Segmenting and Pre-Training

Segmenting and Pre-Training

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Segmenting and Pre-Training

Part 1: Segmenting and Pre-training

At times, learning materials a student is presented with can be complex. Primarily, the pre-training and segmenting principles are applied by instructors with a view of reducing the cognitive load a student has to deal with by breaking it down into smaller segments or tasks. Hence, it is necessary for instructors to consider the number of segments or tasks are going to drive a particular concept. The instructor as well needs to put into consideration how the complex concept will be learned. The more a task becomes complex, the more segmentation it will require.

It is fundamental to recognize that using the segmenting principle, elements or parts of the material does not have to be exempted because of its complexity. The segmenting principle becomes useful when the instructor is interacting with the learner that exhibits problems with learning a particular topic (Travers, 2007). Related to the segmenting principle is that of pre-training. This principle offers a highlight that gives learners terms, characteristics, definitions, or terms for understanding previous concepts learnt in other lessons. In particular, this principle would be useful for learners that have a problem with studying complex materials. It gives the learner enough time to process learning information prior to studying it, hence limiting the processing that comes thereafter.

With regard to my JIT lesson, my design of a pre-training exercise would entail an exercise that gives a highlight of the lesson. This exercise would entail limited information of the subject matter. This is because too much information would overwhelm the learners leading to frustration (Travers, 2007). This would hence be beneficial for students with insufficient cognitive capacity of engaging in the initial processing needed to understand the subject. This would then be facilitated by creating handouts that give an information explanation of the key concepts to be studied in the class.

Part 2: Worked Examples

            My choice JIT learning activity will focus on chemistry and more specifically, Charles’ law. Primarily, Charles’ law is an ideal gas law with a specific instance where temperature and volume are linearly proportional when mass and pressure are constant (Mascetta, 2009). In this regard, I am going to demonstrate how to use Charles’ law when solving a problem of direct proportion. In this case, there is need to grasp certain symbols that will represent important terms. Temperature is normally represented by T, volume by V, pressure by P and mass by M. A common principle of this law states that V and T are proportional at constant P and M.

Hence, if we know T is changed by factor z, then we can be able to calculate V_final = V_initial x z. For example, suppose we are told that a sample 3.5L helium gas has its temperature increased by 600 Kelvin, 300K to 900K and we are required to find its new volume. In this case, we can establish that the gas’ temperature has been raised by 3y (900/300). Hence,

V_final = V_initial x z
V_final =  3.5 L x 3

V_final = 10.5 L

For an additional, whenever you are solving a related problem with this calculation, the law’s principle requires that the temperature be expressed in Kelvin (K). Sometimes the temperature is expressed Fahrenheit or degrees Celsius. According to Mascetta (2009), it is important to convert it into Kelvin before calculating factor y.

 

References

Mascetta, J. A. (2009). Barron’s E-Z chemistry. Hauppauge, N.Y: Barron’s Educational Series.

Travers, R. M. W. (2007). Essentials of learning. New York: Macmillan.