Faster Air Speed
The RAF has been using accelerated learning (AL) as part of its strategy to help aircrew and technical staff review, digest and retain critical information. Anthony Landale reports on a pragmatic approach to learning.
Some people are still suspicious of accelerated learning (AL). But why? At the RAF they have been using AL for over five years. The reason? Because it works.
Now you may be familiar with some aspects of AL but let’s quickly review the territory. In essence AL is all about improving the way we learn and because there is so much more information for us to handle these days that means it is something in which we should all be keenly interested. We need to learn faster and smarter so that we can keep up with change, call on new knowledge and apply new skills.
The five main constituents of AL are as follows:
1. Managing our resources. We need to manage our resources before we start learning and this refers to our mental state as well as our environment. In essence we need to be ready to engage positively with new information as well as creating those conditions which foster learning.
2. Our representational systems. Representational systems refer to the preferences we have for information being presented visually, aurally or kinaesthetically. For example language laboratories and audio tapes won’t work well for learners who have a visual preference and like to see information being presented or for those people who prefer to try things out.
3. The seven intelligences. AL theory postulates that there are seven intelligences - mathematical/logical, linguistic, visual/spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, physical and musical intelligence. If trainers only 
work in one field, say, the logical field then the learning will only stay at the theoretical level. The trick with AL is to work with breadth and depth. Mind Mapping for example is an example of turning on the visual/spatial intelligence, group work will encourage interpersonal intelligence and reflection time recognises the need for intrapersonal intelligence. By addressing these intelligences learning becomes stimulating and is far more likely to stick.
4. Practising the skills. Allied to this notion of stimulation is also the notion of interaction and challenge. When we are learning we need to be given the opportunity to discover what it is like to practice new learning and get it ‘into the muscle’. Practise, as part of the learning experience, boosts our confidence, energy and skill levels.
5. Reviewing over time. Finally AL emphasises the need for review. It is amazing how much knowledge gets lost when the review phase of learning isn’t built in and, conversely, how much can be retained with simple review techniques. Reviewing is all about our commitment to make the most of our capacity to learn.
So this is the territory for accelerated learning. It’s not a hard set of highly defined rules of engagement. Rather it’s about learning in the way that works best for us. It’s about stimulation and ease of effort. It’s about imagination and productivity. It’s about relaxation and speed.
Blue skies thinking.
Flight Lieutenant Bryn Roberts has provided all manner of training advice and consultancy in his role as Training Officer for the RAF. Currently based at RAF Halton, his current responsibility is for a team of technical experts whose understanding, research and decisions will directly affect the future of the airforce.
“The only reason that I use Accelerated Learning is because it works,” he explained. “The first occasion I tried AL was in the case of an aircrew student who was having trouble passing a technical examination. It was important for him, and for the RAF, that he succeeded and our challenge was how best to support him. Of course when it comes to examinations students need to absorb a huge amount of information so I started to look at what techniques promised to help with memory and learning. Accelerated Learning was the answer.
“Of course we weren’t sure what results we were going to get from AL but we chose Illumine Training to help us who are vastly experienced in this field. The proof that we had a success on our hands was in the exam score. The student concerned dumbfounded his instructors by achieving a pass mark of over 90% which was a phenomenal improvement.
“Not surprisingly after he had achieved this result all the instructors at the base wanted to find out more about AL and how it worked so we invited Illumine to deliver a two day training course/session on this method. There were some real sceptics in the room but by the end of the course they were all converted.”
So what did Illumine do on this programme? In brief they outlined the research that underpins the method, they established a conducive learning environment and they involved people experientially by teaching them Mind Mapping, Speed Reading and Memory techniques. In brief these can be described as follows.
1. Mind Mapping. Many people have heard about Mind Mapping. In essence it’s a way of visually representing how we think. We don’t think in lists or text - we think in images and themes, shapes and patterns, all interconnected.
To prove this let’s take an example. If you think about your next holiday a number of associated thoughts will spring to mind … where you want to go, how to travel, the people you will go with, the cost and so on. And as you think of each of these thoughts you will have hundreds more associated ideas.
Mind Mapping reflects this natural thinking process. It’s a graphic technique which focuses on a central issue and allows you to generate all sorts of ideas which radiate around it. Take a look at the classic mind map, below, (is there a visual for this or do you need us to send you one) on how to organise a business trip. It depicts the main issue at the centre, includes the main themes branching out and includes a variety of other ideas that are associated with each of these themes.
So how does this help with learning? It helps because it makes it easier to record and remember information. Compare it to note taking which is a laborious process and where almost nothing stands out on the page; no surprise that the brain goes to sleep. In contrast Mind Mapping saves labour because you only write down the key words, saves time because you only have to read what is relevant and is memorable because it is visually stimulating.
2. Speed reading. When you consider that around 30-50% of all time at work is spent reading then who wouldn’t want to learn speed-reading? For people dealing with large quantities of information this is a ‘must have’ skill. So how does it work?
Well speed reading starts with understanding a little more about our eyes. When you read your eyes don’t move smoothly from left to right as you read across the page. If you actually watch someone as they are reading you will notice their eyes jerk as they progress from one word to the next. You may also notice that their eyes even skip backwards every now and again as they reassure themselves that they haven’t missed anything or they check their understanding.
This is extremely unproductive and unnecessary. As children we learned to read one word at a time and never grew out of the habit. But our brain is capable of much more and by expanding our field of vision we can learn to take two or three words or even whole lines at a time. For those who doubt that this is so try this experiment. Take a pen and run it underneath the words you are reading. It will help the speed of your reading as well as your comprehension because the eye is going where you want it to. Simple.
3. Your memory muscle. The third technique that Illumine taught to the RAF was ways in which people could stretch their memory so that they retained more information.
People have great trouble in remembering things that are dull so the trick is to make the task stimulating and memorable. One way to do this is to use the associative power of memory. Quite literally you can remember key names or pieces of information by putting them into a chain. As an example let’s consider the number rhyme ‘peg’ system. To start with you give each number a rhyming key word e.g. gun (one), shoe (two), tree (three) and so on. Then each of the words you want to remember is linked to that ‘peg’. So if, for example, the third term you wanted to remember is ‘air pressure’ then you might imagine a picture of a tree being battered by the wind. Through such associations words and their images become memorable.
“This sounds amazingly simple but it works,” said Illumine’s MD Clive Lewis. “In reality what you are doing with techniques such as this is using both the linear and the visual qualities of your brain - and by linking them together you can improve your memory dramatically. Additionally, if you learn to take breaks when you are learning new information and build in short two minute reviews this will also make a staggering difference to what you absorb and are able to recall.”
For Bryn Roberts there is no doubt that this is an approach that works. At RAF Kinloss, RAF Innsworth and now RAF Halton he has had reason to call on the services of Illumine and has generated exceptional results.
“I’m a pragmatist and I’m convinced AL provides tremendous benefits to our staff,” he said. “With the specialists I work with now they have a huge amount of information to sift through and the AL techniques that Illumine have taught give them a way of turning around their projects far faster than before. Of course when I first suggested that they use AL there was a certain amount of healthy scepticism but they are now all using some of the techniques in their day to day work.”
As you might expect Roberts is also a good role model for AL. “I do an awful lot of Mind Mapping both for recall and for planning projects and I also used it recently when I was putting together a large presentation for a training course. It’s a great way of capturing information and it is also something I use in groups when I want to generate new ideas. It helps the group to consider all the angles before deciding on an appropriate course of action.”
So is AL an alternative to traditional learning methods? “No,” says Roberts. “It simply complements what is already there. The way I see accelerated learning it is like the M6 toll road. Some people will still choose to drive on the road they have always known while others welcome a faster way to get to their destination.”
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Tags: Accelerated Learning, Effective Speed Reading™ (Training), Memory, Memory techniques, Mind Mapping, Royal Air Force (RAF), Speed Reading, The seven intelligences, Time management