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Cognitive load theory (CLT), a construct of instructional psychologist John Sweller, has long been a mainstay of educational psychology and educational technology university courses in Australia and internationally. Although aspects of this theory have been criticised, including its neglect of critical thinking and its insistence on direct instruction as opposed to inquiry-based pedagogies, a comprehensive philosophical, neurobiological, and education critique has been missing. This paper fills the gap by subjecting the main theoretical and pedagogical claims of CLT to close and searching scrutiny. It utilises a newly emerging synthesis of philosophy and cognitive brain science, appropriately known as Cognitive Philosophy that is informed by predictive processing and encompasses the science of complex systems and neural plasticity. In mounting this critique, the paper pushes past CLT’s emphasis on the transient nature of working memory and the notion of cognitive ‘load’, to propose an account of the learning brain that is predictive (not reactive), embodied, neuronally plastic, non-linear, dynamically self-organising, and inherently emotional. This alternative immediately problematises Sweller’s understanding of working memory and his account of language learning, based on Geary’s questionable claims regarding the nature of knowledge, while keeping the practical needs of teachers firmly in view. Whereas CLT requires teachers to focus on mitigating putative ‘load’ in working memory, this paper urges teachers to abandon such theoretical and pedagogical constraints. Instead, classroom practice should be informed by cognitive philosophy and teachers should focus on implementing Stanislas Dehaene’s four pillars of learning, namely: attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation.
Kim et al. (Mon,) studied this question.