… Students can only hold so much information in their working memory, and too much information without time to process can interfere with learning.
The brain can become overloaded if too much information is presented at once. Most Learning Activities include some lecture and demonstrating. Lecturing too long without obvious student mental involvement (note-taking does not count as an engagement activity) or having students raise hands do not require any active mental engagement. By breaking the lesson into a series of Learning Activities, students have time to digest the information between each Learning Activity before moving on in the lesson.