The Evolution of Speed Learning

By Sam Roxas


As someone who is interested in taking (or already taking) speed learning lessons, don't you think it's simply right that you know its history and evolution?

Speed learning is one of the most useful scientific or psychological discoveries in recent years. And it actually has a very fascinating history, not to mention an exceedingly long evolution.

Suggestopedia: Early History

When Bulgarian psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov originally introduced "Suggestopedia" (Speed Learning ' predecessor) in the late 1960s, plenty of the members of the medical and teaching community raised their eyebrows.

It was regarded as a "pseudo- science" because it was first developed as a teaching technique whereby you teach somebody a certain technique by simply suggesting or making them accept that it works.

As an example, you tell a child that he is extremely good at math. You inspire him. You tell him that he just could be a mathematics expert. The more the kid hears this, the more he will believe it. And when he suspects it, he becomes it- he becomes a math whiz.

Suggestopedia was employed to teach a bunch of kids about language. Their experiment proved to be successful when these students began to learn five times faster with this new teaching technique.

Speed Reading: US History

Now, after ten years when it first came about, it reached US soil and it was altered and it then turned into speed learning or accelerated learning.

Speed learning is basically first and more generally known as "speed reading" before. And it's precisely what the name suggests. Through this strategy, an individual is able to read and understand a book or document in a significantly quicker rate.

After a little time, speed reading branched out and more learning techniques were developed and discovered.

Brain Exercises: Scientific History

Fresh studies and discoveries too about the human brain and how it operates have helped catapult speed learning into the main line scene.

Science has shown that there are two main parts of the brain.

The left hemisphere is the logical or analytical side of the brain. This part is stimulated when we do mathematical equations, learn science or study anything that's unproven, in nature. This is also where the short term memory is formed.

The right brain, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of the left brain. When we imagine, when we visualize pictures, when we feel feelings, we use the right side of the brain.

Speed learning implies that we should use both of these hemispheres at the same time to enhance the processing and recall of data.

Despite its shaky start, speed learning has really proved to be a massive breakthrough. For years before its conception, psychologists and education pros have been conducting many researches on what techniques to use to improve a person's ability to learn and remember. And well now, speed learning has supplied them (and us) a solution.




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