REDUCING TEACHERS COGNITIVE LOAD

Laurie Gerraghty

Teacher of Geography

Cognitive Load Tip for ECTs

Cognitive theory demonstrates the human mind as having two main memory stages; the working and the long term. I am sure you are familiar with the characteristics of these so I won't take up your precious PPA with a lengthy explanation. Suffice to say one is small and easy to get stuff in and out of like a Costa bar, while the other is an Argos warehouse where everything is, but hard to get at what you want and no one's done a stock take in a while.

But you didn't come here for science or peer reviewed hard evidence, this is a blog! So let me be brief and frank. TEACHERS ARE THE WORST AT SELF COGNITIVE LOAD!!!

Lower your dirty mugs and performance management forms a moment and let me elaborate. We know the theory, yet bombard ourselves with crammed INSET days, rushed lesson planning, late night key assessment marking, extracurricular responsibilities and self-study directives of mentorship programmes to convince the up and coming teachers it isn't all bad. We fill our extra 15 minutes here and there with an extra CPD briefing or a half glance at medium to long term planning documents we really should update to help us feel like we are on some form of track. An email pops in with another spike of cortisol as we know in our gut it's a reminder about today's lunch duty rota and yep, your number is up.

We herald the classroom routines for pupils to automate and decrease low level behavior issues by offering a careful structure that they can simply follow, with visual prompts on wall displays that you refer to repeatedly. Meanwhile I can't even get into a routine of eating an orange a day!

Hey, it's peeling the orange or laying exercise books out for the next class...

But enough with the venting. I promised a tip and I shall deliver with the following; give yourself time.

We are investigating, learning, practicing, harnessing and manipulating the very skill that has allowed the human brain to surpass all others known in intellectual skill. It takes time to get round it all a few times while also dealing with a group of individuals programmed to find and test all known boundaries for their own security and wellbeing.

So remind yourself; everyone makes mistakes; we are lifelong learners; there will always be more, which is exciting; and make sure you have time without responsibilities to be you and not feel guilty.

(This entry was written after 11pm on a school night and I only ate half my lunch today... Damn it!)