Resources: Instructional Design & Technology Canada

Chunking in relation to organizing knowledge refers to a method of making more efficient use of short-term memory. The “Chunking” resembles grouping, or categorizing of information. Its purpose is to break up larger amounts of information into smaller units, or chunks. The idea is to have these chunks of information introduced to the learners “…based on [the learners] prior knowledge and then use these chunks to build larger, more interconnected knowledge structures” (Ambrose, et al., 2010, p. 51).  Students will learn more effectively when they are “…provided with a structure for organizing new information” (Ambrose, et al., 2010, p. 53). The structure referred to is to provide students with a grouping, categorization or other organization strategy to connect the different pieces, or chunks of prior knowledge and current learning objectives.  The implications of this research indicate that we, as experts in our fields cannot expect that learners have efficiently and successf...