Cognitive load has important implications for both
classroom teaching and technical talks. To maximize
learning, instructors must minimize cognitive load by limiting
the amount of material presented, having a clear organizational
structure to the presentation, linking new
material to ideas that the audience already knows, and
avoiding unfamiliar technical terminology and interesting
little digressions.
Expert competence5,12 is a primary goal of education
and is another area in which research has provided useful
insights. Expert competence has been found to have
roughly two parts: factual knowledge and an organizational
structure that allows the expert to effectively retrieve
and apply those facts. Organizing physics ideas
around general concepts is part of building such a structure.
If students do not have a suitable organizational
structure, simply pouring additional facts on them may actually
deter learning.