning abilities or strengths. When students perform poorly, teachers explain it as a lack of motivation or an inability to learn on the part of the student, rather than the teacher’s own unwillingness to adapt the curriculum to accelerate, the student's ability to in learning.

Finally, another assumption that discourages the principles of accelerated learning is the belief that students are meant to be passive recipients of instruction; that they are meant to absorb the knowledge without engaging in it at all. Teachers who adhere to this belief discourage lengthy discussions in class, preferring to teach in a more traditional “lecture hall” style. While there are some students who benefit from this method of teaching, many do not. This very restrictive teaching style keeps the students from seeking to engage in discussions, keeping those students who might have benefited from a discussion more than a lecture from reaching their full potential.




Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com