Based On Cognitive Load Theory Applied Problems In Teaching Primary Mathematics

The teaching of elementary mathematical problem is always a key factor of elementary mathematic teaching, whereas most pupils find it is difficult to learn mathematical problem and teachers also think that it is a big obsession in the teaching practice. In fact, the cognitive load theory can be used to explain the reason of this phenomenon and to improve teaching effectively. Because of limited capacity of human working memory, cognitive load would occur when the brain processes excessive information. Here, cognitive load can be divided into intrinsic cognitive load, extraneous cognitive load and germane cognitive load. Thereby, both intrinsic cognitive load and extraneous cognitive load need to be reduced, while it is necessary to increase germane cognitive load in case that the cognitive capacity does not exceed the total capacity. The reason why pupils have difficulty in solving complex mathematical problem is that it exceeds their cognitive capacity and results in cognitive load. Meanwhile, teachers, regardless of the factor of cognitive load, do not design proper teaching methods to manage students' cognitive load, which makes them hard to achieve perfect results. This paper summarizes the research of cognitive load theory at home and abroad and analyzes the reason why mathematics problem is difficult to learn is that it has diverse types, changeable contexts and complex structures in perspective of this theory. Moreover, it distinguishes the application of these three kinds of cognitive load and points out the inadequacy of present teaching. At last, it proposes several suggestions in the guidance of reducing cognitive load:that is, restructuring the content of the stem and designing teaching based on students' original knowledge in order to reduce intrinsic cognitive load, changing the way of presenting materials and designing sample teaching with the help of multimedia teaching in order to reduce extraneous cognitive load, and summarizing the types of questions and constructing schemas to promote schema automation and supervising the solving process by use of met cognition in order to increase germane cognitive load. In a word, this case study is an inspection of the application of cognitive load theory, which analyzes how to help students successfully under the guidance of this theory and enables teachers to analyze the actual teaching record in order to improve their teaching.