Teaching is one of the most mentally demanding professions. Between lesson planning, classroom management, meetings, grading, and supporting students’ wellbeing, teachers constantly juggle competing priorities and often end up with cognitive overload. It’s no wonder so many feel overwhelmed. This is why it is so important to be able to reduce cognitive load for teachers.
Cognitive load theory (proposed by John Sweller in 1988) refers to the mental effort required to process information and complete tasks. When teachers carry too much of it, stress increases and energy for meaningful teaching decreases. The good news? Small, intentional strategies can help lighten the mental load so you can focus on what really matters—your students and your wellbeing.
There are three different forms of cognitive load for teachers:
- Extraneous load → the “unnecessary stuff” that eats up brainpower (like a messy desk, unorganised instructional materials).
- Intrinsic cognitive load → the actual difficulty of the material itself (working out how to teach organic chemistry to students). Teaching some subjects use more intrinsic load than others. For example, teaching high school organic chemistry has a high intrinsic load compared to teaching grade 7 water cycle. A lot of teachers underestimate the need for their own learning process to teach themselves the new information before teaching their students. This may be the case for a new teacher who isn’t across all the content yet, or even an experienced teacher who is teaching a new subject or new curriculum for the first time.
- Germane load – the useful mental effort that contributes directly to progress and learning and the ability to complete complex tasks. We want to MAXIMISE germane cognitive load, and limit to extraneous and intrinsic load.
Understanding cognitive psychology, and therefore managing teachers’ cognitive load, is imperative for a productive work environment and for managing mental health.
Here are 11 different ways teachers can reduce cognitive load every day:
How teachers can reduce cognitive load every day
1. Batch Similar Tasks
Group similar tasks like grading, responding to emails, or photocopying instead of switching back and forth. Multitasking drains focus and adds unnecessary strain. Likewise, batch your lesson planning with similar grades or topics. E.g. in middle school, plan all your grade 6 lessons, then grade 7 etc. For primary teaching, plan all your math lessons, then english, then history for the week. This stops your brain from using energy constantly switching from one topic or grade to the next then back again.
By optimising your planning time, you will reduce extraneous cognitive load results by reducing the amount of mental work needed for each task. Even batch prepping your lunches is a great way to reduce cognitive load during the week!
2. Use Checklists
Write down repetitive processes (like setting up labs or marking rubrics). Checklists free up memory capacity for creative thinking and working memory rather than remembering small details – particularly if they are just logistical items.
3. Automate Where Possible
Use tools like online gradebooks, auto-marking quizzes, or calendar reminders to take care of repetitive admin work and reduce cognitive load.
It is also helpful to schedule your emails. Write your emails when it suits you, then schedule them for when you want people to receive them. This makes it easier for you to manage your work load and batch your preparation rather than worrying about sending an email too early or late in the day.
4. Declutter Your Workspace
A tidy desk (both physical and digital) makes it easier to focus. Reduce visual distractions by filing papers and organising desktop folders. When your workspace is tidy, the human mind also feels less cluttered and is able to function on a higher level.
5. Establish Routines
Create predictable structures for the start and end of lessons, handing in work, homework, what to do if students miss a lesson, and managing behaviour. Routines cut down on constant decision-making for you and reduce cognitive load.
One really helpful classroom routine I use is having multiple groupings of students already printed on large A3 paper around the room. The same class is split up into three different types of groups – lab groups, small groups and discussion groups. That way I don’t have to use up precious cognitive load to decide how to group my students every lesson!
11 practical ways teachers can reduce cognitive load
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6. Pre-Plan
Pre-plan as much as you can the night before to limit decision fatigue. This includes outfits, lunches, what bag to take, etc so you’re not starting the day with a lot of decisions. These decisions aren’t super tiresome, but having to start the day with them can make you feel stressed and overloaded before you even get to work.
7. Use Templates
Try to use templates for as much of your lesson planning and daily practices as possible. Whether it be your lesson slides, experiments, worksheets, report comment writing, board games or emails, templates save you so much time and brain power!
You might like to check out this blog post for 11 FREE templates for teachers.
8. Use Visual Timers and Prompts
Online timers are great to put up on the screen to keep students accountable. These reduce the number of verbal reminders you have to give, and also the number of questions you get asked, saving your mental energy for teaching rather than time-keeping.
9. Re-use
Reduce cognitive load by re-using resources as much as possible. Whether this be the same slides you used last year, worksheets from years ago, or an exam that just needs to be updated. You don’t need to always start from scratch and sometimes a little editing is all a resource needs!
10. Use instructional videos
Utilising effective instructional videos is a great way to give yourself some cognitive space. Whether you use them to watch as a class, or to upload onto your students online learning environments, these videos can save you the intrinsic cognitive load needed to explicitly teach a concept and leave it to the video creator to do for you.
You will find some great instructional videos for science on The Animated Teacher YouTube channel.
11. Buy Resources
Sometimes you just need to bite the bullet and purchase a resource to save yourself and reduce cognitive load. BUT… If you are going to do this, please make sure you do the following to ensure that it actually does reduce cognitive load:
- Check the resource description or preview to ensure it does what you want it to!
- Make sure it comes with full teacher answers
- Determine the resource type – aim for no-prep, print-and-go, or digital escape room resources
Reducing cognitive effort isn’t about working less – it’s about working smarter. Understanding the different types of cognitive load and how they impact our cognitive processes is imperative for having longevity in a teaching career. By streamlining processes, automating repetitive tasks, implementing best practices, and focusing on what matters most, teachers can reduce cognitive load and free up mental energy to be present, creative, and engaged in the classroom. In turn, this will also have a positive impact student learning and promote deep learning in the classroom.
Remember: your energy is one of your most valuable teaching tools. Protect it and reduce cognitive load wherever possible.
