Pedagogy First. Technology Second.

Four Slots, No More

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Managing Cognitive Load in 05 Explanations & Modelling, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

Working memory holds about four items, and every element on your screen bids for one of those slots. A logo, a border, a sentence nobody needs right now: each one is renting space the explanation requires.

Sweller's point is structural, not stylistic. Stripping slides to essentials is load management, and so is pressing B to blank the screen when you want attention on you.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

A teacher preparing to explain supply and demand cuts the slide to one graph and a four-word heading. When the discussion moves beyond the graph, the B key blanks the screen and the class's four slots go to the speaking voice.

Try it

A way to begin

Count the elements on each slide of the deck you will teach next. Anything beyond the essentials is a candidate for deletion, and the B key covers the moments when the essential thing is you.

What to notice

Reading what happens

  • Where pupils look during the explanation, with a full screen and with a blank one.
  • Whether recall improves on the ideas taught from stripped slides. If nothing changes, look at what else is loading the moment.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

  • What counts as essential depends on the idea and the class; the four-item limit is general, but the editing is local.
  • A blank screen shifts the whole load onto your spoken explanation, which is why this pairs with small steps.

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

Through the inclusive practice lens, this is one of the approaches that may reduce barriers around:

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Sweller's cognitive load theory supplies the mechanism: working memory is narrow and easily overwhelmed, and explanation is an act of load management. The card’s attribution stands as published: Sweller.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Explanations & Modelling.

Keep exploring

Where next?

Back to this strategy in 05 Explanations & Modelling, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.

Want to take this further?

Support is available

Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.

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