Miller’s (Adjusted) Law
Kieran O’Mahony · Eye on Education eBooks · 2020
Too often information is overwhelming, fire hosed, and inaccessible—mile wide, inch deep. Schools do not need to be sites of stress and anxiety for children. In this chapter, we strive to make relevant new research and data so that you can choose to adapt as needed. The three scaffolding questions make visible what other teachers are struggling with, what they are adjusting to, and what they need help with, as we deepen our understanding. We review two pillars of pedagogy that are neurobiological. In the first case, George Miller defined the limitations of human working memory to be seven units plus or minus two. Subsequently, Nelson Cowan adjusted this number down to three or four units. For educators, this is significant and helps explain cognitive overload, difficulty with attention, and points to reasons why some children act out and are disruptive in classrooms. Recommendations are offered to alleviate common discipline issues by adopting a neural position with regard to working memory, cognitive load, and attention.