Learning and Teaching-Cognitive Load Theory Structuring the Practice Part 3

In Part 1 on Cognitive Load Theory (https://polymathtobe.blogspot.com/2023/02/learning-and-teaching-cognitive-load.html) , the framework of WHAT Cognitive Load Theory is was laid out in principle, following  Oliver Lovell’s book on the subject (Lovell 2020).

Part 2 is on how teachers can minimize extrinsic load on the student through honing their  presentation. (https://polymathtobe.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-and-teaching-cognitive-load.html)

Part 4 is on how teachers can optimize intrinsic loads on the student. (https://polymathtobe.blogspot.com/2023/08/learning-and-teaching-cognitive-load.html)

This article roughly follows the book in examining how the teacher, coach, and learner can apply  cognitive load theory to minimize the extrinsic loading on the working memory through structuring the practice plan.

The definitions of intrinsic and extrinsic loads are defined again for ease of reference.

The extrinsic cognitive loads are:

·       A part of  the manner and structure of how the information is conveyed to the learners.

·       Disruptive to the learning task because it distracts the learner from learning by occupying valuable working memory space.

Whereas the intrinsic cognitive loads are those that are critical to learning whatever it is that we need to learn. They are:

·       Part of the nature of the information that we are learning.

·       Core learning.

·       Information that we WANT the learner to have in their working memory.

The critical limitation is that the working memory has a finite capacity; that is, the intrinsic and the extrinsic loads are vying for the same finite resource. One emphasis should be  placed on minimizing the extrinsic load; that is, to offload unnecessary extrinsic cognitive load, to make space in the working memory before optimizing the intrinsic loads.

Note that even though Lovell’s book is relatively short, he presents quite a bit of results, and information, and examples from many different subjects, so it is worthwhile to read through the book.

Since I come from two familiar yet also different points of view: teaching at a university level and coaching, I will try to illustrate the points by giving simple examples from both milieus.

Structuring the Practice

The details of the points in (Lovell 2020) focuses on the classroom situation. The last section of this article will place Lovell’s points in the context of coaching of sports, as interpreted by myself.

·       Two key differences exist between the classroom context and the sports context.

·       Time scales are different.

o   Coaching and sports have immediate consequences and results, so the “practices” and examples happen in a much shorter time frame, it is then easier to miss the teaching moments.

o   The amount of time devoted to practice are different for the classroom and the practice field. Players expect to be active and moving, so the instruction must be performed at a faster pace. The practice plan must reflect this pace.

o   Time for “informative” feedback is short, there are lots of missed opportunities.

·       Emphasis are Different: While both contexts are training students/players to act and react effectively, i.e., learn to make better decisions, there are large differences.

o   The classroom context is more conceptual, (System 2 response according to Kahneman (Kahneman 2013)) and the student’s learning response can be more gradual so that they can learn in a slower and more progressive manner, teachers can be more patient in creating and guide student through the learning environment.

o   Athletes need to integrate the process much more quickly and be able to internalize and convert the active learning mode into reactive execution mode, i.e. turn the lessons into a process or a procedure quickly (System 1 according to Kahneman (Kahneman 2013).)

·       Observability Differences:

o   Classroom results during practice sessions are sequential and observable. The teacher can stop the progress and correct conceptual errors as they happen.

o   Sporting results are immediate and only the results can be observed, i.e., misconceptions in processing information and decision making are not observable, only the result of the errors can be observed. i.e., coaches are usually not able to pinpoint the specific step where the error occurred.

Worked Examples:

The worked example is the most important of the Cognitive Load Theory effects. It is a key to easing the transition from being a beginner to being an expert. Worked Example serves as a way for the student to “borrow” the experience and knowledge of the expert. To put that into their long-term memory. Borrowed problems is organized, tested, appropriate, short-circuits student misconceptions.

·       Worked Example (For the beginning students):

o   Key to Worked Examples:

§  Structure: Structure the practice to minimize extraneous load.

§  Persist: Continue with worked examples in structured environment for longer than we think necessary.

o   Strategy for student practicing worked examples.

§  Alternation: Ask students to solve a similar problem right after being presented with a modelled solution. Keep the alternation numerous and rapid.

§  Fading: When working similar problems is too difficult, present similar problem to be worked with a step missing, to get student to fill in the gap.

Practice Problem

The complementary exercise of the worked example is the practice problem; both have their place in teaching.

o   Adding variations to the worked problems.

o   Increasing in challenges. Lead students to discover for themselves.

Self-Explanation:

Give students opportunities to explain an example to themselves in terms of the underlying principle. Explain why it works for the specific example? Learn to discern the general and the specific.

o   Example specific prompts: Question about why the explanation is only valid for the specific example.

§  Explaining Incorrect answers.

§  Explaining Correct Answers.

o   General prompts: Questions about why the explanation is valid in general.

§  Process Prompts: Questions concerning the process or procedure.

·       Notice: What is new?

·       Reason: How does this impact my knowledge?

·       Monitor: What is still missing from my understanding?

§  Connection Prompts: Questions that lead the student to make connections.

§  Anticipation Prompts: Leading questions to entice students to extrapolate into the as yet unknown.

§  Principle Prompts: Connecting the specific with the general. Connect with the principle.

o   What Self Explanation Won’t Do: Getting students to teach themselves what they don’t know. This is a cognition trap for teachers,

Goal Free Effect:

Removing goals from the learning experience also removes interacting elements of learning. Removing the means-ends connection, freeing up the working memory. Removing the focus on “Getting to the answer”, removes the stress from the learning experience. Allow students to focus on learning.

o   Principle: Focus on goals can lead to students accomplishing goals and completing tasks without learning.  Focus on learning.

o   Preconditions: Teacher control conditions during the learning experience.

§  Restricted Action: Simplify the conditions to unload the working memory.

§  Rapid Feedback: Quick alternations between action and result, to help student make the connection.

§  Reliable Results: Make sure that action A results in Result A.

In the Sports and Coaching Context

Worked Examples:

The worked example in sports is the demonstration of skills, tactics, strategy, and the time honored VBIQ. For the beginner, each should be presented first in carefully separated steps and then in integrated combinations until the completely integrated  concept is demonstrated.

o   Worked Example (For the beginning students):

§  Key to Worked Examples:

·       Structure: Structure the practice to minimize extraneous load. Do NOT overload with too many details at first.

·       Persist: Continue with demonstrations in a structured environment for longer than we think necessary. But no longer.

§  Strategy for student practicing worked examples.

·       Alternation: Give the player a skill, tactic, strategy idea to resolve after demonstrating the concept. Keep the alternation numerous and rapid.

·       Fading: When working similar problems is too difficult, present similar problem to be worked with a step missing, to get student to fill in the gap.

Practice Problem

The complementary exercise of the demonstration is the practice problem; both have their place in coaching.

o   Adding variations to the demonstration. Steadily add complicating elements to the lesson until a full-fledged game concept is the result.

o   Increasing in challenges. Make each progression to levels of desired difficulties.

o   These would be:

§  Varying the pace and location at which the ball is entered.

§  Scrimmaging against a better and faster team.

§  Situational practices with varying pace, difficulties.

§  Beware of creating challenges that are nonsensical in sport. This is not to say to NOT introduce this element, but limit them to add to the surprise element, but not introduce extraneous elements, which serves to overload the working memory unnecessarily.

Self-Explanation:

Give players opportunities to explain an example to themselves in terms of the underlying principle. Explain why it works for the specific example? Learn to discern the general and the specific.

o   Example specific prompts: Question about why the explanation is only valid for the specific action.

§  Explaining Incorrect answers.

§  Explaining Correct Answers.

o   General prompts: Questions about why the explanation is valid in general game conditions.

§  Process Prompts: Questions concerning the process or procedure.

·       Notice: What is new?

·       Reason: How does this impact my game?

·       Monitor: What is still missing from my understanding?

§  Connection Prompts: Questions that lead the players to make connections. This is very important because of the uniqueness of sports. Players must learn to make connections between sets of actions to create seamless continuation of game action.

§  Anticipation Prompts: Leading questions to entice students to extrapolate into “What if?” questions and situations. Creates neural pathways within their System 1 for the untested hypotheticals.

§  Principle Prompts: Connecting the specific with the general. Connect with the principle.

o   What Self Explanation Won’t Do: Getting players to teach themselves what they don’t know. This is a cognition trap for coaches. This happens when coaches leave their lessons unfinished, believing that the players can close the loop to understanding by playing. They may, and they may not. Left to themselves, no one knows until game time.

Goal Free Effect:

Removing goals from the learning experience also removes interacting elements of learning. Removing the means-ends connection, freeing up the working memory. Removing the focus on “Getting to the answer”, removes the stress from the learning experience. Allow students to focus on learning.

·       Principle: Focus on goals can lead to students accomplishing goals and completing tasks without learning.  Focus on learning.

·       Preconditions: Coaches control conditions during the learning experience.

o   Restricted Action: Simplify the conditions to unload the working memory.

o   Rapid Feedback: Quick alternations between action and result, to help players make the connection.

o   Reliable Results: Make sure that action A results in Result A. This is very difficult to control because of the amount of variables that exist in a sport. One on one cause and effect lessons are next to impossible to make happen in sports. This is why many coaches insist on perfect ball placement when tossing or hitting while running drills, they want to make each repetition to be the same to make sure that the player can experience the same experience until they internalize the lesson. Of course, some will take this to extremes and never introduce variations at all, which does not prepare the players for variability and uncertainty, the opposite of what they had intended. It is a difficult issue.

There are many ways to introduce and implement structured practice ideas from Cognitive Load Theory. The small examples I added are some ideas I had thought about, I don’t claim that they are original, or complete. I am hoping that these small examples serve to excite the minds of fellow coaches to create structured practices which serve to free up the working memory and minimize the extraneous loads.

References

Guadagnoli, Mark and Timothy D. Lee. "Challenge Point: a Framework for Conceptualizing the Effects of Various Practice Conditions in Motor Learning." Journal of Motor Behavior, June 2004: 212-224.

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking Fast and Slow. NYC: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.

Lovell, Oliver. Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory in Action. Melton: John Catt Educational Ltd, 2020.

 

 

Book Review-The Myth of Experience By Emre Soyer and Robin M. Hogarth

This book is one of the most well-organized nonfiction books that I have read. The authors took great care in organizing all of their research results and anecdotal evidence into logical structures. It was a pleasure to read.

I was first made aware of this book through David Epstein's Range Widely Substack feed: How to Get Better At Learning From Experience (https://davidepstein.substack.com/p/how-to-get-better-at-learning-from-experience)  He had interviewed one of the authors: Emre Soyer, about the book’s idea regarding experiences and how experiences can mislead. This is an important topic as our decision-making mechanism is almost completely based on our memories of our experiences.  The good of that mechanism is that once we have had an experience, the memory stays with us, guides us, and helps us make critical decisions. The bad of the mechanism is that these experiences may be misleading.

This book dives down the same rabbit hole as Daniel Kahneman's: Thinking: Fast and Slow (Kahneman 2013), it questions the way we make decisions, what we use as reference for those decisions and whether those references are reliable. Many others have written books about the other parts of the decision-making process, but this book hits right at the heart of it.

As the authors make clear in the introductory chapter, we all have unmitigated faith in our experiences; partly because they are our experiences, partly because they are two separate things: a process which is a constant memory dump and a practice which is a product of our cumulative storage of memories. It is because our experience is personal that we feel so confident in making our experiences our fundamental source of information for our cogitations.

Soyer and Hogarth do yeoman’s  work, laying out all of the arguments against an unfiltered trust in the veracity of our experiences as a resource for our decision making. This book is laid out beautifully and it was a pleasure to read as the authors placed the two critical questions that were asked at the very beginning of the book at the end of every chapter to remind us of those traps and shortfalls that we inevitably fall into when we consider the information available to us. The two major questions are: What is missing and what is irrelevant?

What is  missing is usually other data: mitigating circumstances, contextual facts that affect the decision, the fact that the experiences we have are likely to be incomplete. Which is not all that surprising, but we as humans live in an egocentric world, thus we believe that everything that has ever happened to us is all that there is to reality. We regard the viewpoint that anything that we did not experience is either not true or never happened.

The question of what is irrelevant goes into our very human nature. We humans need to create a narrative, a story, from our accumulated experiences to make it all make sense, to make it all fit into a believable format. We blend all the experiences that we have in front of us into a digestible chunk, this is the magical wand that we deploy to make sense of our cumulative experiences. But that narrative, that story, may not be true because of context and circumstances. But mostly it's because maybe there isn't a narrative, a story to be believed. We never consider that maybe we are dealing with noises in the machine, we are good at creating fairy tales from nothing. The term “correlation is not causation” applies in our experiences as it does in statistics. We don't consider whether we have enough data which will show us whether there is enough correlation for a narrative. The exact opposite is true in the human mind, any kind of correlation is considered to be causal. We, as humans, prefer the overly simplistic, overly ostentatious, and overly convenient narratives and stories. They give us the impetus to believe the stories and narratives over facts staring us in the face.

In the seven chapters that make up the book, the authors dives into seven different traps which impacts the way our experiences deplys our decision-making abilities. Many of these traps are well-known, but we continually fall for the lures: we focus on the result rather than the process, we fall into the habit of relying on our experiences that are compromised by dodgy premises rather than believing accurate information, we fall for what the purveyor of information wants us to believe, we believe in what ever gives us the least pain or alleviates the most pain, and we discount our ability to put distance between us and painful memories as time moves forward.

The most interesting chapter involves our belief in the lessons brought to us by the success and failures of ourselves and of successful people. The authors analyze the reasons studying successes or failures without context limits the utility of the gathered lessons. I recently saw a video clip of Jack Ma of Alibaba ranting about people needing to learn from the failures of people who are successful, he only got it partly right. In Soyer and Hogarth’s reckoning, JUST learning from successes or failures can be very misleading because in just focusing on the success or failure, we are discounting context once again. Learning lessons from successes or failure also looks back upon what had already happened, the changes wrought over time and the evolving nature of the decision gets filtered out by time and incomplete information or memory. They emphasize that it is important to carefully scrutinize the “lessons” from others to take into account the missing context, the overabundance of easy and pithy truisms, as well as the missing stories that contradicts the reality.

This is not, however, a book of complaints. Soyer and Hogarth conclude the book, and with every chapter, with ways that we can ameliorate our blind spots when it comes to our experiences. They don’t give us a formulaic recitation of how-to-do check boxes, they do give us the list of what is missing and what is irrelevant so that we can apply those best practices to our own decision-making process.  The last chapter is particular good, it encapsulates and summarizes the book, and it gives the reader a good spot to perform a check the two questions as they apply to our experiences.

It would be easy to discount the book as being dismissive of the importance of our experiences as they apply to our decision-making lives, it is not dismissive. It is, however,  cogent and careful in helping this reader to becoming factually oriented, all the while learning to be aware of my own blind spots, all in service of making better decisions and keeping the truth the truth.

1.     References

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking Fast and Slow. New York City: Farrar, Strau, and Giroux, 2013.