Knowledge elaboration: A cognitive load perspective Slava Kalyuga * School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia Abstract The process of knowledge elaboration is considered from the perspective of cognitive load theory. This theory assumes that the available knowledge structures in long-term memory (LTM) are used to organize and guide cognitive processing in complex learning. Accordingly, the role of external instructional guidance in the process of knowledge elaboration could be described as providing a substitute for knowledge structures missing from LTM. Thus, the executive guidance in complex learning environments is shared between the person (based on his/her LTM knowledge structures) and another expert or instructional means. This article analyzes instructional implications of this assumption. Adaptive learning environments are suggested for tailoring knowledge elaboration processes to changing characteristics of individual learners. Means for identifying and predicting the learner’s LTM-based executive guidance are proposed so that they can be utilized in the building of adaptive learning environments. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Cognitive load theory; Executive guidance; Adaptive learning environments; Metacognition 1. Introduction Knowledge elaboration is using prior knowledge to continuously expand and refine new material based on such processes as organizing, restructuring, interconnecting, inte- grating new elements of information, identifying relations between them, and relating the new material to the learner’s prior knowledge. Knowledge elaboration processes result in knowledge components additional to those given in the task statement or instructional message by creating links between prior knowledge and the new information (Anderson, 1995; Mayer, 1984; Pressley, 1982; Reigeluth, Merrill, Wilson, & Spiller, 1980). For example, the success in learning from worked examples depends on the quality of example elabo- rations (Stark, Mandl, Gruber, & Renkl, 2002) or ‘‘self- explanations’’ (Chi, Bassok, Lewis, Reinmann, & Glaser, 1989). The quality of such elaborations could be measured by the proportion of deep principle-based rather than superficial elaborations. Knowledge elaboration processes are essential for meaningful learning since they allow the learners to organize knowledge into a coherent structure and integrate new information with existing knowledge structures. The present article considers knowledge elaboration from the perspective of cognitive load theory. This theory focuses on processing limitations of our cognitive system and means for managing these limitations in learning and instruction. Cognitive load theory assumes two key functional components of our cognitive architecture (see Sweller, 2003, 2004; Van Merrie ¨nboer & Sweller, 2005, for theoretical foundations of the theory). One is a large and permanent store of organized information. The concept of long-term memory (LTM) and knowledge structures in LTM relate to this component. The other basic component is a mechanism that limits the scope of immediate changes to the information store. The concept of working memory (WM) is central to this function. Some theories consider WM as a separate structural compo- nent of the information-processing system (Baddeley, 1986), while other models regard WM as an activated part of LTM (Cowan, 2001). The essential common attributes of most existing WM models are severe limitations in capacity and duration when consciously processing unfamiliar elements of information (for an overview, see Miyake & Shah, 1999). * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ61 2 9385 1985; fax: þ61 2 9385 1946. E-mail address: s.kalyuga@unsw.edu.au 0959-4752/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2009.02.003 Learning and Instruction 19 (2009) 402e410 www.elsevier.com/locate/learninstruc