Accelerating Learning: Is It Possible?

[Pengwuino]

I have always wondered about something as i went along through my studies. I was wondering what would happen if you isolated kids from the educational system and taught them at accelerated rates (say, expect them to learn in 1 year what they would normally learn in 2 or 3 years in a normal school)? I've always noticed that people are told what pace they need to go and for me, it seems like the only reason people believe they are being 'stressed' is because they are comparing their expectations to another class/person's expectations that are lower then their own. Is this just me or is there a psychological connection between how fast someone learns, stress, and what they perceive as base-line expectations?

 

[michealsmith]

u don't speed them up u just introduce it to them earlier ...give them 3 books and tell them to learn it ...

 

[Parabox]

There is definite room for improvement in the current schooling system

for one, the classes are too big, this impedes teaching as a whole
basic concepts are taught too late, or aren't taught well. Without basic knowledge future learning is impossible

I could go on, but the fact is, the rate of learning is based largely off a students environment.

 

[shruth]

In an ideal world the rate a student is taught should be tailored to his/her abilities. But again, that would be an ideal world. It is inescapable that some children can learn some things quicker than others and each child has his/her own domain of excellence. Practical implementation of this is something that is probably impossible.

 

[Vincent Vega]

They just came out with a study the other day about how some children with superior intelligence start off slower than average kids.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/29/AR2006032902182.html

 

[eeka chu]

They just came out with a study the other day about how some children with superior intelligence start off slower than average kids.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/29/AR2006032902182.html

Yea, I heard about this but I can't remember where. That smarter kids start off with a thinner layer of cortex at some points or something like that. But I remember, where ever it was I heard it from, they said it wasn't a very significant difference. It could have possibly even been within the natural tolerances of the experiment, but I can't remember.

What's interesting about those scans is if you think about them in terms of data, it's almost like you're watching the data being processed, just on a geological / ice age type scale.

I think there's definitely a limit to the rate a human brain can naturally learn at and the amount of data it can hold without loosing fidelity. For example, Captain Janeway on Trek Voyager seems to know everything that her crew does, and usually more. I don't think that is going to happen soon. We'd have seen examples of these people by now. The closest we have are theoreticians, who are usually big on the ideas and the rough working of things, which allows them to bridge ideas together better, but not so sure about the details. Once you try to pack too much in, bits start getting lost no matter how hard you work at it. I read technical stuff all day everyday and have started actually thinking in terms of things I can afford to forget.

Trek works on the idea that their technology is so advanced that this is all easy stuff for them, they know quantum mechanics aged 10 because it's all old news. But it just doesn't seem to work like that with humans, because the ideas still take time to learn and can be quite abstract, requiring a big knowledge base to understand. Electronics is an example. How long have we known about electricity? It's so common place in society people have come to rely on it. But how many people actually know the difference between a volt and an amp? And that's the absolute beginning of the entire topic.

Saying that, the education system is no where near it's peak. As it's already been said, one to one, or just better tailored, education would see a be improvement in our level of intelligence. My mum is a teacher and so I'm in quite direct contact with what's going on in teaching. By far the biggest problem is parents having children and not being particularly interested in them, just wanting to get back out to work and come home to the kids quiet... so they put TVs with sky in their bed rooms and the kids are up at 1am watching things even I would consider not suitable for just before going to bed. I'm a very open minded person, but the kids watching these things don't have them in context, they don't understand what sex is about, let alone some of the things adults will do to seek fulfillment - like paying someone to physical beat them up.

With regards to accelerated learning via drug therapy, see...
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=972279#post972279

 

[Eryndel]

For the original poster.

I would say enthusiastically that you would be able to teach a child faster than the progression given in US public schools. My wife and I are doing it. We homeschool, and homeschooling is getting more and more popular as people realize there are options to public education.

My son is five and would normally enter kindergarten in September. Looking at assessments, he's reading and doing math at around a second grade level. He should finish his second grade math program (Beta from MathUSee) by July, which deals with large digit addition and subtraction, multiplication, simple geometry and graphical analysis.

The trick with him is he became very eager to learn sometime between 2 1/2 and 3. So we taught him everything he wanted to know. At that age he got in the habit of learning. So even now, when he's enthusiasm has waned a little, he still has those habits to help him better learn new information.

If I were to posit a theory, I would say that our public education system misses a critical time (2 - 3 years) where a child is easily educated and very interested in learning. By waiting until they are 5 or 6, the public schools miss this window and the kids more struggle for the rest of their early education.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Mk]

If I were to posit a theory, I would say that our public education system misses a critical time (2 - 3 years) where a child is easily educated and very interested in learning. By waiting until they are 5 or 6, the public schools miss this window and the kids more struggle for the rest of their early education.

Yes they do, that time is meant for homeschooling.

 

[professor]

I myself am in 10th grade in a public school, i had perviously been in a private school, and a separate (full time) gifted schooling program. In school i have skipped two years of math (the only one to do so in 3+ years) as well as having skipped honors chem beofre taking ap chem a year before anyone had perviously done in my school. My point is, I tend to do well in school. Now, Admittedly I am not challanged as is, and do not expect things to get any more difficult for me. What i mean to address is the idea that Accelerated learning is quite possible even under the means of an individual student's own initiative. I believe that given a student's initiative for learning, they may continue to learn more on the topics that interest them outside of school. (I also believe that starting at an earlier age than typical public schools do is of great importance, not many of my peers spent their fourth birthdays at the science museums in town)

take this as the view of a student on the topic, or if you are going to initiate this idea of accelerated learning on your child- be sure that he/her will thank you for your own time and devotion to teaching as he/her begins to understand the help you posed in the development of the learning abilities that he/her posseses.

 

[matthew baird]

Absolutely, I believe that in the first couple years of living, it has been proven that, the mind is at the highest rate of information processing. As the child grows the capacity to retain information begin to drop off slowly. I do not have any references to this study but I will search for them. I think that our society misses out on this chance. The specific reasons why children miss this perfect opportunity to learn are many. In many cases I have noticed the parents simply do not care enough to teach their kids on their own time, they depend on the public school system. In kindergarten, the teachers must start at very simple concepts so all of the students are on the same level. This causes the more intelligent children to become insanely bored (I was one of these kids). This feeling for me lasted all through high school. I graduated a year and a half earlier than the rest of my class though. I'm hope that somehow the public school systems will be more advanced and tailored in the future for each individual kid. I really hope parents just start caring more about their children, and take the responsibility of their kids learning into their own hands. But hey, what do I know I'm only twenty-one and haven't had kids yet.