Examples from Gagneís Theories

Nine Events of Instruction

Strategies for Choosing Instructional Events *

  1. Gaining attention can be omitted as an event when the motivation of learners can be assumed. For much of instruction it is an essential event.
  2. Informing learners of the objective of a lesson is almost always a good idea, except when the objective is already apparent.
  3. Stimulating recall of prior learning is usually a critical event, although it may not be necessary for skillful self-learners.
  4. Presenting the stimulus is always essential and is usually made more effective when features are made highly distinctive.
  5. Providing learner guidance is the event that most typically may be provided by the learner's use of cognitive strategies in self-instruction.
  6. Eliciting performance. Skilled learners virtually always assure themselves of their own performance capabilities.
  7. Providing feedback is a step that usually accompanies the performance. Learners who are engaging in self-instruction will seek accurate information about the adequacy of their performances. It is this event that completes the learning, and to omit it would be a serious mistake.
  8. Assessing performance will usually be done by experienced learners in following up the initial performance event.
  9. Enhancing retention and transfer requires additional practice with a variety of examples and situations. Theses will need to be supplied for most learners, but may often be independently sought out by learners who are organizing their own instruction .

Including more events than necessary is likely to lead to boredom on the part of the students. Providing fewer than is needed may provide for inadequate instruction.

Comparison Of Instructional Events for Group and Individual Instruction *

Instructional Event Group Individual
1. Gaining attention Teacher stimulates attention of group members Student adopts attentional strategy
2. Informing learner of objective Teacher communicates to group Student confirms or selects objective
3. Stimulating recall Teacher asks for recall by group members Student retrieves essential items
4. Presenting stimulus Teacher gives emphasis to distinctive features Student attends to distinctive features
5. Guiding learning Teacher suggests hints, organizes, cues to retrieval Student adopts own encoding strategies
6. Eliciting performance Teacher uses a test to assess performance of group Student verifies own performance
7. Providing feedback Teacher provides feedback, differing among students in precision Student provides own feedback
8. Enhancing retention Teacher provides retrieval cues and conducts spaced reviews Student supplies own retrieval cues, conducts own reviews
9. Promoting transfer Teacher sets novel and varied tasks for all group members Student adopts strategies of elaboration and generalization

Outcomes of Learning *

1. Verbal Information
Refers to the organized bodies of information that we acquire. The units of verbal information may be classified as names, facts, principles, and generalizations. Verbal information often serves as a perquisite for further learning, provides labels requir ed for everyday communication, and functions to provide a vehicle for thought. Here are some specific examples of items of verbal information as goals for instruction:

2. Intellectual Skills
Involve knowing how, as opposed to information in the sense of knowing that. The intellectual skills one learns enables one to respond to entire classes of interactions with the environment. Intellectual skills are divided into the following subordinate c ategories: discriminations, concrete concepts, defined concepts, rules, and higher order rules.
Discriminations
The ability to distinguish one feature of an object from another, which includes distinguishing one symbol from another. Examples of discrimination include:
  • Hearing a difference between two notes played on the piano.
  • Distinguishing among different colors of socks in a drawer by pulling out a matched pair.
  • Distinguishing between the symbols < and >.
Concrete Concepts
Concrete concept learning involves learning to identify examples of objects, object qualities, or object relations. Examples of concrete concepts include:
  • Identifying the middle of a group of objects.
  • Arranging a group of different sized straws from largest to smallest.
  • Marking all the squares on a paper showing circles, triangles, and squares.
Defined Concepts
Concepts that cannot be identified by pointing them out must be defined. Examples of defined concepts include:
  • Classifying examples of the learning outcome of verbal information.
  • Identifying all the grocers described in a story using the definition.
  • Classifying governments as democracies using the definition.
Rules
Rules make it possible for us to do something, using symbols, and for us to respond to a class of things with a class of performances. Examples of rules include:
  • Demonstrating that a + b = b + a.
  • Showing that force equals mass times acceleration.
Higher-order Rules
Is a still a rule and differs only in complexity from the simpler rules that compose it. Examples of higher-order rules include:
  • Using a rule for planning balanced budgets, given fixed income and fixed expenses.
  • Using a lesson plan, given class objectives, activities, time, and resource constraints.

3. Cognitive Strategies
Refer to the ways by which learners guide their attending, learning, remembering, and thinking. These are processes that activate and modify other learning processes. Examples of cognitive strategies include:

4. Attitudes
Many can be identified as desirable educational goals. A second class of attitudes consists of positive preferences for certain kinds of activities. Attitudes are sometimes coupled in thoughts with values. An attitude is an acquired internal state that in fluences the choice of personal action toward some class of things, persons, or events. Examples of attitudes include:

5. Motor Skills
The function of motor skills is to make possible the precise, smooth, and accurately timed execution of performances involving the use of muscles. Examples of motor skills include:

Conditions of Learning *

These are conditions that are of critical importance for the support of learning processes as they apply to each of the five major categories of learning outcomes.

1. Standard Verbs that Correspond to Each of the Categories of Learning Outcomes.

2. Summary of External Conditions

Verbal Information
  • Draw attention to distinctive features by variations in print or speech.
  • Present information so that it can be made into chunks.
  • Provide a meaningful context for effective encoding of information.
  • Provide cues for effective recall and generalization of information.
Intellectual Skills
  • Call attention to distinctive features.
  • Stay within the limits of working memory.
  • Stimulate the recall of previously learned component skills.
  • Present verbal cues to the ordering or combination of component skills.
  • Schedule occasions for practice and spaced review.
  • Use a variety of contexts to promote transfer.
Cognitive Strategies
  • Describe or demonstrate the strategy.
  • Provide a variety of occasions for practice using the strategy.
  • Provide information feedback as to the creativity or originality of the strategy or outcome.
Attitudes
  • Establish an expectancy of success associated with the desired attitude.
  • Assure student identification with an admired human model.
  • Arrange for communication or demonstration of choice of personal action.
  • ive feedback for successful performance; or allow observation of feedback in the human model.
Motor Skills
  • Present verbal or other guidance to cue the executive subroutine.
  • Arrange repeated practice.
  • Furnish immediate feedback as to the accuracy of performance.
  • Encourage the use of mental practice.

* As adapted from Essentials of Learning for Instruction by R.M. Gagne and M.P. Driscoll, 1988.

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