A fascinating and yet easily misunderstood area of research is cognitive load theory. Our brains are set up with systems to retain and use vast amounts of knowledge, and yet they all have systems to reject as much unnecessary knowledge in order to conserve energy. By understanding brain functions as delineated in cognitive load theory, we can apply certain strategies aimed at effective learning. In this article we will set out the theory in basic terms and provide some practices that you can use in the classroom.

Cognitive Load Theory in a Nutshell

Our brains are high efficiency machines. They consume a lot of calories to do things like see in color, plan for the future and organize complex systems of information. If you’ve ever put in the effort to learn a new language, you can literally feel the energy your brain is consuming. For me, there’s a special kind of tired that goes with learning something new. The brain does a lot of work to manage its energy consumption by doing a lot of work up front to discard much of what it deems unnecessary. And this is what has lead to the conceptualization of cognitive load theory.

John Sweller, an educational psychologist at the University of New South Wales, originally launched his understanding of cognitive load theory in the 1980s. The idea is that instructional design should conform to the contours of the brain’s process of information gathering and information storing. In essence, the brain uses working memory to temporarily store information before moving the information it wants to keep into long-term memory. Studies have shown that working memory is quite limited in terms of the amount of information it can hold at one time. If the goal is to get the highest value information into long-term memory, then one has to deal with the limitations of working memory.

Alongside the model of information processing is the idea of perceived mental effort. The amount of effort it takes to get pieces of information into the working memory slots can tax the energy of the learner. For instance, if a student has, say, five slots available in their working memory and the teacher intends to have the class learn five pieces of information, there’s a good match between the effort it will take to get those pieces of information into the working memory slots. However, if there are other stimuli vying for attention, this can interfere with the slots available in the learner’s working memory. Obviously, a distracting environment with stimulating colors and noisy classmates can cause this kind of interference. Yet, even accounting for this, there are other kinds of interference based simply on the way the information is presented. If a learner has to expend energy just to sort out the information from the context it is embedded in, the energy stores of the learner may be depleted before ever putting the information into the working memory slots.

This kind of information gathering effort is referred to as cognitive load. Theorists break cognitive load into three categories: intrinsic, extraneous and germane. Intrinsic load pertains to the level of challenge associated with any given subject being learned. For instance, a math problem has its own intrinsic cognitive load due to the effort it takes to calculate each step. Extraneous cognitive load amounts to any aspects that are irrelevant to the thing being learned. Factors that contribute to extraneous load are poor layout of information, confusing explanations, distracting environments, topics that are tangential, and so forth. Some of these factors are unavoidable, but a teacher who can identify causes of extraneous load can help navigate a student towards the most pertinent topic at hand. Germane cognitive load has to do with the process of moving information into long-term memory by way of the working memory slots available. We could think of this as the neurons at work inside the brain.

There are two take aways from this very basic overview of cognitive load theory. First, when we are working with learners, the more we understand the pathway to long-term memory by way of working memory, we can begin to work with the brain instead of fighting against it. Simply knowing that working memory only has a few slots available makes us that much more aware of what it is we are trying to get into the young person’s brain.

Second, we need to come to grips with different kinds of effort. We should not be afraid of effort or challenge. In fact, as we will see below, we ought to be challenging our students because this is the pathway to growth. Instead, we need to be choosy about what kinds of effort we place in front of our students. It’s the old adage that we need to work smarter, not harder. Some educators who get fixated on the concept of “rigor” have difficulty with this. The perception that students are working hard meets the criteria of “rigor,” but we need to evaluate whether we are accepting wasted effort under the guise of “hard work.”

Reducing Effort through Chunking

The mind can only hold a few pieces of information at once in working memory. Some people with extremely adept working memory can hold up to seven pieces of information, but most people can only hold on average four pieces of information. In Uncommon Sense Teaching, the authors advise using “chunking” to compensate for the limitation of working memory:

“Most students can hold a maximum of four pieces of information in working memory at a time. When working memory can’t keep up, students shut down and tune out. Instead, break your content and skills into bite-size, digestible chunks.” (243)

Let’s illustrate this with a diagram. In the following diagram, the number of blocks is difficult to apprehend.

But with a simple reorganization of the blocks, we can chunk the information so that it is easy to know how many blocks there are.

You can easily see four groups of three blocks plus a group of two blocks to make fourteen blocks in total. The number of blocks didn’t change, but our ability to easily see a pattern did change. You may have felt the difference in mental effort trying to count the first disorganized set and the relative ease with which the “chunked” set could be counted.

Now think about other areas of knowledge from foreign language vocabulary words to scientific terms. If a student perceives these things as a disorganized set of random factoids, they have to spend an inordinate amount of mental effort to “push” this information into their heads. There is no “hook” to hang these things on. It feels arbitrary and that some amount of luck goes into retaining certain pieces of information. But if the student can have the information reorganized or “chunked” so that related concepts are linked together and attached to already known concepts, then there is far less organizational effort, and therefore all the brain effort can be allocated to assimilating the information.

There are two approaches to consider with chunking. The first approach is the teacher-chunked delivery method. This is particularly helpful when something is accessed for the first time. For those using a narration-based lesson plan, the “first little talk” is an excellent time to chunk concepts, lowering the barrier to access for what is about to be read and narrated. The second approach is the student-chunked receiving method. Here we teach students how to break things down. Helping students take something that might seem disorganized and reorganize it for themselves helps them to practice a skill that will enhance their future learning.

Good Effort, Bad Effort

One of the common misconceptions about cognitive load theory is that learners should not experience cognitive effort. This could not be further from the truth. Instead, we should think about how to maximize the effort of learning, distinguishing good effort from bad effort. We might think to ourselves after assigning fifty new vocabulary words that the effort being put in is automatically worthwhile because we want our students to learn how to meet rigorous challenges. However, if we haven’t put in the work ourselves to differentiate the types of effort that need to be put into the task of learning, then we might have just assigned a lot of bad effort, creating massive inefficiencies in student learning.

To get at this, we need to think about our goals. What is the aim we are looking for in learning this set of new vocabulary words? We might say it is to have good recall of the meaning of these words with the ability to use them regularly in the activities we will be doing over the next several weeks. Notice that the goal is not to spend hours pouring over a list of random words. If student effort is devoted to this latter goal, the student puts in maximal effort reading and rereading a list of words with low retention and usefulness. They experience frustration because they don’t have a sense of what this all means in the grand scheme of things. A wise teacher, though, understands that the goal is good recall and usefulness. So she puts in some initial work on behalf of the students to help group vocabulary words by way of synonyms, antonyms, common parts of speech, cognates, etc. The initial work that organizes the raw list into comprehensible units paves the pathway for students to put in more effective work when they review their vocabulary. In the coming classes, the teacher builds in practice not through rote memorization of the words, but by cuing these word groups, by asking for mnemonic devices, or by having them illustrate and act out the new vocabulary words. Their effort is directed towards the goal, making the effort highly productive and therefore more satisfying to the learner.

So, we are not talking about learning without effort. We are talking about learning with the best possible effort while eliminating as much as possible non-productive effort. Think of this as finding the pathway to cognitive efficiency. With this in mind, we can borrow from the world of high performance to consider what effective practice looks like. We could think of athletics or music in this sphere. When an athlete practices their running stride, free throw, or golf swing, doing lots and lots of practice without consideration of technique and correct form will only reinforce bad habits. The same goes for a musician working on the fingering of a difficult passage. Careful, slow progression on the most difficult sequences is how top musicians improve. It’s all about focused practice to improve the weakest areas and then deliberate concentration on high quality repetitions. This is challenging, but notice how it is efficient effort.

Effort-full Learning

Top athletes and musicians are able to perform actions marked by beauty, grace and elegance. It looks effortless. Behind these performances are hours of effort-full practice. Returning to the learning environment, we can model cognitive effort on insights gained from the world of high performance. We actually want our students to engage in effort-full activities that grow their capacity to know and think. Let’s explore a four approaches that can be used in the classical classroom.

First, we want to read the best books possible. Most of the best books have certain challenges in them, whether it is the complexity of the plot, density of language or philosophical ideas that require deep thinking. Charlotte Mason suggests that these books should be a feast of ideas that delight the reader and are deeply interesting. And yet there ought to be some heavy lifting involved as well. Think of the weightlifter who needs to consider how to maximize intensity by choosing a heavier load or additional reps. When thinking about cognitive load theory, we actually want there to be a good dose of intrinsic load in order to enhance the brain effort that will help the learner’s mind grow. And yet, we must clear away any extraneous load that would get in the way of the reader accessing the rich ideas in the text. Here I think of the “little talk” we train teachers to use in a narration-based lesson. The little talk is there to increase interest as well as clear any hurdles that might hinder the reader from making full use of the text. It is not about no-effort reading, but instead reading that is optimizing quality effort.

Second, coach students in what effective learning looks like. This gets into concepts of metacognition, where the learner understands for themselves how they learn. They can be introduced to effective strategies so that they choose for themselves processes that they find most effective in knowing and using what they learn in class. Take the idea of chunking in this article. This is a skill that can be learned and coached. Help students find patterns for themselves. Give them feedback and do debriefs where they work towards mastery in learning strategies.

Third, deliberate practice is a necessary condition of high performance. Therefore, we need to not be afraid of effort and challenge in our classrooms. Yes, we want to eliminate as much extraneous cognitive load as possible. However, our minds and bodies respond positively to challenging stimulus. The authors of Make It Stick spell this out beautifully when they write, “The effort and persistence of deliberate practice remodel the brain and physiology to accommodate higher performance” (184). In fact, what they advise is devising particular kinds of challenge to force the brain to encounter effort to enhance learning. These practices can be summarized with the phrases spaced practice, interleaved practice and retrieval practice. Each of these practices gives the brain a challenge to overcome the mechanism of dropping information out of working memory. By connecting to material in these ways, you are giving your brain opportunities to move information from working memory to long term memory. The authors of Make It Stick conclude their chapter where they introduce deliberate practice by stating, “It comes down to the simple but not less profound truth that effortful learning changes the brain, building new connections and capability” (199).

Finally, narration as a deliberate practice is one of the most effective and efficient ways to maximize attention and effort. A narration lesson is structured to eliminate extraneous cognitive load through the “first little talk” by simultaneously stimulating interest and by clearing any hurdles in what is about to be read. Then the reading of the text occurs in a manageable amount, what Mason called “an episode”—the ideal amount to pay attention well while also having some amount of challenge involved. Then the learner retells without looking, recalling what has just been read. This kind of challenge exercises working memory and gives an initial stimulus to start moving that knowledge into long-term memory storage. Narration is a pedagogical instrument that works well across the curriculum and can be utilized as an operating system to stimulate the effortful learning described in Make It Stick.

Bring the practice of narration to your school by having one of our trainers work with your faculty. Visit our consultation page to learn more and schedule your free 90-minute meeting to discuss how we can help your school achieve excellence.

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