TheTotal Learning Environment™™ (TLE)
The uniqueTotal Learning Environment™™ (TLE™) developed by Dr. Cheryl Clark, is a Social Synergetics™ model which provides a step-by-step process which goes beyond the mainstream concept of providing interactive or accelerated learning. All aspects of the learning environment are orchestrated to maximize value participants receive from the learning opportunities available.

Learning research indicates as much as 80% of the information presented in traditional training formats is lost within 72 hours. In a TLE™, participants experience an environment where the answers come from "within" themselves. The guided learning process ensures the learnings are "owned" and anchored into each individual's reality. This process supports a dramatically higher level of retention and integration of new understanding and skills.

Concepts and strategies that draw from the realms of science, psychology, education, physiology, business and social theory are elegantly integrated to appeal to the very heart of the human experience.

The exciting by-product of this unique learning environment is that participants discover a renewed love for the learning process. Fear of change is reduced and the focus on possibilities (vs. impossibilities) grows exponentially.

A successful TLE™ can be created as the context for a residential program in which all aspects of the daily routine of residents is specifically designed to promote learning and growth. As well, a TLE™ also provides the most accelerated, effective classroom environment possible.

An Overview of the TLE™ Process
This overview provides a sketch of how a TLE™ can be created in a residential program, a classroom, or with a specific learning activity.

The Set-Up prepares participants for an activity, whether it be through an environmental simulation, role playing or group work.

The Experience is provided by the activity. In the TLE™ model, activities are skillfully constructed to allow habitual or conditioned responses that are usually sub-conscious or beyond our awareness to come to the surface in a safe and fun environment.

The Debrief is the most critical part of successfully moving individuals and organizations forward with respect to developing new understandings and enhancing skills. During the debrief, participants are guided through a reconstructing of the activity in a manner which allows them to clearly observe their behaviors. During this process, participants are able to make an objective assessment to determine which of those behaviors were counter-productive to their success.

This observation is then related directly back to what occurs in the participants real life and how their results may be linked to their conditioned responses. New strategies and opportunities for skill development are introduced and are reinforced through more activity and practice.

The Process Continues as new understandings/skills are built by exposing layers of behaviors that are not getting the desired results and replacing them with new strategies. The process continues by adding the next level of experience/debrief after the initial step and continuing this process until the lessons and new skills are fully learned and ready to be integrated into real life.

Influences
The development of our unique Total Learning Environment™ model has been influenced by many sources, including the most current research in understanding the human brain and learning process, through to traditional physics and science-based research such as chaos theory and the work of R. Buckminster Fuller. The following list covers some of the specific bodies of work, as well as general categories of influence.

• Emotional Intelligence Research (Goleman/Cherniss/Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence)
• Chaos Theory
• Theory of Dissipative Structure (Ilya Prigogine)
• Reality Therapy (William Glasser, MD)
• Family Therapy Methodology (Virginia Satir)
• Neuro Linguistic Programming
• Synergetics of R. Buckminster Fuller
• 12º of Freedom - Stability in Universe (R. Buckminster Fuller, interpreted by Cheryl L. Clark)
• Choice Theory (William Glasser, MD)
• Accelerated Learning Methodology
• Total Quality Methodology (Edwards Demming)
• Quantum Learning Methodology (Bobbi DePorter)
• Superlearning (Giorgi Lasonov)
• MindStyles (Anthony Gregorc, PhD.)
• Learning Styles (Cynthia Ulrich Tobias)
• Non-Violent Communication (Marshall Rosenberg)
• Neural Linguistic Programming
• Methodology for Influencing with Integrity (Genie LaBorde)
• Thinking Strategies (Edward deBono)
• Brain Based Teaching (Eric Jensen)
• Quantuum Teaching (DePorter, Singer)
• Living Systems Theory
• Imaginal Education
• Yoga and Meditation
• Holistic Health
• Transactional Analysis
• Quality Schools (William Glasser, MD)
• Intrinsic Motivation Strategies (Alfie Kohn)

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