Teaching Smarter with Learning Science Research

Learning Science 101: Cognitive Load Theory

Learning science is an interdisciplinary field that draws from neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, education, and many other fields to help us understand how learning happens. By studying how people learn, we can optimize teaching and learning experiences to be as effective as possible. As a learning science company, we use this research to build learning materials and technology. As educators, you can also harness this research to refine your practice. There’s plenty of existing research — some well-established and some new, some of which you may have already encountered in your teacher training programs — that examine how learning happens and indicate tangible, actionable takeaways for the classroom.

To help make some of this research more accessible and digestible, our applied learning sciences team has helped us create the first in a series of informational videos called Learning Science 101. Each animation will provide an overview of a theory, research element, or practice that examines how learning happens and how learning can be optimized through instruction.

First in this series, we’re exploring the Cognitive Load Theory:

We can credit the Cognitive Load Theory to psychologist Dr. John Sweller, who published a paper on his research in the late 1990s. The theory is related to memory, learning new information, drawing from existing information, and what the brain is capable of doing.

Here’s the science:

Your working memory, which processes incoming information, has a limited capacity. Incoming information is either discarded, or it’s stored, in your long-term memory. The brain manages this incoming information by sorting it into established schemas, or categories, that help process what that information means. It’s your brain’s strategy of understanding new information by relating it to information that you already know.

However, if the new information doesn’t fit into established schemas, your brain must adapt the schemas, or create new schemas. It’s a complex process and is very fluid.

The Cognitive Load Theory helps us understand that in the classroom, the brain would benefit if we introduced new concepts by strategically building on existing schemas, capitalizing on the brain’s processes, and designing instruction to match the brain’s capabilities. Specific teaching practices — like strategic practice and scaffolded feedback, among others — can empower educators to do just that.

Download this free activity sheet!

Learning Science 101 Series

For more on the cognitive load theory from researchers, educators, and psychologists: