Accelerated Learning is based on the idea that an individual has a preferred learning style – visual, auditory or kinaesthetic (VAK). It also takes this further into the area of multiple intelligences, suggesting that some people learn better through musical activities, maths based tasks, teamwork and so on. Accelerated Learning also uses memory techniques such as mind mapping to make learning easier. Rather than teaching a lot of content, the focus is on learning how to be a good learner (crucial in a world that is changing so fast). The theory is a well researched one and suggests that we all learn more easily, and with more enjoyment and less stress, if we are allowed to follow our own particular learning styles. Forest Schools provide an excellent means of providing the whole variety of learning styles. This was evident on the course day when we all made a nest to show one of the multiple intelligences. There were people working alone or as part of a team, making up songs about the nest, using mathematical language about pattern and shape, writing words on leaves to describe the nest and so on.
Schemas are patterns of repeated behaviour that are often noticed in young children’s play. Not all children follow a schema, some follow one schema strongly and some may follow several at once. If a child is following a particular schema, then their interest is being engaged by this pattern of behaviour. If we observe a particular schema, then we can extend the child’s learning by developing activities for them based on that learning style. Again, the nature of Forest Schools allows us to support children’s learning in a way that stimulates them, i.e. by planning activities based on their schema. There are nine recognised schemas – trajectory, enveloping, enclosing, circular, transporting, filling, connection, rotation and boundary. An example of developing a child’s learning through the filling schema might be to provide various shapes and