Bitesize Research: Cognitive Load Theory

By Conor Nesbitt

This week, we wanted to share with you the report from the New South Wales, Australia Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation on cognitive load that we’ve been reading in the WA Thinking Teachers group.

Objectives of study: To outline the key principles of cognitive load theory, and explain how the impact this may have on teachers.

Summary of findings:  

• Cognitive Load Theory is well founded on current research that shows two things about how we learn: (1) the amount of new knowledge we can learn (called our working memory) is limited and (2) how much of our stored or long term memory we can use at any one time is potentially limitless. 

• We store our long term memory in ‘schemas’. When completing tasks we use ‘schemas’ to reduce our cognitive loading (e.g. have you ever driven home and realised you can’t recall how you got there? -- this is our schema at work). 

• Teachers can help reduce cognitive load to help support students move learning from working memory to stored memory by reducing demand on working memory. 

• In order to stop cognitive overload teachers need to find the balance between too much challenge and too little that student attention is lost on other things. Incorporating “I do, we do, you do” modelling activities is effective in reducing extraneous loading. 

• Teachers should try to reduce students’ extraneous load by limiting the use of dual information streams (e.g. asking students to read and listen at the same time). Instead teachers could use dual-coding to support explanation. 

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

 

• How can we reduce extraneous load by reducing unnecessary and complicated tasks? (e.g. printing tasks on the same piece of paper, developing a clear success criteria for all writing in your subject). 

• How could you incorporate using “I, we, you do” modelling strategies when introducing new tasks to reduce cognitive load (especially in maths and science)? 

• How will you ensure that there is a release of responsibility to ensure cognitive demands aren’t too low? 

• How do we plan to incorporate retrieval and spacing to ensure students are using their stored memory in order to reduce demands on working memory?

A recording of the Thinking Teachers Group discussing this research can be found here:

If anyone would like to discuss this further with me - please comment below! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.