Pre-Training Principle

Overview

The Pre-training Principle is one of Mayer's 12 multimedia learning principles. The Pre-training Principle states that prior to beginning a lesson, people learn more deeply and efficiently if they are already familiar with some of the fundamentals and characteristics of the key concepts in the lesson(Mayer, n.d.). It means understanding basic definitions, terms, or concepts before beginning the learning experience. The pre-training principle prevents the learner's cognitive system from being overburdened, especially when the content is complex and new.

Evidence

"Pretraining can help beginners to manage their processing of complex material by reducing the amount of essential processing they do at the time of the presentation" (Clark & Mayer, 2011, p. 215). In these situations involving complex material, it is helpful if some of the processing can be done in advance" (Ruth Colvin Clark, Richard E. Mayer, e-learning and the Science of instruction, P214).

Pre-training is beneficial for learners who are unfamiliar with the content of a lesson. It reduces the amount of information they must process as well as the level of effort required for thinking and reasoning, preventing cognitive overload.

The effects of using screencasting as a multimedia pre-training tool to manage the intrinsic cognitive load of chemical equilibrium instruction on high school chemistry students were studied at the University of San Francisco.

Chemistry is a complex knowledge domain. Chemical Equilibrium, in particular, presents more significant cognitive challenges than other topics in chemistry, according to research. The researchers randomly assigned students to two groups: pre-training and no pre-training. The pre-training group received a 10-minute and 52-second pre-training screencast that provided definitions, concepts, and an overview of chemical equilibrium. Following pre-training, both groups were given a 50-minute instructional lecture.

Because there were no significant differences in prior knowledge, it can be concluded that pre-training was effective in reducing intrinsic load.

*Cognitive Load Theory describes the impact a subject, and the learning environment, have on working memory(Sweller, 2011).

*Intrinsic load is the facet of Cognitive Load Theory that explains the complexity innate to complex subjects.

Design Implications

How do car brakes work

Learning about the braking system, the short pre-training on the screen not only shows the pictures of how brakes work, but the learners will also see the parts of the name and Characteristics of brakes. The learner has some background knowledge of the parts involved in the process, and this prevents them from unknowing terms and performances before their actual manipulations. Before attending the actual class, the pre-training principle familiarizes learners with new or complex material(Pre-Training Principle, n.d.).

Challenges

The design of choosing the key concepts is hard to control. As Mayer states that they do not know "how best to identify key concepts that should be included in pre-training or how intensive the pre-training needs to be." (Ruth Colvin Clark, Richard E. Mayer, e-learning and the Science of instruction, P219)

References

Mayer, R. E. (n.d.). Pre-training Principle (Chapter 10) - Multimedia Learning. In Cambridge Core. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/multimedia-learning/pretraining-principle/01791D57F5D4164251269E6DF56A8BF1

Clark, R., C., &  Mayer, R., E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3rd ed). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection.

Mayer, R. E.,(2005). Principles for managing essential processing in multimedia learning: Segmenting, pretraining, and modality principles. In R.E. Mayer(Ed.), the Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning(pp.169-182).New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pre-Training Principle. (n.d.). E-Learning Essentials - 2018. https://elearnuoit2018.weebly.com/pre-training-principle.html

Sweller, J. (2011). Cognitive load theory. In J. P. Mestre & B. H. Ross (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Cognition in education (pp. 37–76). Elsevier Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-387691-1.00002-8