Colleagues,
I'd like to open a discussion around cognitive load and how we're applying the principles consistently across classrooms.
Our recent learning walks suggest that staff are generally very good at identifying when pupils are struggling, but the response isn't always consistent.
In some cases, additional support means adding more:
• Instructions
• Prompts
• Worksheets
• Examples
• Written explanations
The intention is positive, but we may occasionally be increasing the amount of information pupils have to process.
Some approaches we've found useful include:
• Reducing instructions to the essential steps
• Modelling one process before asking pupils to work independently
• Using worked examples before moving to partially completed examples
• Pre-teaching genuinely essential vocabulary
• Removing visual or written information once pupils no longer need the scaffold
The final point is particularly important.
A scaffold should ideally be something pupils move beyond, rather than something they become dependent upon.
I'd be interested in how colleagues are approaching this, particularly in mixed-attainment classes.
Sarah
This fits closely with what we're seeing through the inclusion review.
I'd particularly support the final point about removing scaffolds.
For some pupils, the challenge isn't providing support — it's knowing when to withdraw it so that independence becomes the next stage of learning.
We've started looking at our practical instructions through exactly this lens.
Rather than automatically simplifying everything for pupils who need additional support, we're trying to identify which parts of the task genuinely require adaptation.
The scientific thinking should remain challenging even if the route into the task is made more accessible.
We've had a similar discussion in Maths.
One thing we're trying is to make the worked example progressively less complete.
The teacher models the first example, the second has some missing steps, and pupils eventually have to decide the method themselves.
That seems to encourage independence without suddenly removing support.
We're doing something similar with extended writing.
If every stage is scaffolded permanently, pupils can become very good at completing the scaffold without necessarily becoming better writers.
We've started asking staff to consider what the end point of the scaffold is before they introduce it.
That's a really useful formulation, Emily:
"What is the end point of the scaffold?"
I think that could become a useful prompt for our next teaching-and-learning review.
I'll add it to the discussion notes.
One practical issue we've found is that different teachers can interpret "reduce cognitive load" very differently.
A short shared checklist might be useful, particularly for ECTs, so that the principle doesn't become another piece of educational jargon.