Educational Development Corporation |
| Today it is more clear than ever that there is a
need to speed up and improve the methods of instruction and education without any additional
burdening of the nervous system and without any harmful effects. It is to be regretted that
the attempts at sophistication of the teaching process (technical, organizational,
psychological and didactic) have led in most cases only to minor improvements in the mastering
of the material that is studied. They usually increase (or at least do not reduce!)
fatigue, boredom and alienation. |
Accessing our Reserve Capacities
| Dr. Lozanov has long been
been interested in the reserve capacities of the personality, the reserve capacities of the mind. He
has applied his research work to the discovery of some broad principles of human functioning and
learning. Dr. Lozanov has developed a general concept of what is going on at all times as a complex body of suggestion
that we are all exposed to every moment of our lives. The majority of his work has focused
on developing techniques and systems for organizing the suggestive stimuli towards the
educational goals of liberating the student from fear and tapping the reserve
capacities. Suggestopedia is the fruit of that intensive labor.
Suggestopedia organizes the process of instruction so that not only the conscious attention of the student is utilized, but also the peripheral perceptions become an integral part of the teaching process. |
Overcoming the Fixation on the Conscious Mind
| In traditional
education, the teaching process has only addressed the conscious mind. It has not addressed
the subconscious mind, the peripheral perceptual data. While the mind is selectively pinning
the attention to the phenomenon that is in front at the moment, it does not fail to notice,
to take in, many, many peripheral perceptions which are channeled into the subconscious. In
other words, great volumes of information are entering the subconscious at any given point; information, which is not devoid of suggestive value.
Imagine attempting to cross a very busy traffic intersection in New York City on foot, or resting quietly in a beautiful Japanese garden or walking towards the Taj Mahal or even visiting a slum in the Philippines. In each of these experiences every sensation, every perception - whether or not it is consciously registered - contains elements of suggestion. These suggestions in turn communicate a complex body of information, which can either suppress or enhance the quality of a particular experience. It is for this reason that Dr. Lozanov refers to suggestion as a universal communicative factor. To appreciate even more the pervasiveness of suggestion, consider the multiple layers of meaning that are conveyed in even the simplest communication between two people. There is an immediate flood of feelings that is aroused on first contact, which may be familiarity and liking but also remoteness or even definite dislike. When we meet a stranger, we take in, without thinking about it, many small details about him, and we form some immediate impression of the sort of person he is, by the way he walks or dresses, his facial expressions, tone of voice and gestures, his eye contact or its avoidance. That is why in a conversation only ten to twenty percent of the meaning is derived from the words themselves. The remaining eighty to ninety percent is obtained through these perceptions: gestures, facial expression, posture, voice quality - intonation, volume, pace, cadence, inflection - and the relationship of all these to the circumstances. We automatically draw some conclusions, which may or may not be correct. And those conclusions find a counter expression in our own responses, our gestures, and our tone of voice and so on. The concrete, practical significance of this fact can hardly be overemphasized. When a classroom is considered in this light - taking into account the environment and the many simultaneous interactions among students as well as between students and teacher - the challenge of designing an optimal system of education becomes apparent. The classroom environment must be seen as hosting a veritable blizzard of perceptual data within which swirl the occasional flecks of curricular material. |
Global Approach to the Personality
| Herein lies the great power of Dr. Lozanov's approach to education. To his mind, education must take into account the entire complex of suggestion, including both conscious and unconscious perceptions, and all layers of meaning. When a teacher is properly trained, s/he learns to organize and orchestrate the peripheral perceptions to better tap the reserve capacities of the students. Such a global approach to the personality can reveal fresh reserves and create a stimulating set-up and high motivation - crucial ingredients for premium learning. We ask ourselves why we are not able to access the tremendous memory capacities that lie in reserve. Part of the answer is that the conventional teaching process does not communicate at the level of these reserve capacities. Without communication at this level, there is less possibility that students will develop fully the richness of their personalities.
Suggestopedia gives organized purposeful suggestion absolute prominence in the process of teaching for the purpose of improving the quality of our learning experience. What we have then is an instructional process that significantly increases the study material to be taught and learned. And, at the same time, eliminates the stress and fatigue that is normally associated with conventional teaching approaches. |
Art, Music, Theatre, Poetry
| Art is one of the most heavily used suggestive influences in a suggestopedic class. Why art? Because through art we are brought to a higher moral, social and cultural level. This in turn stimulates a state of concentrative psychorelaxation, which is very desirable for learning. This brings to mind the very best examples of high quality suggestion - the fine arts, as expressed in transcendent music, art, theater, dance, poetry and composition. The best of these have had a profound, if inexplicable, influence upon the psyches of large numbers of people extending over a period of hundreds and in some instances, thousands of years. Indeed, they have given eloquent expression to the highest ideals of humankind. And our appreciation of them has shaped our cultures, and hence determined the very nature of our lives. Of course, the ultimate example of powerful positive suggestion is unadorned nature itself, of which even the very best art is but a dim reflection.
In a suggestopedic classroom, concrete study material is taught within an artistic context such as music, poetry, theatre, puppetry or literature. For example, in the area of mathematics, the entire mathematical knowledge was presented in 5 or 6 global units in the first grade (representing the normal math curriculum for grades 1 and 2). Each global unit is presented in the form of a theatrical performance (some are live, some are filmed). While fully experiencing all the esthetic, ethical and general knowledge aspects of the performance, the student is imperceptibly also assimilating mathematical concepts and foundations. Thus the math concepts are completely camouflaged and integrated with the feeling component of the drama. This material is later elaborated in a series of structured and highly enjoyable activities. Such elaboration takes very little time and is connected with high motivation in the students on account of the pleasant experience with which the first perception of the new material is connected. |
Education is More Than Simply Improving Man's Memory
| Suggestopedia accelerates the teaching of the curriculum and therefore leaves considerable time to offer more subjects like foreign language instruction, music, art, physical education, etc.
That is why Dr. Lozanov defines suggestopedia as: “a system of instruction not aimed solely or mainly at improving man's memory. It also stimulates intellectual activity, raises the emotional tone, improves the socio-psychological coherence and has a favorable effect on the whole personality of the students.” (1971)
For educators, this instructional process points the way toward educational possibilities leading to the enhancement of knowledge and the enrichment of the human personality far beyond what we now consider possible. Dr. Lozanov has opened a world of exciting new possibilities for human development. |