The science of instruction in medical education
The science of instruction is the scientific study of how to help people learn. Three important instructional goals are: to reduce extraneous processing (cognitive processing that does not serve an instructional objective) during learning; to manage essential processing (cognitive processing aimed at representing the essential material in working memory) during learning, and to foster generative processing (cognitive processing aimed at making sense of the material) during learning. Nine evidence-based principles for accomplishing these goals are presented.