  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.
