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The Accelerated Learning Cycle
Part 1 Planning for the CDA.
I have chosen to investigate the seven stages of the Accelerated Learning Cycle as endorsed by Fallibroome High School in their monthly Teaching for Learning Bulletins and draw conclusions as to the effectiveness of these methods of teaching pertaining to Music classes.
I will concentrate on incorporating one stage of the cycle in each lesson taught, which will consist of the following:
· Lesson 1 - Pre-stage: Create the supportive learning environment
· Lesson 2 - Stage one: Connect the learning
· Lesson 3 - Stage two: The Big Picture
· Lesson 4 - Stage three: Describe the outcomes
· Lesson 5 - Stage four: Input
· Lesson 6 - Stage five: Activity
· Lesson 7 - Stage six: Demonstrate
· Lesson 8 - Stage seven: Review for recall and retention. ...
The Accelerated Learning Cycle is an area of focus within the generic term Accelerated Learning. This term or methodology, is a considered to be a generic approach to learning, relating specifically to research on how the brain learns. It is a partnership between the teacher and the students of how learning can be discovered better and together
Alistair Smith, a former teacher, advisory teacher and member of the Advisory Service, is now an author and public lecturer on Accelerated learning. In his books ‘Accelerated Learning in the Classroom’ and ‘Accelerated Learning in Practice’, he explains how his Accelerated Learning Cycle is built from the principles listed above. ... A further pre-stage – the supportive learning environment – “is a constant, and operates like a guide-rail keeping the Accelerated Learning Cycle running true”. ... 11)
I was drawn to this area of study by reading the monthly bulletins on Teaching for Learning at Falllibroone High School. These three or four page bulletins give staff information on teaching, which promotes positive learning allowing students to feel confident, relaxed and motivated. Each department has a copy of Alistair Smith’s Accelerated Learning in Practice with a view to discussing ways of implementing ideas in this book together with similar approaches in departmental training meetings. Various handouts are displayed on the Teaching for Learning notice board in the staff workroom together with information on useful websites, ie. ... I could not go into detail of every aspect of the Accelerated Learning Cycle but attempt to give a brief overview and justify its place in KS3 music lessons.
Part 2 - Main Body of CDA
Pre-stage – Create the Support Learning Environment
For high order thinking skills to be in place learners must be free from anxiety and stress and be challenged. ...
My aim is to promote a positive learning environment, communicating high expectations with the
learners in my classes. I want to focus on those pupils who are registered in the form as having low self esteem and general learning disabilities and to ensure I say something to raise their self esteem through consistent educate feedback. ...
Stage One - Connect the Learning
This is the stage where the topic or unit of work about to be covered is connected with what has gone before and what is to come. ... The aid of this stage is to provide the learners not just with the learning outcomes but the questions they will be able to answer by the completion of the experience. ... The book “The Accelerated Learning Fieldbook” ( Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 1999) discusses how connecting the learning helps establish the relevance of the lesson in the learner’s mind, and it helps them assimilate new information as they can see where it fits in. ... Other scientists such as Robert Ornstein and Tony Buzan have helped to give a list of the relative lateralisation of brain function, some of which I found most relative to music:
¨ Forms patterns
¨ Rhythm
¨ Musical appreciation
¨ Imagination
¨ Tune of a song
¨ Learns the whole first then parts year
¨ Daydreaming and visioning
The brain constantly searches out patterns of meaning and does so as part of learning. ... In a learning situation they can be used as visual steps to project forward to a point where a goal has been successfully achieved. ... I want to see if this would be a useful teaching tool to learn the notes using VAK to aid retention and music notation learning. ... Hopefully in a fun and relaxed atmosphere
See Appendix 7
Stage Seven Review for recall and retention
Review is vital to long-term learning and recall. ...
See Appendix 8
If the seven stages of The Accelerated Learning Cycle are used in a logical sequence, they can provide an effective learning environment for both the teacher and the learner. ... Each stage naturally follows on from the one proceeding, because it leads into the next learning process. ... ”
Pupils can benefit from having this kind of learning environment as it helps them to have a better understanding of the learning procedures. Pupils are helped to connect the learning from what they know, to what they will learn by the end of the lesson. ... Pupils then explore, internalise and apply this information through activities, which incorporate multiple intelligences, and help them make sense of the learning. ... To reinforce the learning, pupils are given memory and retention strategies to help them remember and recall what they have learnt.
This ‘learning journey’ that the pupils undertake, lead them to develop learning skills which are based on an understanding of how they learn, rather than on the preoccupation with what they learn. The teacher links all these stages by providing a positive and supportive learning environment throughout the lesson. According to Alastair Smith, the Accelerated Learning Cycle should work coherently to help teachers in classrooms raise pupil motivation and achievement. ...
Part 4 - EVALUATION
The aim of my CDA was to investigate the seven stages of the Accelerated Learning Cycle put together by Alastair Smith and to draw conclusions as to whether it would be good to use each one of these stages in planning music lessons for KS3. I have drawn conclusions from each stage
Pre Stage – Creating the supportive learning environment
To support the learning environment, I incorporated in my lessons the idea of using a relaxed friendly stress free approach, especially at the beginning of the class, by trying to respond positively with the students. ... I realise that a supportive learning environment is one that has a foundation of respect and order. ...
Connect the learning
As I began preparing my lesson for year 9 and looked at the next topic in the workbook on Reggae music, I thought to myself ‘why are we teaching this? ... I have 4 teenagers myself and they don’t listen to it, so what would be the point of a class of year 9 learning about it. It was only after reading the articles about connecting the learning by A. ... This learning devise appeals to the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners of the class. ... This corresponds with his IEP where he is noted as having general learning difficulties.
Approximate Word count = 5650
Approximate Pages = 22.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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