Why Do Students Sometimes Switch Off During a Lesson?
A simple look at Cognitive Load Theory and what it can tell us about everyday teaching in Maldivian classrooms.
You are halfway through a lesson.
You have explained the idea. You have written the important points on the board. Perhaps you have even prepared a nice PowerPoint.
Then you look around the classroom.
One student is staring out of the window. Another is copying everything from the board but does not seem to understand it. A few students are still trying to work out what you explained five minutes ago.
Our immediate thought may be: Were they not listening?
Sometimes, yes. But there is another possibility worth considering.
This is the basic idea behind something researchers call Cognitive Load Theory.
The name sounds complicated. The idea is actually quite simple.
The brain has a small working space
Think of the student's brain as having a small working table.
When we introduce something new, the student puts that new information on this table and works with it.
In other words, our working memory has limits. When too much unfamiliar information arrives at once, following the lesson becomes increasingly difficult.
A teacher introduces fractions. Students hear the words numerator and denominator. They are shown a diagram. They copy a definition. The teacher works through an example and then moves to an exercise.
Meanwhile, one student is still thinking: “Which one is the denominator?”
The teacher has moved on. The student's thinking has not.
That student may not be lazy or weak. There may simply have been too much new information too quickly.
Sometimes our slides make students work harder
Imagine teaching photosynthesis in Science.
The PowerPoint slide contains a diagram, a definition, the chemical equation, six bullet points, two pictures and an interesting fact about plants.
While students are reading all this, the teacher is explaining. Students are also expected to copy the important notes.
So what is the student's brain trying to do?
All at the same time.
That is a lot.
Learning materials do not necessarily become better simply because we add more to them. Information, pictures or decoration that does not help students understand the main idea can compete for their attention and add unnecessary mental effort.
So perhaps the better Science slide is not always the busiest one.
The content has not been made easier.
We have simply made it easier for the student's brain to deal with the content.
“But I already gave the instructions!”
Here is another familiar classroom situation.
Teacher: “Open page 42, read the passage, underline the adjectives, answer questions 1 to 5, compare your answers with your partner and then write a paragraph in your exercise book.”
Student: “Miss, which page?”
Another student: “Sir, what are we underlining?”
From the back: “Do we have to write the answers?”
We sometimes become frustrated.
I just explained everything!
Yes, we did.
Perhaps that was the problem.
Instead, try:
For a simple and familiar activity, students may not need this much guidance. But when the task is new or complicated, smaller steps can leave more mental space for the actual learning.
Show me first
Imagine introducing algebra.
The teacher explains the rule and writes:
“Okay. Solve it.”
Some students begin immediately. Others stare at it.
They may recognise every number and symbol but still have no idea where to start.
Instead, solve one example in front of them and explain what you are doing. Then do another one together. After that, let students try.
Research on worked examples supports giving learners clear models when they are meeting an unfamiliar type of problem. The support can then be gradually reduced as students become more confident.
This principle works across subjects.
Show a good paragraph before asking students to write their own.
Model the structure before expecting independent writing.
Work through one problem clearly before independent practice.
Demonstrate how observations should be recorded before a practical.
Work through an example before asking students to apply a new idea.
Model the process first when students are learning something unfamiliar.
There is nothing revolutionary about this. Good teachers have been doing it for years.
The research simply helps us understand why it works.
Break the big thing into smaller things
Think about teaching the steps of Hajj in Islam.
There are new terms, places, actions and a sequence to remember. Trying to explain everything in one long session may leave some students remembering a few words without understanding how they fit together.
A better sequence might be:
The same principle works with long division in Maths, the water cycle in Science, grammar in English or a writing structure in Dhivehi.
Sometimes “pens down” is good teaching
Students are copying something from the board. Meanwhile, we continue explaining.
Some stop writing and listen. Some continue writing and miss the explanation. Some attempt both.
Try:
“Finish that sentence.”
Wait.
“Okay, pens down. Look here.”
Now the student's brain has one main job: listen and understand.
The same applies when asking questions.
Ask it.
Then wait.
Not every silence needs to be filled by the teacher.
But this does NOT mean making lessons easy
This is important.
Cognitive Load Theory does not mean students should never struggle.
Students need to think. They need challenging questions. They need to solve problems, make connections, explain answers and sometimes struggle before reaching an understanding.
The important difference is between the mental effort needed for learning and mental effort wasted dealing with confusing or unnecessary information.
“Make everything easy.”
“Remove unnecessary difficulty so students can spend their effort on the learning itself.”
A difficult Maths problem can be good mental work.
Trying to understand a badly organised worksheet while solving that problem is not.
One question for tomorrow's lesson
When preparing tomorrow's lesson, perhaps add one question to the usual planning:
Look at your PowerPoint. Look at your worksheet. Think about your instructions. Think about what students already know.
If there is too much happening at once, you may not need to remove the learning.
Just organise it differently.
Maybe they are not simply “zoning out”
When students lose track of a lesson, it is easy to say:
He wasn't listening.
She isn't interested.
This class is weak.
Sometimes that may be true.
But sometimes, perhaps, the student's small working table is simply full.
And that gives us something as teachers that we can actually do something about.
After all, the success of a 35- or 40-minute lesson is not really about how many slides we showed, how many textbook pages we covered, or how much we managed to explain.
“How much did our students actually understand, remember and learn?”
Sometimes, giving the brain a little less to handle at one time may help our students learn much more.