Cognitive load theory (CLT) (Sweller, 1998) is a well-established framework that has attracted renewed attention due to its evidential role in the new Ofsted ‘Education inspection framework’ (Ofsted, 2019). CLT concerns the architecture of memory – how the brain processes and stores information. All conscious processing occurs in the working memory, which has limited capacity, whereas long-term memory can store a limitless number of schemata – multiple elements of information combined into a single representation (schema) with a specific function. For example, a young child may develop a schema for a flower; they know that it has colourful petals and might have a pleasant fragrance. As they learn more, the schema is modified to accommodate the new information that the flower is a part of a plant, which also has a stem, leaves and roots. Each time they encounter a plant, this schema is retrieved automatically by the brain as it categorises incoming information. The complexity of
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