Norm’s Stories

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Norm's Stories

By Norm Blankenbeckler

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Example 2
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ABOUT ME

My name is Norm…

EXAMPLE 2

Text example

Intrinsic Load

Load imposed by learning objectives

Extraneous Load

Unnecessary load imposed by instructional design

German Load

Core mental resources required

  • Schema Theory

    John Sweller is the founder of CLT; however, he was not the first to examine many of the core components of CLT (e.g., mental effort, schema development, task difficulty). Sweller’s earliest influence may have been the work of Sir Francis Bartlett, the founder of Schema Theory. Bartlett’s work on memory laid the ground work for researchers to develop complex diagrams and models of the human learning processes. In his 1932 work titled Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology he examined how participants produced “serial reproduction” of visual images from descriptive passages (Bartlett, 1932). Schema Theory has gone under many revisions since its inception, and modern theorists have molded Schema Theory to a more comprehensive learning theory.

  • Task Difficulty

    John Sweller is the founder of CLT; however, he was not the first to examine many of the core components of CLT (e.g., mental effort, schema development, task difficulty). Sweller’s earliest influence may have been the work of Sir Francis Bartlett, the founder of Schema Theory. Bartlett’s work on memory laid the ground work for researchers to develop complex diagrams and models of the human learning processes. In his 1932 work titled Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology he examined how participants produced “serial reproduction” of visual images from descriptive passages (Bartlett, 1932). Schema Theory has gone under many revisions since its inception, and modern theorists have molded Schema Theory to a more comprehensive learning theory.

  • Mental Load

    Sweller was also influenced by the work of Moray. Moray’s concept of mental load and its effect on human factors resembles many aspects of CLT (Plass et al., 2010). One of the differences is that Moray’s mental load construct was primarily concerned with how humans interact with systems and technological equipment. The mental effort or mental load imposed on humans by the technical systems they interact with is a core component of human factors science. Given that the personal computer was yet to be a household name, Moray’s farsightedness is impressive Where CLT differentiates itself, is in the shift from how humans interact with technical systems to how humans process information during learning.

FAVORITE STORIES

Here are some of my favorite stories
Here are some of my favorite stories

Worked Examples

While the concept of a worked example is not new to courses like mathematics and other courses with well-structured problems, worked examples can be applied to ill-structured problems as well (e.g., social science, language arts) to reduce cognitive load and aid student comprehension (Sweller et al., 2011). A subset of worked examples is the alteration strategy. This strategy states that students may gloss over a worked example if it is not accompanied by a similar problem that the student must solve (Sweller et al., 2011). The Alteration strategy simply pairs worked examples with problems to give students an opportunity to apply what they have just learned. This exercise helps cement the concept in the student’s mind.

Guidance Fading

The guidance fading effect is a strategy to enable instructors to tailor instruction dynamically based on the learner. Learning strategies like the worked examples technique presented earlier are less effective as expertise accumulates. As learners acquire knowledge, develop schemas, and move more mental models to long-term memory, more sophisticated methods of instruction need to be employed to continue facilitating expertise. The guidance fading strategy, as the name suggests, advocates for reducing “direct external guidance” in favor of increased problem solving (Sweller et al., 2011, p. 181). However, Sweller acknowledges that determining the exact guidance-to-problem solving ratio can be challenging (Sweller et al., 2011).

Modality Effect

The modality effect is a strategy that can be employed by instructional designers to aid students in learning comprehension. The modality strategy is accomplished by using different modes of communication transmission. For instance, instead of relying entirely on text, the instruction could include graphs, pictures, or the information can be spoken. When instruction engages “both auditory and visual channels of information in working memory rather than just the visual channel” (Sweller et al., 2011, p. 129), then the cognitive burden is reduced on the student. A key factor in implementing multiple modalities is that the information presented in each mode must not present all of the information, only part of it. While presenting incomplete information may seem counterintuitive, this forces the student to engage other modalities during learning. Each modality should only present a portion of the material so that the student must engage each section and cannot obtain all the necessary information from any single modality (Sweller et al., 2011). Simply reading text aloud that is present in front does not constitute successful implementation of the modality effect strategy.

REFERENCES

References
Bartlett, F. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. London, EN: Cambridge University Press.
Bratfisch, O., Borg, G., & Dornic, S. (1972). Perceived item-difficulty in three tests of intellectual performance capacity. The University of Stockholm. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED080552
Cooper, G. (1990). Cognitive load theory as an aid for instructional design. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.2322
Mary Bucy. (2009). Cognitive load exercise. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc705-WS2l4&feature=youtu.be
Plass, J. L., Moreno, R., & Brünken, R. (2010). Cognitive load theory. Cambridge University Press.
Sweller, J., Ayres, P., & Kalyuga, S. (2011). Cognitive load theory. Springer.
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