Imagine holding a ten-pound weight above your head. For many people, that’s pretty easy.
Now hold that weight for two minutes. Still possible but more challenging. Now hold it for
fifteen minutes. An hour. Two hours. Over time, even a small amount of weight grows unbearable.
Your muscles need rest and recovery.
Similarly, when we’re learning, our brains can only handle so much information before
needing a break. Dr. John Sweller coined the term “cognitive load”
to describe the amount of information working memory can hold in the moment
This is why you find yourself tuning out a lecture an hour into it. It’s also why you tend to forget
most information when you cram for a test, why you struggle with certain confusing diagrams,
and you might have a hard time with long, complicated verbal directions.
Cognitive Load Theory builds on Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model from information processing
theory. Here’s how it works - adapted from Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). We all
experience incoming information through our sensory memory.
Think of this as anything we see, touch, hear, smell,
and taste in the moment. Sensory memory is instantaneous and much of it is forgotten.
But some of the information moves to working memory. Working memory is what we are thinking
in the moment. Here, the information is either forgotten or moved into long-term
memory through a process called encoding, where the brain categorizes the information.
We can help ensure information moves from working memory to long-term memory through
a rehearsal process. If you’ve ever repeated a phone number over and over again to remember it,
or you’ve paraphrased information or put events in a sequence,
then you’ve engaged in a rehearsal process.
Later, your working memory can retrieve information
from long-term memory back into working memory.
More recently, Dr. Barbara Oakley, co-author of Uncommon Sense Teaching has introduced an
approach based on cognitive science to reduce cognitive load through retrieval practice. So,
how can we, as educators, reduce cognitive load?
Here are 4 big ideas.
#1 – Break up the instruction to give students
a chance to process the information at an individual and collaborative level.
You might do something like a think-pair-share
where students summarize what they learned or answer a critical thinking question.
Or students might jot down any question or write what they’re confused about.
They might pause to fill out a graphic organizer like a table or a flow chart.
When learning a new concept, students could add to a concept map,
summarize a key idea in a one-minute summary,
complete a Venn Diagram, or brainstorm examples.
When learning a new skill, you can break tasks down into parts.
Here students view a step in the process and practice it individually.
Afterward, you move to the next step and practice that step.
Then it continues for the remaining steps.
#2: Engage in brain breaks. In fitness, athletes often engage in interval training where they do
intense, focused exercise followed by a period of short rest and then focused exercise again.
Similarly, students will retain more information if they have
focused learning followed by short bursts of rest called brain breaks where the brain
can consolidate the information and make connections between ideas while they rest.
Brain breaks might include a short walk, a fun game,
a coordinated physical movement, or a quick divergent thinking challenge
#3: We can design our instructional materials to reduce the split attention effect.
The split attention effect occurs when students must
divide their attention between two sources of information like a diagram and a text.
So, when providing a diagram, place the text on the diagram itself instead below the diagram.
When giving directions, combine written and audio instructions and break the instruction
into bullet points or numbered lists. You might also use templates with clear visuals
to create a sense of predictability. When working on projects, you might use a general
blueprint or a to do list that students can use as they track their progress along the journey.
#4: Embrace active learning. This doesn’t mean students have
to be moving around the whole time. The key is being mentally active.
As Freeman (2014) puts it, “Active learning engages students in the process of learning
through activities and / or discussion in class, as opposed to passively listening to an expert.”
This often involves critical thinking questions, peer interaction, visualization techniques,
and opportunities to apply knowledge to case studies, problems, and projects.
As educators we can reduce cognitive load by implementing these simple strategies. Over time,
these small tweaks can make a huge difference in the life-long learning of our students.