Cognitive Load Theory In Practice
Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) suggests that our we have three different areas of load on our brain when learning something new. These are the intrinsic load (the difficulty of the task for the individual), the extraneous load (the load put on the brain by factors not relevant to the material being learned) and the germane load (the load place on the brain to encode the new memories into long term memory). In brief, CLT suggests we want to reduce the first two types of load so as to increase the possibility of successful encoding (or learning).
Dan has previously written a blog post about the theory of CLT (http://markhamtl.wixsite.com/teaching-learning/single-post/2017/09/25/Cognitive-Load-Theory-Research-that-teachers-really-need-to-understand), which includes links to two articles that delve into the specifics in more depth.
In this post we are each going to briefly explain what we have done in our classroom based on our learning about CLT.
Kelly
The most important takeaway from the collaborative group project has been the consideration of the amount of material I am exposing students to in a lesson. This project has helped me question the process in which I take students through in learning new concepts. Firstly, I examined my presentations. Were the colours and images used useful or distracting? The presentation is important because of the redundancy effect. The redundancy effect deals with multiple sources of information such as visuals and text. As is the case for the split-attention effect, any combination of diagrams, pictures, animations and spoken or written verbal information can lead to the generation of extraneous cognitive load. Next I considered my starters. In the past, I might have chosen to begin my lesson with a small task that might be fun or might be challenging, but may not directly link to the following learning. Whilst these fun little tasks can still help to foster and enjoyable experience in lessons (yes even in Maths lessons!) I was more careful about when I asked students to engage in these tasks. I would never start lessons with anything but small tasks about previous knowledge which will help students access the new material. I found this helped students focus better and by understanding their ability to handle new information, I was able to help them learn in a more relaxed and hopefully, efficient way. Finally, when introducing new concepts I used the worked example model. That is, I would split my board in two. I would model the way in which I would solve the question without asking questions or explaining what I was doing. After I was finished I would go back and explain my steps. Students would be asked to completed a similar task, one that was almost identical beside my worked example. At that point I would answer any questions or misconceptions.
Aldo
Sometimes, it is difficult to make “concrete” things in Languages, as we think more in a more “freely” style instead of exact sciences or Maths. However, the CLT has some important concepts which could help with different subjects/topics.
In order to make it short and easy to use for Languages/Human Science teachers, I’ll share a couple of things we all do (or should do) without knowing it is from this framework:
1. I have tried to reduce the amount my students extrinsic memory load caused by me, avoiding some simple and common habits (I publicly confess to my fellow colleagues, but do not tell anybody else, please!). Here they are:
Avoid giving “extra / needed / complementary” instructions/comments/explanations when the lesson task has started.
Reducing jokes, personal stories and all sorts of “bonding” material during the performing/ learning periods of the lessons.
Not publishing any new/ attractive material in the most visible places of the classroom or putting fancy thing in the front desk, etc.
2. I reduce the intrinsic memory load of the exercises I propose during the lesson time dividing the complex tasks (like open questions in Poetry analysis, for example) in less complicated questions/tasks focusing in successive steps which can build the road to the final complex outcome.
3. I am working more and more with good samples as shown goals to my students (good samples of phrases made by me or other students, classic poems, pieces of modern music, good essays, etc. which shows the level or kind of outcome we are looking for, etc.). Finding good samples for each new kind of text/composition is hard, but have a lot of learning power.
And so on...
Of course, all of these is done for almost all the teachers, but maybe the most important change have been done in my mind, since now I’m always thinking in not interfering/competing with the amounts of memory loads of my students with unnecessary/ non productive input.
Henry
One of my most important takeaways from our collaborative group project on CLT has been on the structuring of my lessons. In the past, I have used starter activities which were fun and engaging, but often without any wider link to the learning that would take place in the lesson. Whilst this is can be a good way to encourage students to settle down, I have since been experimenting with using starter activities to recall content and skills from past units of the course. This has been surprisingly popular with the students, particularly my S3 iGCSE class, who enjoy going back over tricky parts of the course such as the Arab-Israeli conflict. I am hoping that it will prove to have been of use to them when we come to the end of bimester exam and they have to answer a range of exam questions from prior topics.
I have also changed my teaching of bigger and more complex activities in the lesson, by trying to break the task up into more manageable chunks, and leading the students through in a step by step process. I also try to use the worked example affect, but by giving students model answers to help them learn how to approach new types of exam question. This has made students more comfortable with approaching longer exam answers, and it gives them a model to base their own answers on.
Dan
The main area of CLT that I have focused on is the Worked Example Effect. This states that for novice learners in a domain the presentation of worked examples reduces the intrinsic load of the material, allowing them to learn better. I have combined this with some other aspects in what Greg Ashman describes as Example-Problem Pairs (https://gregashman.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/example-problem-pairs/). I use this when introducing new content to students, and so the intrinsic load of the task is high since it is new to them. I will try to reduce this by atomising the process as much as possible.
I start by getting all students silent and looking at the board. They put their pens down and focus entirely on what I am about to do. I then go through the example, in silence, as students watch. Firstly, this reduces the extraneous load of the students as we have limited external distractions (no talking, no copying, etc). Secondly, this tells them this is important, and all attention must be focused on it. Thirdly, it shows them what excellence looks like in Mathematics.
I then narrate over the example, explaining the key steps. In the example shown above I would say:
“The null factor law states that when two values have a product of 0, then one of the two values must be 0. Hence either x-3=0 or x+2=0.”
I would then point to the first line, and then say something similar about the second line. It is important to note that I have already taught the null factor law separately by this point. In longer problems, I will ask myself rhetorical questions to model the processes going on in my mind when solving such a problem.
Once I have narrated over the entire example, I will then ask students to copy it down into their notes, and then attempt the Your Turn problem. I leave the example on the board for students to refer back to as they attempt the Your Turn problem (Transient Information Effect).
I have found that using this process almost all students can answer the Your Turn question almost all the time. And students really like the process. In a survey I did with my classes that I tried this approach with, 100% of the students said they found the Example-Problem pairs “useful to their learning”. Some example comments were:
“They are easy to follow and to understand”
“The example is very useful as we can understand better what to do instead of just following steps which they give us”
“I think they are really useful because we can see how that type of problem is done so we can understand it better”
Overall, this method of introducing new content to students has been a huge success, and something I am going to start doing in more of my classes, across all ages.