Two major learning theories have dominated recent literature on optimizing
knowledge acquisition: constructivism and cognitive load theory. Constructivism, on
the one hand, gives preeminent value to the development of students’ self-regulated
process of constructing mathematical concepts. Its basic tenet is that students
acquire their own mathematical understanding by constructing them from the inside
rather than by internalizing them from the outside. Cognitive load theory, on the
other hand, suggests that the free exploration of a highly complex environment may
cause a heavy working memory load and led to poorer learning. Advocates of this
view further argue that constructivist strategies provide learners with information
that exceeds their working memory capacity, and thus fail to efficiently guide
learners’ acquisition of mathematical knowledge. The current study describes the
elements of constructivism theory and their cognitive basis and show how they can
be aligned with the structures that constitute human cognitive architecture. More
specifically, we present several ways in which cognitive load can be managed by
these elements and so facilitate mathematical learning
