Tip #18: Provide for increasingly deeper involvement in the learning process.

Principle #6 of accelerated learning is to provide for increasingly deeper involvement in the learning process. Learning activities that move the learner through the building blocks of learning can accomplish this.

The elements in the UCLA Mastery Teaching Model developed by Dr. Madeline Hunter enable the learner to become more deeply involved and responsible for the learning result. The learner moves from reliance on the instructor, to reliance on the group, to self reliance:

1. Input: The instructor presents the content to be learned, or draws it from the learners, possibly through their response to a focus question.

2. Model: The instructor or a learner provides an example of the content, possibly through an analogy or a metaphor to explain the essence of what is to be taught.

3. Check for Comprehension: The instructor asks or responds to questions.

4. Guided/Monitored Practice: The instructor walks the group through another example so that they can participate in applying the content.

5. Independent Group Practice: The participants work in small groups an exercise that requires them to apply the content in another example without the instructor's assistance.

6. Independent Individual Practice: Each participant works independently to apply the content to a personally-relevant example without the assistance of the group or of the instructor.

As the instructor's direct involvement in the learning process diminishes, the learners' involvement deepens. First, the learners test their competence in the new learning with reinforcement from the group and share responsibility for the learning result. Then the learners independently apply the content and become solely responsible for the learning result.