A Load on the Mind

A LOAD ON THE MIND

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY

STEVE GARNETT Author, Teacher, Facilitator, Dragonfly Senior Trainer

Iremember very clearly what I was thinking when I read a tweet that Professor Dylan Wiliam posted on 26 January 2017, a tweet that made a pretty emphatic claim incidentally!

“I’ve come to the conclusion Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory is the single most important thing that teachers should know”

What I was thinking was quite simple: “I have absolutely no idea what that is!”.

I spend my professional life working with teachers on all aspects of trying to improve the learning experience for pupils they teach. Over the last 12-15 years this has extended to over 30 countries around the world. When I count up the number of workshops and whole school/whole staff professional development sessions I have run, the number of teachers I have delivered training to must have extended to over 15,000 quite easily.

The point to this is that, up until the Dylan Wiliam tweet, the concept of Cognitive Load Theory never, ever came up in terms of a question raised when training teachers, never came up within a wider more general conversation related to aspects of pedagogy nor was it ever requested as a focus for training.

In short my view was that whilst I certainly had no idea about Cognitive Load Theory, teachers, working in the primary and secondary sectors, whether state or independent, as well as international schools across the world, had no idea either.

So when a claim as emphatic as this is made about Cognitive Load Theory I felt I should not only find out what it was all about (almost for my own sake!), but more importantly, put this new knowledge I gained together so that busy teachers could use this knowledge to improve the learning experience of their own pupils.

Q: WHERE DID COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY ORIGINATE?

Emeritus Professor John Sweller (University of New South Wales, Australia) conceived the theory of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and published a paper in the journal ‘Cognitive Science - A Multidisciplinary Journal (Vol 12, Issue 2) in April 1988. Sweller himself says that after this, his work was then largely ignored for the next twenty years!. So it’s clear from the timing of Dylan Wiliam’s ‘tweet’ that it had remained a theory largely confined to narrow academic fields and certainly not within the thinking of a normal classroom teacher.

His theory was used to generate hypotheses that were tested using randomised controlled trials. CLT rests on a base of hundreds of randomised controlled trials testing many thousands of primary and secondary school children as well as adults.

CLT can be described as something of a ‘moving target’ in the sense that it has been constantly evolving and updating itself since those early years in the late 1980s (see the timeline of major developments in CLT later).

Q: WHAT WAS SWELLER’S ‘BIG IDEA’?

Sweller’s big idea is that the brain has a very specific system for processing the learning of new or novel ‘domain specific biologically secondary knowledge’, in other words the knowledge that schools are tasked with passing on.

Once a teacher understands how this system works, the teacher can improve the quality of instruction a pupil receives. If the teacher doesn’t understand the system the brain uses to process this new learning then the quality of learning is hampered.

This is why Sweller describes CLT as an ‘instructional theory’ so by understanding it, teachers will be better able to deliver better quality lessons.

There are two major components in Sweller’s system: Working Memory and Long Term Memory.

Q: WHAT ARE THE ISSUES TEACHERS NEED TO BE AWARE OF IN WORKING MEMORY?

Sweller says that the working memory is the part of the brain that processes what we are currently doing and thinking. If what we are currently thinking and doing is completely new or ‘novel’ then we can only deal with a finite amount of information at one time. It is too easily overloaded.

Essentially the working memory acts as a ‘gatekeeper’ to new learning.

The implications for a classroom teacher then are clear. When teaching a class of pupils a new topic or skill then the teacher must be aware both of the limitations of the working memory, and also how it functions, because it is this part of the brain that will be attending to all the new learning the pupils are receiving.

Sweller is really clear on the implications of working memory limitations:

‘The implications of working memory limitations on instructional design can hardly be overestimated ... Anything beyond the simplest cognitive activities appear to overwhelm working memory. Prima facie, any instructional design that flouts or merely ignores working memory limitations inevitably is deficient.’

The absolute key for all teachers is that they need to be aware of the effects (some desirable and others undesirable) that all impact on working memory resources (listed in the table below - please click below to open a PDF version).

SWELLER’S COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY

The topic of CLT has become one of the most popular INSET requests that schools are making to us. If you are interested in hearing more about this course and all about what teachers do in their classrooms to embed CLT then please contact Mary Chapman who is our International Director and co-ordinates all international Inset.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Garnett is an award nominated author and has been a teacher for 29 years. He has delivered INSET for Dragonfly Training to over 12,000 teachers in the last ten years across the UK and Ireland as well as Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and the Far East, too.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://csjarchive.cogsci.rpi.edu/1988v12/i02/ p0257p0285/main.pdf

https://link.springer.com/ article/10.1023%2FA%3A1022193728205

ABOUT DRAGONFLY

With almost 20 years experience as a successful international provider of CPD across all types of schools, Dragonfly have established an excellent reputation as a highly reliable provider of engaging, interactive, inspiring and practical training across the globe.

We deliver bespoke training as well as ready-to-go courses in schools of all sizes and contexts, for Secondary staff, Primary staff or Early Years staff, as well as all staff together. Many schools choose to bring our trainer over for a few days to make is as cost-effective as possible. You can view our case studies to get an idea of our varied programmes or contact us to discuss your bespoke requirements.

We are delighted to now be partnering with ECIS to deliver several ECIS accredited courses on Securing Success for EAL Students in the Mainstream Classroom, Effective Differentiation and Awe & Wonder in the Early Years Classroom, as well as the ‘Teaching Essentials’ programme for Teaching Assistants and those without an internationally recognised QTS or for Teaching Assistants.

Please do get in touch if you have any training requirements. +44 (0)29 20 711 787 or email: Mary Chapman our International Director on: mary@dragonfly-training.co.uk Gail Hewett our International In-school Training Co-ordinator on: gail@dragonfly-training.co.uk