My action plan still centers around exploring how curriculum can be taught through a lens of wellbeing. As part of my action plan, I have begun the Coursera course “The Science of Wellbeing”. I aim to use the findings from this course, along with professional reading about wellbeing and cognitive load, to help me reevaluate how I can approach my lessons to support student learning.
In my readings about cognitive load theory, there are three types of cognitive load: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane (summarized here on page 3). It can be argued that wellbeing has a significant impact on extraneous cognitive load, as negative thoughts, emotions, inconsistent sleep patterns, and mental health disorders would create an environment that is more challenging for student learning. The pandemic has heightened our sensitivity to these issues. As teachers, identifying tangible ways to decrease cognitive load can begin by evaluating the complexity of the material, identifying how prior frameworks and misconceptions could impact student learning, and determining the clearest way to present material by auditing our use of visual/verbal/graphical/numerical information. An important next step would be to consider a complex concept that is traditionally challenging for students, such as meiosis, or the steps of aerobic cellular respiration, and to unpack how each of these areas of cognitive load theory can be assessed and how I can redefine frameworks in order to be flexible and responsive to my students’ wellbeing and other extraneous cognitive load factors throughout a course.