Cognitive Load Theory Reflection

While the Cognitive Load Theory itself may not be something in the forefront for educators, I believe teachers understand the concepts it represents after a week in the classroom. If teachers are gauging their students’ understanding of the material, than whether or not they are teaching the material effectively is part of that assessment. Evaluating lesson effectiveness includes: am I overwhelming my students or am I not giving them the material in a variety of ways so that they can all acquire the concepts I am teaching? I believe teachers have always done this minus the cloak of CLT that someone needed to develop in order to earn a doctorate. I believe this because the concepts of CLT are common sense.

I have had a lot of conversations with teachers about hype. Our students come to us now all hyped-up. They have been watching edutainment since Sesame Street was introduced in 1969. Once kids had been introduced to Sesame Street, education changed. Students didn’t want to learn material in the traditional lecture format they once accepted and that worked well. Students’ expectations changed with Sesame Street and all of the other TV shows and commercials that spun out of the program. Teachers have obliged and found materials that support instruction that vary the delivery.

I can’t speak for all teachers, but I can for the teachers who I work with, they are targeting the objective they are teaching with the resources they choose. There are so many objectives to cover each quarter that the students are accountable for on the quarterly assessments. Teachers have no time to go off on tangents. UnitedStreaming has been well received for that reason. A segment of a video can be shown that supplements the teachers’ comments and hones in on the very concept being taught. Regrettably, discussions don’t bubble up in classrooms very often any more because there is no time for them.

In the event there is a teacher in my building who does not get this, and I can’t think of any, I will share some of the PowerPoint slides that are horribly designed alongside slides that have been “clarified.” I believe I will be preaching to the choir.

I believe it's our hyped-up students who will benefit from this lesson more than the teachers because they always want to use every background, transition, fly-in, and sound that they discover while completing assignments. We have a number of teachers who have shared a few minutes Steve Jobs’ keynote presentations in order to convey that simple, clean and pertinent is the goal for their PPT presentations.