At first glance you might think that accelerated learning is only for the person that is gifted or who has a high IQ. Yet is that really true? Have the traditional images of learning been wrong? Can anyone benefit from the techniques of accelerated learning? Or can anyone use the system to help them improve their mind and thinking ability?
Certainly one of the earliest applications of the phrase accelerated learning springs from the use of a more challenging curriculum. These advanced curriculums were developed to possibly help the gifted students have a more challenging experience in the class room.
Educational settings have used accelerated materials and curriculum to challenge or keep the interest of students considered advanced or exceptional. These are the students that excel most of the time in the more traditional academic fields.
How is accelerated learning applied when it comes to advancing the exceptionally talented students?
The first step to applying an accelerated program for gifted or talented students is to identify those students who are, in fact, advanced beyond those in their peer group. This separation of the advanced students from the ordinary students is most typically done by application of a traditional IQ test and/or standardized academic testing. Sometimes achievement or aptitude tests are applied as well in order to isolate those students who are most capable of performing at a level above that of their peer group.
There are various ways that the accelerated program is then applied to benefit the advanced students. A few of the better-known applications of accelerated program involve the administration of a standard curriculum simply earlier in the life of the student, or at a more intensified rate of delivery than is used for the average student.
These methods of application can include the child into early entry in the school system or the promotion of the child into a grade above his or her age group. It may also include the accelerated rate of teaching of the subject matter or curriculum, often by simply providing standard materials from a higher level to a child who exhibits advanced development in a particular area.
What are the advantages of offering an accelerated learning program to advanced students?
There are certain undeniable advantages to providing an accelerated curriculum to students who are able to handle the more difficult material. Certainly, they provide an additional challenge and a degree of variety that is often welcomed by the advanced student. Such variations and greater academic challenges keep the more advanced students from becoming bored, with more standard material that is well below their abilities and the implementation of accelerated programs often provides more options in advanced children with equally advanced skills.
Many of these higher-thinking skills and the self-directed materials that are provided to the students enable them to develop skills that will serve them well in a more advanced academic setting, theoretically giving them an edge over their peer groups when competing for choice spots in colleges.
What are the possible shortcomings of offering an accelerated learning program to advanced students?
While there are definite benefits to offering accelerated learning programs to advanced students, thereby providing them with the chance to complete less challenging work at an accelerated pace in order to move on to more advanced and open-ended course materials.
The materials are used to challenge themselves; there are nevertheless certain shortcomings to the program that should be considered before implementation in order to assess the likely effect it will have on the student. The principal shortcoming to accelerating the achievement and learning of gifted students is the sense of isolation that such students often experience.
Children learn at a very young age to distinguish who is different, and the advanced students certainly fall into that category. Young children don't care about academic advantages as much as they care about simply blending in; accelerated learning programs for gifted students do not permit students that luxury, and often set them up for difficulty when it comes to blending in with their peers at stages in their development when simple acceptance is the most critical factor for future success.
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