Between compliance, assessment, administration, standardisation and constant new initiatives, teachers are being stretched to the limit. Even the most passionate educators ask themselves:
“When do I actually get the time to think about how to make learning engaging again?”
And the teachers I know don’t want pre-prepared lessons handed down from above. They want agency. They know the students in front of them and want autonomy to design bespoke learning experiences that will truly engage them.
The hidden cost of cognitive overload
This isn’t laziness or resistance to change, it’s cognitive overload (yes, that trending term we apply to students can equally be applied to teachers). Research by Sweller (1988) and Wiliam (2011) shows that the human brain has limited working memory. When overloaded with competing demands, reporting deadlines, data entry, lesson documentation, it has no capacity left for creative or deep thinking.
Teaching has always been intellectually demanding, but recent years have made it cognitively unsustainable. Teachers are expected to be experts in curriculum design, differentiation, assessment, wellbeing, and compliance, all while maintaining engaging classrooms. It’s no wonder many feel they’re surviving, not thriving. And many are contemplating leaving the profession (NSW Teachers’ Federation, 2023).
Planning has become transactional
Planning is the heartbeat of great teaching, where creativity lives, where teachers imagine experiences that connect ideas, challenge thinking, and bring learning to life.
Yet for many, planning has become transactional: a box to tick rather than a space to think. Teachers recycle old units because they lack the cognitive space to start fresh. They spend hours documenting learner adjustments, or uploading plans across multiple platforms, all at the expense of reflection and innovation.
Some are reduced to being delivery agents for off-the-shelf materials, provided by well-meaning bureaucrats who assume this will help. The result? Lessons are covered, but deep learning doesn’t always occur. Students may learn content, but not curiosity.
What teachers want most is time to do the creative, intellectual work of adapting learning to the students in front of them (NSW Teachers’ Federation, 2023).
Engagement begins with teacher thinking time
The irony is that the very thing that drives student engagement, a teacher’s capacity to think deeply about learning, is the first casualty of our current system. When teachers are mentally overloaded, they fall back on what’s familiar. When they have time and space to think, they experiment, innovate, and connect ideas, and students respond with curiosity and excitement.
The OECD’s TALIS 2024 report highlights this tension. Teachers report spending significant time on administrative tasks that take them away from what they value most: lesson preparation and collaboration with colleagues (OECD, 2025).
If we want students to think critically, creatively, and independently, we must first give teachers the conditions to do the same.
Reclaiming the space for deep planning
Solving this isn’t about working longer hours or adding more initiatives. It’s about reimagining the systems that surround teachers. Schools need to reduce friction in planning, removing the administrative clutter that consumes teacher time and mental bandwidth. We need tools, processes, and cultures that amplify teacher thinking rather than drain it.
Imagine if every teacher had a coherent system connecting curriculum, national professional standards, evidence-based pedagogy, and assessment with compliance automated. Imagine planning becoming a space for curiosity, reflection, and creativity once again. That’s when classrooms truly come alive.
The bottom line
Teachers don’t need more passion. They already have it. Though it is quickly dying. They need time and cognitive space to think deeply about how to make learning meaningful. Because when teachers have that space, students have the freedom to think creatively.
But sadly, we cannot simply give teachers more hours (unless we move to a four-day-week for students, which some schools are experimenting with), but we can give them smarter systems and processes that allow them to reclaim their agency and amplify their impact. That’s what every great teacher and every great school truly wants.
Intrigued enough to explore the Vivedus solution to all these problems?
References
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285.
Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded Formative Assessment. Solution Tree Press.
OECD (2025). TALIS 2024 Results: The State of Teaching. OECD Publishing, Paris.
Hargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School. Teachers College Press.
NSW Teachers’ Federation (2023). Media Release: Teachers’ Workload and Engagement Survey.
