originally from Bringing out the Best in People, by Aubrey C. Daniels
Contents
Chapter 21: Maximizing Learning - The Fluency Model
<snip>
In his research on learning, Dr. Eric Haughton (1981) made a significant discovery. What Dr. Haughton discovered was this: if a learner was exposed to the basic facts of any body of information and interacted with those facts repeatedly until he or she was not only accurate, but also quick in his or her responses, then the information would be learned, retained, and applied as though the learner had worked with that information for years. In other words, learners using Dr. Haughton's methods were able to perform new tasks as though they were "second nature."
Dr. Haughton coined the term fluency to describe the advanced level of performance that resulted from the use of this learning method.
Other studies have confirmed the relationship between speed of response and learning. In one (Berquam, 1981), students learned to correctly associate three-letter nonsense syllables with numbers. Those who could respond correctly at rates between 50 and 70 per minute, retained 100 percent of this rate when tested three weeks later. Those students whose initial response rate was below 50 per minute had their retention rate fall to as low as 20 percent of their original rate. In a similar association task (Ivarie, 1986), students with response rates of 70 per minute maintained this same level of correct responding in post-tests conducted three months later.
In another study conducted in 1979 (Binder, 1987), students were taught to correctly say numbers paired with printed random Hebrew characters and then to perform addition problems using the Hebrew characters in place of numbers. All students were able to perform the addition task at 100 percent accuracy. Later they were distracted during this task by random numbers read to them through headphones. Students who achieved 100 percent accuracy and fluency (high levels of rapid responding) were able to maintain their levels of performance even when distracted. Those students who had achieved 100 percent accuracy but had not achieved high rates of responding were completely disrupted and unable to perform this task at all when distracted. The implications for an effective facts-based program are dramatic: only with rate criteria can we expect learners to remember their facts.
<snip>
The Morningside Model
Before telling you about the implications of fluency for business, let me take you to a school in Seattle, Washington, called Morningside Academy, which is owned and operated by Dr. Kent Johnson.
Dr. Johnson started his school in 1980 and has maintained meticulous records of actual learning for that entire time. He has to, because he gives parents a written, money-back guarantee that their child will advance the equivalent of two grade levels per subject per year. In 13 years no parent has ever requested money back, because Morningside students advance their skills by approximately 2.4 grade levels per year. Contrast those figures with the national average of 0.6 grade levels per year!
What makes this even more remarkable is that all of Morningside's students have been classified as learning disabled. Their disabilities include Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), dyslexia, and other special learning problems. The students' average stay at the academy is about two years. Most return to their regular classrooms with A+ grade levels, and all have the skills to maintain those levels.
In 1991, Dr. Joe Layng applied the Morningside model to a group of academically deficient adults in a project called "Academic Storm." In that project, adults were able to gain two grade levels in academic improvement with only 16 to 18 hours of instruction.
How Did they Do It?
Dr. Johnson combines two learning technologies to accomplish these remarkable results: (1) Direct Instruction, developed by Drs. Siegfried Engelmann and Wesley Becker and (2) Precision Teaching, developed by Dr. Ogden Lindsley.
Direct Instruction involves brief teaching sessions (5 to 10 minutes) of carefully sequenced materials to teach specific skills and concepts. Concepts to be learned are segmented into important facts and basic information and presented through many examples and non-examples. Students learn tin small steps from basic awareness to full acquisition of skills and knowledge. If learning stopped here, students would still have learned more than in traditional classroom methods. But the learning does not stop here.
The Precision Teaching method is then applied. The Precision Teaching approach to instruction is based on frequent practice of already "learned" material and direct measurement of accuracy and speed. Students practice repeatedly, chart their performance, and participate in decision making and goal setting based on their progress.
The key concept in Precision Teaching is fluency. Dr. Carl Binder, an expert in this area, defines fluency as "a second-nature knowledge, near automatic performance, the ability to perform without hesitation - in short, true mastery." In his early applications with business, Dr. Binder coined the phrase "fluency-building" to describe his approach. Fluency-building incorporates the proven techniques of Precision Teaching.
The fluency building-process requires the learner to repeatedly interact with the material to be learned, usually by answering a series of questions, until that learner becomes accurate and fast in his or her responses. This "practice to fluency" is termed overlearning since the student is asked to perform considerably in excess of what would be required in normal classroom instruction. Students are required to build performance rates to high levels before proceeding to the next task. The important element is speed. The ability to respond quickly as well as accurately dramatically changes the learner's relationship to the material. Not only can they do the task, but they can do it quickly and accurately without thinking.
How Fast Is Fast? Rates that assure retention vary among tasks and groups of people. In the study discussed earlier, 50 correct responses per minute was sufficient for college students to retain 100 percent of previously learned material. In-house data at Morningside Academy shows that 80 to 100 correct responses per minute are required for the previously academically unsuccessful students to retain their math facts.
What makes these rates even more amazing is that studies by Dr. Ogden Lindsley show that people can think about only 35 facts per minute. Fluency truly means non-hesitant, automatic performance, that is, responding faster than you can think.
<snip>
Implications for Business of Learning to Fluency
- Retention: You don't forget, traditional methods most material is forgotten within weeks, sometimes days.
- Endurance: Learners who attain fluency in a subject or task are able to stay on the task much longer than people not fluent.
Generalization: <snip>
How to Convert Training to Fluency-building Learning
Fluency-building has several requirements that make all the difference. Fluency-building requires that, at first, rate is emphasized over accuracy. This is certainly counterintuitive, but you can't build high rates if the learner is afraid to make a mistake. Therefore, suppressing errors slows down the learning process rather than facilitating it.
Studies prove that encouraging high rates of responses even when most of the responses are incorrect actually accelerates learning in performers when they are not punished for errors. Accuracy soon follows.
Repeated practice is the next requirement. Practicing the same thing over and over is not a task that the average person looks forward to. Usually the word repetition is synonymous with boring or tedious, but we know that meaning resides in the consequences for the task, not the task itself. So, to prevent repetition from becoming redundant, we add feedback and reinforcement.
Feedback and reinforcement are critical when learning a new skill or new information. Learners must receive precise information about their learning status if they are to make the changes necessary to accelerate learning, and they must get frequent positive reinforcement for every small gain they make toward building fluency.
Modern education denigrates repetition, claiming that it doesn't promote learning, since it is only the rote recall of facts. Rote learning is effective when learners receive enough feedback and reinforcement to support their efforts as they gain the benefits of fluency.
The last element that sets fluency-building above traditional training is measurement. As in Performance Management, measurement is critical if feedback and reinforcement are to be accurate and timely. Tests administered following a training experience merely provide a snapshot of what has been learned, a picture that can tell where learners are only at that specific moment in time.
Fluency-building tracts learning along the entire continuum of learner progress. By doing this, the learners and those who will benefit from the skills being mastered know where the learners are in the learning process and how they got there. Observers get reliable information about which learners are becoming more accurate and at what rate.
Measurement lets everyone know when the performers need additional help or are ready to go to work. This precision, when applied to learning gives both the learner and the organization a much better opportunity to bring out the best in people.
Organizations constantly talk about the fact that the latest corporate initiative is not a program, but a "way of life." Training to fluency is the way to make learning a "way of life."
<End of Chapter>