This video talked about persecution of indigenous students in school. Meanwhile, it said that in 1830, Canada began its first residential school, and required indigenous students to stay away from their families and communities. Also, this school forced them to learn the European culture. Thus, in this situation, the mortality rate of indigenous students reached one in twenty-five in 1831, but compared with World War II, the mortality rate in Canada was one in twenty-six.
This is a horrible data in education. However, in connect with Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), this situation is precisely because the teachers generate teaching strategy which dose not suit students’ learning situation, and gives students extraneous cognitive load heavily. Therefore, students choose suicide because they cannot burden this load.
Nevertheless, Freire (2005) considers that the relationship between teachers and students should not be control and be controlled. Namely, teachers should establish an equality and respect environment with students in learning. Moreover, teachers should give learners rights and resist prejudice (Glass, 2001). In other words, teachers are no longer the controller of the students, but the assistant of the students. In this way, teachers will not control students to learn the course which does not suit students. In addition, combine with Eva’s wiki, the Saxe’s (1995) research through candy sales finds that extracurricular activities help students gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of mathematics. Namely, educators can improve students’ knowledge and understanding of knowledge by changing teaching strategies. In this way, teacher could through decrease students’ extraneous cognitive load to assist them to enhance their academic achievement. Because connect with CLT, the syllabus belongs to extraneous cognitive load. Therefore, this load is changed by the educator’s changes to the instructional design. In addition, Freire proposes that teachers should use “problem-posing education” method in teaching, and abandon “banking education” method. In other words, teachers need to encourage students to ask questions and take different views in the classroom. In this way, students will have more initiative in studying.
Thus, according to CLT, if teachers want to promote students’ academic achievement, they could through create an equality and respect environment, and inspire students to ask questions and speak own points to reduce students’ extraneous cognitive load. Because when extraneous cognitive load decrease, students’ learning will be more effective.
References:
Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogy of the Oppressed/Paulo Freire. New York.–London: Continuum.
Glass, R. D. (2001). On Paulo Freire’s philosophy of praxis and the foundations of liberation education. Educational Researcher, 30(2), 15-25.
Saxe, G. B. (1995). Selling candy: A Study of cognition in context. (pp. 330-337.)
Cognitivie Load Theory (CLT) 