Want your students (or teachers) to learn more effectively? Research by John Sweller and others suggests that taking more “brain breaks” is the key.

This article discusses “cognitive load theory,” and reminds us that the human brain has a fairly limited ability to hold thoughts or new ideas in working memory. This has huge implications not only for how we teach, but how we conduct our workshops and seminars.

A related concept is Schmoker’s “chunking” strategy. He suggests instructional presentations always need to be divided into “chunks” of no more than five to seven minutes, with opportunities to process the information in between. (For details, see slide #7 from the presentation slides in the Effective Teaching section).

Bottom line? In a society that increasingly demands “more, more,” wise educators know that sometimes “more is less.”

References:

Schmoker, M. (2018). Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning (2nd ed., p. 92). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Sweller, J. (2010). Cognitive load theory: Recent theoretical advances. In J. L. Plass, R. Moreno, & R. Brünken (Eds.), Cognitive load theory (p. 29–47). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511844744.004