Autumn week 2

Induction tutor materials

Training session - cognitive load and implications for teaching practice

Duration: 90 minutes

Session objectives

Learn that:

2.1. Learning involves a lasting change in pupils’ capabilities or understanding.
2.3. An important factor in learning is memory, which can be thought of as comprising two elements: working memory and long-term memory.
2.4. Working memory is where information that is being actively processed is held, but its capacity is limited and can be overloaded.
2.5. Long-term memory can be considered as a store of knowledge that changes as pupils learn by integrating new ideas with existing knowledge.

Learn how to:

Avoid overloading working memory, by:

2a. Taking into account pupils’ prior knowledge when planning how much new information to introduce.
2b. Breaking complex material into smaller steps (for example, using partially completed examples to focus pupils on the specific steps).
2c. Reducing distractions that take attention away from what is being taught (for example, keeping the complexity of a task to a minimum, so that attention is focused on the content).

How to prepare for the session

The ECT doesn’t have a self-study element this week. Instead, you should use the materials below to help you plan a session with them about this topic.

The following resources have key findings that you might find helpful. You could share them with ECTs for reference too:

Session structure

What is cognitive load theory (5 to 10 minutes)

Welcome ECTs to the session. Explain that the purpose of the session is to gain a greater understanding of cognitive load theory and its relationship to classroom practice. You’ll also explore how to design lessons and tasks that apply cognitive load theory to help pupils learn.

Ask ECTs to:

think about what they already know about cognitive load theory (they may have already read the self-directed study materials)
tell their partner what they know

Ask for a few volunteers to share what they know. Encourage people to share if they have very little prior knowledge, as this will help you to tailor the rest of the session.

Cognitive architecture - how does the mind work? (25 to 30 minutes)

Explain that to understand how the mind works, we need to consider the relationship between the working memory (WM) and the long-term memory (LTM).

Show Daniel T. Willingham’s model of cognitive processes.

Focus on the environment and how the mind interacts with it.

Explain that:

the environment is full of stimuli that we can hear or see (such as smells that trigger memories or problems to solve)
we pay attention (a limited resource) to some stimuli and not others: how do we select?
we often pay attention to things we’ve experienced before or are familiar with
we sometimes pay attention to something new or that we’re curious about

Key learning point: This is why assessing prior knowledge is so important in the classroom. New learning builds on prior knowledge.

Now focus on the working memory (WM).

Explain that:

this is the site of awareness or consciousness where we try and process new information
it's thought to be able to process sounds and images simultaneously
it can also access information from the long-term memory (LTM), which is seen as an infinite storehouse of factual knowledge (the what) and procedural knowledge (the how)

Ask, which country has won the Eurovision song contest more times than any other?

The answer is: Ireland.

Once the answer has been given, ask if anyone was thinking about the Eurovision song contest before the question was asked. They were probably not. But when the question was asked, the information was held in the WM and the LTM was also accessed.

If the person knew the answer, then that information was stored in their LTM. You may have been able to hazard a guess because you know some of the past winners, and it’s likely to be a country in Europe. This shows the interaction between the WM and LTM.

Explain that learning takes place when a change occurs in the LTM. This means there is a lasting change in pupils’ capabilities and understanding, but new material will be processed in the WM. This is where material from the LTM and the environment combine to make new connections and deepen understanding.

Ask ECTs to share some examples of things that they’ve learnt and are now in their long-term memory.

Examples might include learning:

to play an instrument
to drive
a new language

Then ask:

how did they know it was in their long-term memory?
how often did they have to practise or see the knowledge before they learnt it?
do they remember learning and the levels of concentration that were needed?

They will have known it was in their long-term memory because they can easily recall the skill or knowledge. It’s now just something they can do.

When they were still learning, they needed to process a lot more in the WM, which made them slower, or meant they made mistakes and forgot things.

Share the characteristics of WM:

limited capacity
temporary store of information
distraction can empty it
retrieves relevant information from the LTM
able to process visual and auditory information simultaneously
small variations in capacity between individuals
younger children and older adults may have less WM

Remove access to the list of characteristics. Ask ECTs to work alone and write down the different characteristics they remember.

Now ask them to work in pairs or groups to see how many they can remember together.

Share the list of characteristics and check how many they remembered.

Draw out 2 key points:

by asking them to recall the information, they’re more likely to remember it than if you just asked them to listen and read
it's unlikely that they remembered all the characteristics because the information was still in their WM, it has not travelled to their LTM yet

Ask ECTs to work in pairs or small groups to discuss how they could use these characteristics of WM to plan their lessons.

Encourage them to focus on specific features of WM. What could that mean for pupils? What might ECTs need to do differently?

Share ideas as a group. For example, if you know:

pupils have limited WM capacity, do not present large chunks of information all at once
WM is a temporary store for information, encourage pupils to write down their working so they do not forget the steps they took
distraction can empty the WM, reduce distractions by maintaining a calm classroom

Practical example of cognitive overload: Ask ECTs: what’s 13 x 7?

Ask ECTs to put their hands up when they have the answer (which is 91).

Then ask how they worked out the answer.

Some ECTs might say they did 12 x 7 and then added 7. Some might not be able to do it under pressure.

If you were a maths teacher or primary teacher asking pupils to solve these questions, there may be too many things for some of the pupils to think about at one time.

If someone finds that the task is too hard, it’s likely that the WM was overloaded. This just demonstrates that without prior knowledge to rely on (in this case, knowing multiplication by heart) problem solving becomes harder and might lead to cognitive overload.

Share the following points to describe LTM:

infinite capacity
learning is a change in LTM
organises knowledge and skills into schema
experts have a more complex schema than novices
experts make links to prior knowledge and use information quickly, making them good at problem solving
novices may find learning is more effortful, making cognitive overload more likely: this has implications for teaching
at the beginning of a topic, learning will be more effortful, and will require more teacher input

Explain that LTM is limitless, and learning is caused by a change in the LTM. We make that change by teaching.

Knowledge and skills are thought to be stored in the LTM in schemas.

When we think about something, a schema is retrieved and brought to mind in the WM. Once it has been brought to mind, the rest of the schema follows.

Experts have a more fully formed schema than novices. This means that less of the WM is used to solve new problems because they’re referencing ones they’ve experienced before.

A novice has an incomplete schema, meaning that learning is more effortful and they’re more likely to experience cognitive overload. Learning is harder in the early stages of a topic and requires more teacher input. But as expertise increases, teacher input can be reduced.

Ask ECTs to work in pairs or small groups to discuss how they can use the characteristics of LTM to plan their lessons.

Encourage them to focus on specific features of LTM. What could that mean for pupils? What might ECTs need to do differently?

Share ideas as a group. You might add that:

using retrieval practice strategies, such as low stakes quizzing, can support the formation of memories
forgetting is an important part of the learning process
partially forgetting and then remembering (through something like low stakes quizzing) also strengthens the learning process

What is cognitive load theory? (5 minutes)

Share these 2 definitions:

"The cognitive load involved in a task is the cognitive effort (or amount of information processing) required by a person to perform this task." Reif, 2010

"Cognitive load theory aims to explain how the information processing load induced by learning tasks can affect students’ ability to process new information and to construct knowledge in long-term memory." Sweller, 2017

Ask ECTs what they understand cognitive load theory to be based on these quotes.

Prompts include:

Sweller’s cognitive load theory took into consideration the characteristics of WM and LTM to suggest methods of instructional design that take advantage of the cognitive architecture of the mind and can optimise learning
Reif talks about the cognitive effort involved in a task: WM has a limited capacity and it’s easy for a learner to become overwhelmed

Introducing germane, intrinsic and extrinsic load (10 min)

Explain that Sweller identified 3 types of cognitive load and understood that these can support the planning of lessons.

They are:

intrinsic load - this relates to the complexity of the material itself
extraneous load - the undesirable load that can hinder learning, which relates to how subject material is presented
germane load - the desirable load where mental resources are processing information and building new schemas

It might be useful to share this table:

Type of cognitive load	Source	Effect on learning
Intrinsic load	The inherent complexity of the material and the prior knowledge of the learner	Necessary to learning (but potentially harmful if too high, because it can cause cognitive overload)
Extraneous load	Poorly designed instruction that does not facilitate schema construction and automation	Harmful because it does not contribute to learning
Germane load	Well-designed instruction that directly facilitates schema construction and automation	Helpful because it directly contributes to learning

Share the split attention effect eye diagrams as an example of reducing extraneous load.

Explain that the first diagram presents information in a way that creates extraneous cognitive load. Our eyes need to scan back and forth to relate the information to the relevant points on the diagram.

The second diagram conveys the information better by placing it where it’s needed. This reduces cognitive load because the learner does not have to process 2 pieces of information simultaneously.

Ask ECTs if the second diagram could be improved further? Ideas could include adding numbers or letters to show order the information should be read in.

Explain that the second diagram is an example of germane cognitive load.

The definition of germane load has recently been updated because the original definition was unfalsifiable.

Think of it as the load placed on the WM that leads to learning.

Relate this back to teaching by explaining that ECTs need to manage the intrinsic load by:

breaking a subject down into manageable chunks (but not too small to avoid making learning boring)
recognising that prior knowledge must be taken into account

ECTs must minimise the extraneous load by avoiding:

lengthy explanations
distracting content
multiple un-related examples

By doing these things the ECT is more likely to maximise the germane load, meaning the process of learning will lead to the formation of long-term memories.

What this looks like in the classroom (15 minutes)

Share the following example of a set of peer observation notes from a Year 6 Religious Education lesson.

Peer observation notes: 10 February 2020

Y6 Religious Education

Focus: The Ten Commandments

Big question: why do the Ten Commandments appear in both the Bible and the Jewish Torah?

As I arrive, pupils are reading through what looks like a difficult text on the early Christians with the teacher. As they read, pupils put up their hands to ask you some thoughtful questions about how early Christians used sacred writings.

I notice you are using terms such as “faith”, “scripture”, “sacred text”, and “worship”. I also notice that pupils are using these in their questions. You have thought about some new terms: “Early Christians” and ”Sabbath” and you give examples of these in sentences.

The class then watches a two-minute film clip on the 10 Commandments and why they are in both the Bible and the Jewish Torah - again some of the terms explored in the previous activity are used in the film clip.

You then remind pupils of the big question (which was also at the end of film clip) and set an activity where pupils are asked to get into pairs and together create a perfect paragraph that answers the question, using ideas from the reading and the film.

Pupils settle quickly to the task - I notice they are using the film and text to help them frame their answers - but they are also looking back at relevant work from previous lessons in their exercise books as they write their answers. They are also drawing on their memory.

When I look round at their writing, I can see that they are all answering the question and their writing is using terms from the clip, for example “scriptures” and “worship”.

Pupils put up their hands to ask you more about how early Christians used their sacred writings: you give some key information which they listen to carefully and then use meaningfully in their writing.

When I ask pupils about their work, pupils answer confidently, explaining the story of Moses and linking this to stories from other faiths, looking in their books for the information. I can see they are drawing on previous learning. The pupils say that some sections are hard, but you have explained it and it’s giving them lots of interesting details to include in their writing.

When we spoke after this lesson, I asked you some questions about their planning. You explained you had analysed the film clip and then planned the sequence of lessons to make sure the pupils could answer well.

You wanted to ensure that the pupils had a really firm grasp of the knowledge needed to understand the clip. You said you also make sure pupils repeatedly encounter and use their religious terms so that these are really familiar. You explained that the pupils were revisiting and referencing previous learning on the faiths they had covered in previous lessons.

You also explained that this is part of a planned sequence of lessons for RE which make sure that teachers have identified the key learning which leads up to the writing activity and that pupils can identify the knowledge from earlier topics so that they can answer the question.

In the medium-term plan the department identifies the most crucial things that they want people to know and that they have planned recall activities into their lessons so that these key things are not forgotten.

Pair work

Ask ECTs to work in pairs to read through the notes and discuss how the teacher has made effective choices. They should consider the following:

the sequence of learning that most enables learning
the pedagogy that reduces the load on working memory
how to help pupils transfer the learning to the LTM
how does the teacher manage intrinsic load, minimise extraneous load and maximise germane load?
what strategies did this teacher use?
how successful were they?

Minimising extraneous load (20 minutes)

Explain that the next part of the session will be looking at some high impact, low-time cost strategies that can be used to reduce the burden on the WM to allow more processing of information.

This quote may be useful to share:

“Extraneous cognitive load should be minimised so that learners can allocate working memory resources (in other words, germane resources) to dealing with intrinsic cognitive load and engage in learning” Leppink, van Gog, Paas & Sweller 2015

Explain that ECTs need to consider minimising extraneous load when they plan lessons.

They can do this by minimising the need for pupils to process unnecessary information that does not contribute to learning.

ECTs should avoid:

giving overly complex instructions
loading slides with too much text or too many images
talking while displaying slides with a lot of text to read

Attention is a limited resource. The WM is good at processing visual and auditory information, but it will become overloaded if a slide is also text heavy.

ECTs should:

cut out inessential information
present essential information together
simplify complex information by presenting it both orally and visually

Ask ECTs to work in small groups to design a slide or an activity on any topic. It should take into account at least one of the strategies above.

Feedback and next steps (5 minutes)

Ask ECTs to share and discuss the slides or activities that they designed.

Allow time for ECTs to share their reflections on this session, and to plan what they’re going to implement in their teaching.

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