How cognitive load theory can be applied to collaborative learning

Abstract

It has been said that “[W]ithout an understanding of human cognitive architecture, instruction is blind”. In this respect, collaborative learning as an instructional approach is at best sight-impaired and at worst stone-blind. While collaborative learning is increasingly used in school and lifelong learning for acquiring work-life skills, there is little evidence-informed theory based on human cognitive architecture to guide its implementation. Cognitive load theory has traditionally been associated with individual learning. Based on evolutionary educational psychology and our knowledge of human cognition, in this chapter we indicate that the theory can be used directly to explain collaborative learning. Additions are needed to account for the particulars of collaboration, but those additions also require the basic concepts used by the theory. The major additions are the concept of a collective working memory and generalised domain group knowledge. We suggest that cognitive load theory, with these additions, can clarify collaborative learning and generate novel hypotheses.