In recent times, cognitive load theory (CLT) has come under fire, with many labelling it as just another fad that will die off - in a similar way to the VAK learning system and brain gym - by being comprehensively debunked. 

However, while not even a defibrillator is going to bring those particular educational corpses back to life, I still count myself as a proponent of CLT.

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Don’t get me wrong, I am under no illusion that it will ever trump building positive relationships, managing behaviour effectively and having strong subject knowledge for helping pupils progress within a discipline.

I am fairly convinced, though, that CLT and its derived effects can be translated into effective classroom practice that will enhance our subject pedagogical knowledge and thereby help pupils to progress more rapidly.

Here are some refinements to my teaching, which I have made over the last 18 months or so based upon developing an understanding of CLT.

1. Redundancy and split attention effects

I used to spend far too much time making my presentation slides look great. It might take me about 10 minutes on Google to find the best three examples of images to beautify my PowerPoint.

I’d squeeze them in among the writing (or layer the writing over the top) and proudly admire them as I stood in class reading the words out loud to my students.

I shouldn’t have done this. Working memory can only handle so much input without becoming overloaded: pupils would either be reading the words or listening, one of us was redundant and I’d prefer that not to be me! 

Multiple images, there for decoration, may just cause distraction and anything pupils pay attention to is what they are thinking about - too much visual input is almost like trying to teach when a wasp is in the room!

These days, if there are words on a slide, I let pupils read them. 

2. The slow reveal

Many subjects feature complex diagrams with unfamiliar terms. 

Presenting something like the cross-sectional structure of a leaf will often melt brains if revealed in an instant: especially when pupils have also got to cope with terms such as palisade, spongy mesophyll and stomata, but thankfully there is a saviour: the visualiser.

If I’m feeling arty, I will live-draw diagrams, or gradually reveal information using PowerPoint animations, to avoid overwhelming pupils and give more opportunity to ascertain understanding in manageable steps.

That way, I can more easily focus their attention where I need it to be and question them accordingly, rather than battling the overload of the full image.

3. Vocabulary gaps

Recently, I have found that whole-class choral responses to me modelling how to pronounce key terms have helped increase the chances of pupils using tier-three language instead of reverting to “thingy”.

Practising saying difficult words frees up working memory so pupils can think more about the context in which the word is being used.

Another useful tip is to ask pupils what other words they know with the same root so they can link these terms in their schema.

For example “anthropogenic”: in a lesson about the enhanced greenhouse effect, I asked the class what term they’ve used in English lessons that is similar. 

They remembered anthropomorphism and could also define it (kudos to the English department), so I could link the anthro- prefix to humans and explain that the suffix -genic means of/produced/generated by.

CLT may not be the most important aspect of modern education but it can certainly help us to ameliorate some of our approaches to instructional design and the longer-term goal of securing learning.

Ian Taylor is Lead Teacher at Trinity Academy Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire. He tweets @MrTSci409