Instructional coach Doug Lemov, author of the international bestseller Teach Like a Champion and The Coach’s Guide to Teaching, recently outlined why it’s so important for teachers to understand the implications of Cognitive Load Theory and the limitations of working memory for their own practice.
In a detailed thread shared on X, Lemov said teachers have ‘a LOT’ to mentally grapple with.
“You are trying to think about the content you are teaching, the next pedagogical decision you’ll make ... the learning status of 30 odd students (are they getting this?) and the psychological state of the group (are they engaged?) and its individuals (how do I get David back on track?)...” he posted.
The more these elements suck up teachers’ working memory space, the less they’ll be able to perceive and attend consciously to any of them, Lemov points out.
“This is to say that you’re less likely to be able to notice that David is off-task or listen carefully to Chloe’s answer if you are thinking about what you’re going to do next...”
There are two key ways in which teachers can manage the load on their own working memory (WM) during instructional time, the expert advises.
Firstly, Lemov suggests using a clip board in class.
“This gives you a handy place to write observations ... that Jamal has a great answer to #2 and you should come to him during discussion.
“[Or perhaps] that you need to explain juxtaposition again later in the lesson. Now you don’t have to hold those things in your WM.”
Teachers can also write out ‘exemplar’ student answers on their clipboard, he notes.
“That is, you write out the answer you hope you’ll get to a key question.
“Now you can glance back at it and refresh your working memory as you observe student work or listen to their answers,” he explains.
Secondly, Lemov says establishing common procedures around how students answer your questions is a “really powerful” way to reduce demands on working memory.
When repeated many times over, turn and talk, stop and jot, or cold calling routines become not only automatic processes for students, but teachers, too, he says.
“[These procedures] hack your working memory. If you’ve done 100 Turn & Talks and you can do them in your sleep.
“You can use them automatically. You can glance at the room and see that only two students have raised their hand and make the decision to let them rehearse their initial thinking in pairs in the blink of an eye.”
With these routines cemented ‘in your back pocket’, teachers won’t have to dwell on hypotheticals such as “what will I do next if no one raises their hand,” Lemov writes.
“Your working memory is free to observe them and to be more aware of their experience in the classroom."
And while it may seem counter-intuitive to think that building a class around familiar, almost mechanical procedures that are ‘turned to routine’ would make teachers more responsive and connected, this is precisely the case, Lemov concludes.
“The familiarity lets you free your scarce working memory to do the relational work and to bring the important parts of instruction to life.”
Victorian maths teacher David Morkunas gave Lemov’s commentary the thumbs up.
“Wonderful thread, and a great reason to put highly structured curriculum resources in the hands of novice teachers – frees up [cognitive load] and allows them to focus on the routines and classroom management strategies that are so important to get right early,” he posted on X.
At the time of publishing, Lemov’s post had drawn some 155,000 views on X.
