Professor John Sweller delivered the 2024 Wyndham Lecture jointly hosted by the NSWIER and UNSW on
Cognitive Load Theory and its Instructional Implications
VIDEO LINK Q&A Responses
Professor John Sweller is an Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of New South Wales, Australia. His research is associated with cognitive load theory. The theory is a contributor to both research and debate on issues associated with human cognition, its links to evolution by natural selection, and the instructional design consequences that follow. Based on many hundreds of randomised, controlled studies carried out by many investigators from around the globe, the theory has generated a large range of novel instructional designs from our knowledge of human cognitive architecture. Those designs have consequences for teaching and are now featuring in highly influential policy and practice guides developed by government departments of education in Australia and beyond. Using any common citation index, the work has been cited on over 30,000 occasions.
Cognitive load theory uses our knowledge of human cognitive architecture to devise instructional procedures for many curriculum areas. Based on evolutionary educational psychology, cognitive load theory assumes that most topics taught in education and training institutions are ones that we have not specifically evolved to learn. That knowledge is called biologically secondary knowledge. In contrast, biologically primary knowledge can be acquired automatically without tuition. We developed educational institutions precisely in order to teach biologically secondary knowledge because it is unlikely to be learned without education. Novel, biologically secondary information can be acquired by communication from other people—including teachers. When taught, this novel information must be processed by a limited working memory before being stored in an unlimited long-term memory for subsequent use. Importantly, working memory has no known limits when dealing with familiar information from long-term memory—underscoring the transformative effects of education and the educators who teach vital skills and knowledge. These characteristics of working and long-term memory must be considered when devising and delivering instruction. Cognitive load theory draws on these characteristics to generate a large range of instructional effects aimed at optimising learning. All of those effects have implications for teaching and these will be discussed.