Hi there,
Welcome to Field Notes from Refined Learning Design. Whether you’re back from last month or joining in for the first time, I’m glad you’re here.
Each month, I share an idea I’ve been exploring and something that’s sparked reflection or shaped how I design professional learning. You’ll also find at least one resource recommendation, a quote I can’t stop thinking about, and a peek into what’s happening in my community of PL designers.
This newsletter is grounded in the values I carry into every project: from designing with purpose, to honoring the people and the process. (Discover my guiding principles here.)
This month’s field note explores why “more” isn’t always better in professional learning and how design choices shape attention and learning.
📓 Field Note: Managing Cognitive Load in Professional Learning Design
📍 Sparked by: Learning Forward Annual Conference sessions
💡 Big idea: Less, but better
When More Becomes Too Much
My interest in the learning sciences began in 2015 with a Twitter book study of Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Since then, I’ve intentionally sought out resources to better understand how learning happens, how the brain processes information, and how insights from the learning sciences, such as retrieval practice and cognitive load theory, inform the design choices I make.
One of my favorite workshops focuses on how to make learning stick, and the most recent iteration includes a deeper look at cognitive load theory. As I revised that session, I began paying closer attention to the design decisions I was making and how they might be influencing attention and learning. A couple of years ago, a blog post helped me evaluate images in my sessions resources as instructive, decorative, or seductive.
Seductive images are visually interesting and engaging, but not directly tied to the learning goals. They catch attention, but they don’t necessarily support understanding. What I understand more clearly now is that this pattern doesn’t stop with images. The seductive details effect applies not only to visuals, but also to text, stories, metaphors, examples, and even well-intended enthusiasm. A story, GIF, or extra explanation might boost engagement, but more engagement does not always mean better learning.
As Daniel Kahneman reminds us:
Anything that occupies your working memory reduces your ability to think.
Because working memory is limited, our attention is finite, and design choices determine where thinking goes. When we add more than learners can reasonably hold, thinking doesn’t deepen — it shifts away from what matters most.
A recent Learning Forward Annual Conference session, Learning Science: Real Research, Real Classroom Impact, facilitated by Jim Heal and Meg Lee, sharpened my focus on the learning sciences and the role in professional learning design. It pushed me to think more carefully about seductive details and, once again, to update and refine my own session designs. That ongoing iteration is what led me back to cognitive load theory and to this month’s reflection.
A Quick Intro to Cognitive Load
The learning sciences help us understand how people learn, and cognitive load theory (CLT) is one important framework within that field. At a high level, CLT explains how the limited capacity of working memory affects how learners process new information.
Julie Dirksen captures this succinctly in Design for How People Learn when she describes one of the main functions of learning design as:
The ruthless management of cognitive load.
Cognitive load theory often distinguishes between different types of mental effort. Two are especially relevant here:
Intrinsic load: the inherent complexity of the content itself
Extraneous load: unnecessary effort caused by poor design, distractions, or irrelevant details
The seductive details effect falls squarely into extraneous load. Seductive details are interesting but irrelevant elements that are not directly tied to the learning goals. These details can appear in images, text, speech, stories, or examples.
In Do I Have Your Attention?, the author offers a familiar example: a teacher shares a funny vacation story while teaching a geology lesson about the Grand Canyon. Students remember the story, but not the geology. The story captured attention, but it didn’t support the learning goal.
I heard a similar example in the Learning Forward session. A facilitator shared a student’s favorite school memory: when their teacher dressed up as Abraham Lincoln. The student remembered the costume, but could not recall anything specific about the lesson itself.
In Stop Talking, Start Influencing, Jared Cooney Horvath reinforces this idea:
Including cute, silly or otherwise irrelevant images during an oral presentation has been shown to boost engagement but potentially impair learning.
This helped me name something I’ve experienced many times. In one recent PD session, I noticed myself zoning out as the presenter shared extensive background information, research context, and what felt like “extra” commentary. Those details distracted me from the core ideas and prompted a necessary reflection on how often I may be doing the same thing. (Many apologies to former students and session participants. 😬)
💡 Facilitation Moves That Reduce Seductive Details
One practical way to push back on seductive details is through intentional editing. In Training Design, Delivery, and Diplomacy, A. Keith Young and Tamarra Osborne emphasize what they call Clarity Edits:
With your goal clearly in mind, post it at the top of your planning notes or computer screen and edit every activity to ensure participants move toward that goal. If you’re not confident an activity moves people toward your intended destination, replace it with one that does. Dynamic trainers embody strong instructional and editorial skills.
That framing positions design and facilitation as editorial work. Every choice either strengthens focus or pulls attention away from what matters most.
As I plan and revise sessions, I’ve started asking myself these questions:
Does this directly support the learning goal?
Is it essential for understanding or applying the core idea?
Or is it a seductive detail that might entertain but distract?
Alignment matters here. When details, resources, tools, and activities are intentionally aligned to the session goals, I’m less likely to fall into the trap of adding just one more thing.
An Editorial Lens for PD Design
One immediate shift I’m working on is economy of language. I’m inspired by authors like Michael Bungay Stanier, who model clarity and precision through concise phrasing. I want my talking points, slides, and shared resources to do the same. I’m also leaning on GenAI tools to help me tighten language and remove unnecessary clutter.
Thinking about economy of language has also pushed me to broaden what I mean by “editing.” It’s not just about word choice. Slides, stories, examples, activities, and transitions are all forms of language that signal what matters and where attention should go.
Below is a CUT or KEEP audit I’m developing to guide my design decisions. I’d love your feedback.
Start with the goal
What’s the one thing I want participants to remember and be able to do after the session?
Audit each element
If this activity, slide, or story didn’t exist, would participants still get that one thing?
If yes → CUT or shrink
Is this detail mainly cute, fun, or impressive, or does it actually help people think about the goal?
Could this become what people remember instead of the idea or skill?
If yes → CUT
Do environmental and logistical details help people feel safe, welcomed, and able to focus on learning?
If yes → KEEP
What could be curated and shared later to avoid cluttering synchronous time?
For me, this is what precision looks like in practice: making deliberate choices about what stays, what goes, and what gets saved for later so learners can spend their cognitive energy on what matters most.
I’d Love to Hear
When does “more” start to become too much in your professional learning designs?
How do you intentionally lessen cognitive load for participants in your sessions?
How do you audit materials to balance engagement with focus?
Where have you noticed seductive details creeping into your design or delivery?
Reply to this email, or share your reflections on social media and tag me. I’d love to learn how you’re managing cognitive load in the design of your professional learning experiences.
Noting, reflecting, connecting,
Kathryn
PS: If something here sparked an idea, please forward this post to an EduFriend who’s also designing professional learning. ✨
Highlights from the Community
Here’s what’s happening in our community spaces this month:
December’s Mindful Musings prompts explore the theme of gifts and presence. What feels like a gift in your world right now?
We’re looking forward to our third annual “Vision and Vibes” meetup to plan for the year ahead.
Learn more about my online minicourse, Begin with Intention.
The Refined Design Learning Community is a space for curious, collaborative educators who design learning experiences for other adults. Our members are professional learning providers, educational coaches, PLC leads, admin, and aspiring PD leaders.
I use the Circle platform to host the community, and it’s free to join and participate. In our spaces, you’ll find thoughtful discussions, book clubs, and virtual meetups, which are open to all in the community. While I plan to offer paid courses in the future, nearly everything available now (except one minicourse) is completely free.
A good rule of thumb is to assume that everything matters. In many cases, the power of these small details comes from focusing people’s attention in a particular direction.
Reflecting • Connecting • Refining
📓 Why Field Notes?
This newsletter is inspired by the idea of self-anthropology from Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff. Just like field notes help researchers make sense of what they observe, these monthly reflections help me capture ideas, tools, and questions from my own work designing professional learning. I share them here in the spirit of experimentation, connection, and ongoing refinement.
🤖 AI helped polish this post, but the ideas, intention, curation, and care are all mine.
