Applied Scholastics · LRH Study Technology
Teaching Children How to Learn
What is Study Technology?
A Proven Educational Methodology Used in 73 Nations
Study Technology (also known as Study Tech) is a secular educational methodology developed by American author, humanitarian, and educator L. Ron Hubbard. It is the only comprehensive study methodology that identifies the specific causes of learning difficulties and provides practical, workable solutions to each one.
Study Technology is used by Applied Scholastics International — a non-profit educational organisation that has helped over 68 million people in 73 nations improve their ability to learn, study, and apply knowledge.
At Education Alive, Study Technology is not an add-on programme — it is the foundation of how we teach. Every teacher is trained in Study Tech via the APS checksheet programme, and every student learns the tools of Study Tech through our structured workshops.
The Core of Study Technology
The Three Barriers to Study
L. Ron Hubbard identified three specific barriers that prevent students from truly understanding and applying what they study. Understanding these barriers — and knowing how to overcome them — is the foundation of Study Technology.
The First Barrier
Absence of Mass
When a student is studying something that should have mass — a physical object or activity — but they only have words and symbols, learning becomes abstract and difficult. The student may feel tired, feel their eyes going out of focus, or develop a headache. The solution is to provide the mass: use physical objects, models, or demonstrations to make the subject real.
Solution Applied at Education Alive
Clay demonstrations, physical models, real-world objects
The Second Barrier
Too Steep a Gradient
A student who encounters a subject or action that is too steep a gradient — too big a jump from what they already know — will experience confusion and a feeling of being overwhelmed. They may feel 'dopey' or 'blank.' The solution is to go back to the point where the student was doing well and work forward more gradually.
Solution Applied at Education Alive
Step-by-step progression, returning to the last point of certainty
The Third — and Most Important — Barrier
The Misunderstood Word
A word or symbol that is not understood, or is wrongly understood, will cause the student to feel blank, feel a 'not there' feeling, or feel a sudden urge to leave the subject entirely. This is the most important barrier to study. The solution is word clearing — finding the misunderstood word and looking it up in a dictionary until it is fully understood.
Solution Applied at Education Alive
Word clearing, dictionary use, contextual understanding
Student Workshops
"Learning How to Learn" — The Student Checksheet
Every student at Education Alive completes the LRH "Learning How to Learn" checksheet — a structured programme that teaches students to identify and overcome the three barriers to study. This is not a one-time lesson; it is a practical, hands-on workshop that gives students tools they will use for the rest of their lives.
The checksheet format — a step-by-step guide to mastering a subject — is itself a Study Technology tool. Students learn by doing, not just by reading. They use clay to demonstrate concepts, look up words in dictionaries, and work through examples until they have genuine understanding.
Teacher Training
APS Checksheet Training for All Educators
Education Alive is licensed by Applied Scholastics International to deliver the APS teacher training checksheet programme on-site. This means that every teacher at our school — new and experienced alike — can complete their Study Technology training as part of their professional development at Education Alive.
Teachers who have completed the APS checksheet programme understand exactly how to identify which barrier a struggling student is encountering, and how to help them resolve it quickly. This transforms the classroom dynamic: instead of a student being labelled as "slow" or "difficult," the teacher has the tools to find the real cause of the difficulty and fix it.
Our Licensing Partner
Applied Scholastics International
Applied Scholastics International is a non-profit educational organisation that makes Study Technology available to schools, tutoring centres, and literacy programmes worldwide. Education Alive is an officially licensed APS school — one of a select group of schools in South Africa authorised to use the Applied Scholastics name and methodology.
The Founder of Study Technology
L. Ron Hubbard — American Author, Humanitarian & Educator
The life of American author and educator L. Ron Hubbard reflects his deep and abiding dedication to education. Throughout his life he sought to help others learn — continually probing to discover the factors that made learning a challenge, and seeking solutions to those barriers. Ultimately this led to his systematic research into the problems of study and learning, and to his development of the thoroughly revolutionary techniques called Study Technology.
As the son of a United States naval officer, Mr. Hubbard had an unusual early education. In his youth he travelled extensively throughout the United States, the Far East, and the South Pacific — and even as a young man, he took a strong interest in the process of education, teaching Chamorro children on the island of Guam in 1928. By the age of 19, in days when no transcontinental flights existed, he had covered a quarter of a million miles, exploring life in Manchuria, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India.
While attending George Washington University — enrolled in early nuclear physics classes — Mr. Hubbard organised and led two expeditions to the Caribbean. He was elected a member of the prestigious Explorers Club. He later became one of the most prominent literary figures of his time, writing popular novels and novelettes across some thirty-five publications.
Through instruction and lectures to thousands of his students in the 1950s and early 1960s, he found among them the same educational maladies afflicting the rest of the world — declining literacy standards, an inability of students to grasp and apply material learned, and a decreasing retention of knowledge. He set about to research what the primary barriers to learning are and to develop remedies to those barriers as the key to unlock education for students from all walks of life.
He firmly believed that true education was not a matter of memorisation and the learning of abstract theory, but rather of learning how to acquire and use knowledge in the pursuit of one's goals.
"The end and goal of any society, as it addresses the problem of education, is to raise the ability, the initiative and the cultural level, and with all these, the survival level of that society. And when a society forgets any one of these things it is destroying itself by its own educational mediums."
Study Technology is based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard. The name L. Ron Hubbard, the L. Ron Hubbard signature, and the Applied Scholastics name and logo are trademarks and service marks owned by the Religious Technology Center (RTC) and are used with its permission.
Key Facts About L. Ron Hubbard
His View on Education
Mr. Hubbard declared: "Stress the right of the individual to select only what he desires to know, to use any knowledge as he wishes, that he himself owns what he has learned."
This philosophy — that education should empower the individual, not constrain them — is at the heart of how Education Alive approaches every student's learning journey.
The mission of Applied Scholastics is to make Study Technology available throughout the world. L. Ron Hubbard's discoveries and developments in education and learning have placed quality education within the reach of any person who desires it.
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