Newsletter – 05 March 2021

Today I am going to give you an overview of Cognitive Load Theory, which emerged from the field of educational psychology in the 1980s and 1990s. At its core are two key concepts:

1. There is a limit to how much new information the brain can process at once; and
2. There are no known limits to how much stored information can be processed at one time.

This theory has significant implications for all types of learning and for all ages. Essentially, to help new learning stick, we need to avoid asking learners to do too many new things at once. Too much becomes ‘cognitive overload’ – the brain simply can’t process and apply all the new learning at the same time.

This theory explains why children may forget to add full stops or capital letters when working hard to develop and record their ideas in writing OR why reading comprehension suffers if children have to work super hard to decode the text. This doesn’t mean that students can’t learn and practice both skills – we just can’t expect them to do multiple new things well at the same time. Once new learning becomes embedded in our long term memory, the cognitive load is reduced and people are able to use these skills and knowledge automatically. For example, by the time children reach mid and upper primary, they can automatically spell and punctuate correctly while composing their writing. Young children find it difficult to do all this at once.

Being mindful of ‘cognitive overload’, RGLPS teachers try to allow students time to practice and understand new learning so it can be stored in their long term memories. This includes asking children to read a ‘good fit’ book so they are not so cognitively overwhelmed with decoding the text that they lose meaning. When children are just learning to write and record their ideas, teachers don’t place excessive emphasis on correct spelling, punctuation or handwriting. This can become the learning focus after the ideas have been recorded. Similarly in maths, we build up to multi-step mathematics problems such as calculating a total in money and giving change.

Hopefully, this summary provides some insight into why it is important to slow down and not ask learners to do too much at once. We want learners to be able to confidently take new learning on board, rather than crumple under the pressure of doing too many new things at once.