What excites me in this Fulbright project is for me to get the strong support from TU-Sofia to offer a special topic course using project based learning with vertical integration between year standings and COIL (collaborative online international learning). Today, in my online Bulgarian course offered through the Fulbright office, I got to know that Georgi Lozanov was a Bulgarian scientist, neurologist, psychiatrist, psychologist and educator, who was regarded as the “the father of accelerated learning“.
According to this link, “Accelerated learning is a learning format that allows students to complete courses in a shorter period of time compared to a traditional semester. Accelerated learning is a multi-dimensional approach to learning where students can control the speed and method in which they are instructed. Accelerated learning requires collaboration to speed up the learning process and also involves students immersing themselves in the work itself to learn in context: for example, film students will better understand the fundamentals of the subject by creating their own films rather than writing a paper on some aspect of film.” According to this link, “The goal of Accelerated Education Programs (AEPs) is to provide learners with equivalent, certified competencies for basic education using effective teaching and learning approaches that match their level of cognitive maturity.”
My motivation and implementation of the course sound to be very aligned with his idea, so do POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning), Experiential Learning, and Service Learning, etc. As teachers, we facilitate our students in their learning process, and we learn through our teaching to figure out what is effective to help our students learn. It is never about passing on some knowledge alone. Teaching is about student learning. Everything we do may have been the reintroduction of the sound wisdom, over and over again, flowing through human history. Today, I solute Dr. Georgi Lazonov, across the time, across the Atlantic, and I am glad that in a sense, it may come full circle soon.
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