Regular readers of
my blog will know of my interest in Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), particularly
where it relates to designing learning materials, activities and experiences.
Three stalwarts in the field who have contributed significantly to CLT recently
wrote a “twenty-year update”. Here’s a snapshot of the title, DOI and abstract.
CLT was described
in detail thirty years ago by Sweller, and ten years later the fledging theory
had gathered an impressive set of initial data resulting in a significant
review by the same three authors in 1998. Since then CLT has matured as a
theory, and in my opinion, detractors’ early criticisms have been answered with
data from increasingly improved studies.
Most of the
present 2019 article discusses “Developments in Cognitive Load Theory
1998-2018”. Of these developments, the most important in my opinion has been
the meshing of CLT with Geary’s categorization of biologically primary and
secondary knowledge. I’ve written about Geary’s article in this blog, and it has been one of the most influential articles in changing the way I
think about learning. Geary’s article is a hundred pages long but it’s well
worth the read. It explains why, according to Sweller and co-authors, “over the
last few decades, many educationists, correctly realizing the importance of
[generic-cognitive] skills, have advocated that they be taught. Such campaigns
tend to fail, not because the skills are unimportant but because they are of
such importance to humans that we have evolved to acquire them automatically
without instruction.”
Thanks to Geary’s
article, every time I hear someone mention teaching generic critical thinking
skills, alarm bells go off in my head. You need to know a fair bit of content
within a subject area to be able to think critically about it – but this
requires first the hard work of learning that content. The evidence for “far
transfer” of generic critical thinking skills in well-designed studies is
practically non-existent. We’d like to think that such a thing would be the
panacea for a new and improved education, but the evidence is simply not there.
Reading the 2019
paper reminded me to look into four-component instructional design (4C/ID).
Last year I read a short 10-page article describing the basics. They make sense
to me, but it also seems like a lot of trouble to redesign my chemistry courses
from scratch according to 4C/ID so I put it aside. With my sabbatical coming
up, and part of my proposal was to consider how to use CLT to improve teaching
and curricular design in my field, I think I will be revisiting this. I’ve put
in an order for the 3rd edition of Ten Steps to Complex Learning.
We’ll see how much time I’m able to devote to this. I have three divergent sabbatical
projects because I like to work on different things and be able to shift my
attention when I get stuck on one project. This is project #3 with third
priority.
One of the main
difficulties with CLT is how to measure the load. The article acknowledges this
and provides some references that I plan to follow-up on. There’s still much to
do in this area, although I’m not sure I’m the right person with the right
priorities and expertise to do so. Looking ahead, the authors also describe
some interesting ongoing areas of research in CLT. One that I found interesting
was the study on working memory and how it can be “depleted after a period of
sustained cognitive exertion resulting in a reduced capacity to commit further
resources”. It reminded me of a discussion I was having with a colleague of how
G-Chem 2 feels much more challenging for the students and the instructor when
meeting two days a week on TuTh (for 1.5 hours each) versus three days a week
(1 hour each) on a MWF schedule.
Thanks to this
article, I’ve downloaded at least five other articles now queued in my reading
list. Reading something begets more reading begets more reading. I suppose
that’s what going down the rabbit hole is like. And I do enjoy learning!
Besides the Geary
article, here’s a selection of my other blog posts about CLT.
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