In
as much as our concept of suggestion is based on the conscious-paraconscious
free, spontaneous absorption of information by the students through peripheral
perceptions, in a directed, non-manipulative communicative process, and in
opposition to dictating hypnotic and clinical suggestion, Reservopedia is a
teaching system which makes use of all the possibilities this suggestion can
offer. Its application in learning and teaching has led us to formulate the
following seven laws -sine qua non conditions of Reservopedia which
form the basis of every reservopedic teaching and learning communication.
They are so closely intertwined that they must also be simultaneously respected at
all times during the teaching process.
It
should be borne in mind, however, that these conditions can lead to the hidden
reserves of mind only when the teacher- reservopedist has a high personal and
professional prestige. There is no
Reservopedia without prestige. Prestige can create prestige. Studying in the
class of a prestigious professor creates prestige for the student. Studying at a
prestigious university creates prestige for the student, which will later ensure
higher effectiveness in his/her work. Reservopedia, created in the course of
many years of labour, has gained prestige. The teachers trained by the author of
Reservopedia, get a certificate and thus share the prestige of the methodology.
If the teachers do not keep all the requirements of Reservopedia and therefore
the results decrease, gradually the prestige of all the teachers in Reservopedia
will decrease.
Due
to the importance of this question, it will be considered further in the book
from an experimental perspective.
Suggestopedia/Reservopedia
is built upon the following seven laws - conditio sine qua non.
The
First Law of Reservopedia is:
Love
It
is well known that no fine accomplishments have been made in this world without
love. Love is also an essential condition for accessing the reserves of mind.
Love creates serenity, trust and contributes to the prestige of
the teacher in the eyes of the students and thus opens the ways of tapping the
reserves in the personality`s
paraconsciousness. Love
cannot be played as the students will feel that. But it should not be understood
as some sentimental, soft mood, since this attitude brings about negative
reactions. Love should be experienced as genuine love for the human being. We do
not advise any teacher to start working at the level of the reserves if they do
not possess sincere, humanistic love. They should better wait until they
reconsider the teaching process of communication as an expression of love.
In
Reservopedia, the teacher`s
love to the learners can be best illustrated by means of the metaphor of a mother or father teaching their children how to ride a
bicycle without the child being able to tell at each moment whether the
parent is holding the bicycle from behind or not.
In
the same way, reservopedic learners are mostly unaware of their teacher`s
support. For example, during all productive stages in the reservopedic cycle in
foreign language acquisition, i.e. the stages at which learners produce speech,
namely the introduction, the elaboration and the last stage of performance when
learners express themselves more freely and creatively, the teacher provides
subdued and unobtrusive guidance, modelling and implicit, tactful correction of the learners output without their,
most often, realizing that they are being corrected. The teacher provides the
correct version of the learners' utterances in such a tenderly suggestive way
that the learners do not even feel that they have committed an error. Errors are
never analysed on the spot and teachers never suggest that learners should try
harder.
This
metaphor illustrates the quality of the psychological relationship between
teacher and learner which is much like the relationship of mother to child. The
example of the bicycle is used here to emphasize the aspect of LOVE, the caring
and loving support of the teacher to the learners, to whom it is most welcome
just because it is tenderly offered and not imposed upon them. Thus they are
feeling secure.
Love,
together with the other laws, creates the necessary cheerful, genuine and highly
stimulating concentrative relaxation. This presupposes mental relaxation and
non-strained concentration. It calls for calmness, steadiness, inner confidence
and trust. Under these conditions of positive emotions, creative mental activity
and the global learning process are characterized by an absence of fatigue. The
principle of joy and concentrative calmness is realized through the system of
games and humour, and, through visual materials which are not illustrative, but
rather stimulating in character, as well as through the overall teaching
communicative interaction.
The
Second Law of Reservopedia is: Freedom
When
there is Love, there is Freedom. Freedom empowers the teacher to exercise his /
her judgement and personal decisions within the main reservopedic framework of
the lesson to adapt it to the traits of each group. It also allows the students
to choose whether to take part in some activities such as a game, a song, etc.
that might not be in harmony with their disposition.
They
are also absolutely free at any moment to go out of the classroom without, of
course, disturbing the work of the group. The principle of freedom is one of the
most basic elements which distinguish Reservopedia from hypnosis. In hypnosis,
the hypnotized subject is unable to choose, to act freely, spontaneously, to
interrupt the process or do anything unless the hypnotizer has ordered so.
Freedom
gives the opportunity to the student to listen to their inner voice and to
choose their way to the reserves of mind at different moments of the process of
instruction. Freedom is not being dictated by the teacher, it is a spontaneous
feeling in the student that they do not obey the methodology but are free to
enjoy it and give personal expression in accordance with their personal traits,
i.e. Reservopedia is not an imposition; on the contrary, it is opening the door
to personal expression.
The
Third Law of Reservopedia is: Conviction
of the Teacher that Something Unusual is Taking Place
The
state of conviction that something extraordinary, different from the social
suggestive norm, is taking place with no fail, leads to the state of inspiration
of the teacher. This inner jubilation is reflected in the peripheral perceptions
of the teacher and perceived by and created in the students. What
is particularly important is that this set-up is spontaneously created by the
teacher’s state of mind and the students happily resonate with it, most often
paraconsciously. This is how the so called suggestive relationship is created at
the level of the reserve complex. The teacher’s
mastery is in facilitating this teaching-learning communication process of
resonance. Naturally, certain suggestive influences are unavoidable in any
communicative process. With Reservopedia, however, even the faintest pressure or
insistence on part of the teacher, is a hindrance to this process. He/she simply
communicates at the edge of the unused reserves of the brain and mind in keeping
with the seven laws of Reservopedia. Thus, the students have the feeling that
they achieve everything on their own; the help of the teacher is just the
extended hand of a friend. Needless to say, such communication is a matter of
training and experience.
At
present, students are able to assimilate the study material from a minimum
of two to three times and up to five to ten times faster and better, with
favourable effects upon health, than the results of traditional methodologies.
And, in the future, this rate of learning may be augmented much further. The
teacher using Reservopedia must be well informed about the results of all the
other contemporary methods in order to be able to judge objectively.
The
teacher`s
expectations are both about his/her own ability to activate the reserve
capacities of the learners as well as about the learner’s ability to learn at
the level of the reserves. These expectations can be felt by the learners
through the peripheral perceptions and unconscious signals arising from the
teacher`s
voice, facial expression and their overall non verbal behaviour. Due
to the genuineness of these signals and the impossibility for these to be
simulated by the teacher, the students perceive them without hesitation. This
automatically leads to the tapping of the reserves. It
is a mutual process of teacher`s
expectations affecting the expectations of the learners, i.e. expectations
create expectations, and this happens naturally, spontaneously, without any
force.
The
Fourth Law of Reservopedia is: Manifold
Increase of Input Volume
In
Reservopedia, the study material presented to students in a specific time frame,
must be, as a minimum, at least 2 to 3 times (times, not percent) larger
in volume than the existing established norm by the other methodologies. For
example, the study material in a one month course of foreign language teaching
must always be at least two times more voluminous than a typical similar
language course. In fact, such a suggestopedic course for beginners will
comprise 2000 to 2500 lexical units, surely going much beyond the minimal
requirement of study material volume. This proportion holds good for the other
subjects too. If the traditional norm changes with time, in a few years or
generations, the reservopedic course must also be modified for the constant
stimulation of the evolution. Taking into consideration that a number of
national and international expert commissions have confirmed that the
methodology has a psychotherapeutic, psychohygienic, educational effect, it is
more than sure that we should not let the big volume of study material be
decreased. If, in the reservopedic framework, the study material is kept within
the traditional boundaries, it will only confirm and reinforce the suggestive
social norm about the limited capacity of the human being. Thus evolution will
be delayed.
The
Fifth Law of Reservopedia is: Global-Partial,
Partial-Global; Partial through Global
In
all subjects, when the new study material is taught, there must not be a
separation between the element and its whole. They must never be taught and
learned in an isolated mode. For example, the words, grammar, etc., do not exist
separately from the language; they are part of the discourse. Each global is
part of a bigger global and thus it goes to infinity.
On
the one hand, this concept is based on some investigations on brain functioning
where the parts of the brain contain information about the whole brain. In
addition, in exposing the brain/mind functions of Reservology, it is said that
the human being reacts as a whole and that the stimuli are accepted in a complex
way. This again shows that the elements do not exist apart but always as parts
of the whole.
On
the other hand, from a philosophical point of view, there is the great theory
that the whole is in the part and that the part is in the whole; they are
indivisible. There are no isolated entities. That is why when learning, the
element is to be learned together with the whole. The global gives additional
nuances to the element. The atom reflects the laws of the Universe and the
Universe is in the atom.
When
this condition is respected in pedagogy, the results are better. There is no
attempt to isolate the element with force. All theoretical conclusions have
their experimental corroboration.
The
condition global – partial, partial – global, partial through global where
the global is leading is one of the main factors contributing to the harmonising
of the teaching process. The mastery of the teacher lies in the decision he/she
has to make about what will be accepted as global.
The
Sixth Law of Reservopedia is: The Golden
Proportion
The
Golden Proportion reveals a law of harmony in the universe to which the
reservopedic teaching and learning process of all subjects must be submitted.
Harmony inspires harmony and overcomes the psychic chaos often provoked by
traditional pedagogy. Harmony is essential in the process of teaching and
learning such a big volume of study material in a short period of time. The
relations among the parts and the whole are in a golden proportion in the
reservopedic process of communication. Learning capacity is enhanced when the
teaching process artfully finds the proper balance with respect to rhythms,
intonations, emotional stimulus, etc.
The
Seventh Law of Reservopedia is: Use of
Classical Art and Aesthetics
Classical
art and aesthetics are used in Reservopedia as especially effective mediators of
non-manipulative communicative suggestion because of their capacity to emit an
indefinite number of non-specific stimuli which nourish the abundance of
peripheral perceptions unnoticeable to the senses functioning through conscious
awareness.
Reservopedic
art creates conditions for optimal psycho-relaxation and harmonious states which
help create a spontaneously increased acquisition state and enhance
the capacity to tap the reserves of mind in a pleasant atmosphere. It aids
reaching the state of inspiration and declines the attention from the “ill
place” where there is fear associated with learning. Classical art is
introduced through specially selected works in classical music, through songs
and arias, literary selections, reproductions of masterpieces, etc.