ONDOKUZ MAYIS UNIVERSITY

THE INSTITUTE IF SOCIAL SCIENCES

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENFLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION

INE 623: The Foundations of Language Learning

BY

ELIF GUVENDI YALCIN

SUBMITTED TO:

Assit. Prof. Dr. Dilek ÇAKICI

Dec. 14, 2010

Samsun

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Gagne’s Instructional Theory

1.1 Gagne’s Taxonomy of Learning Outcomes

1.2 The Condition of Learning

1.3 Events of Instruction

Chapter 2: Strength and Weaknesses of the Theory and its Assumptions

Conclusion

References

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Introduction

Robert Mills Gagné (August 21, 1916– April 28, 2002) was an American educational

psychologist best known for his"Conditions of Learning". Gagné pioneered the science of

instruction during WWII for the air force with pilot training. Later he went on to develop a

series of studies and works that helped codify what is now considered to be 'good instruction.'

He was also involved in applying concepts of instructional theory to the design of computer-

based training and multimedia-based learning. When Robert Gagné initially published his

influential book, The Conditions of Learning (Gagné, 1965), his instructional design theories

were heavily rooted in the behaviorist psychology paradigm. However, in later editions of The

Conditions of Learning (Gagné, 1970, 1977, 1985), Gagné's theories evolved to incorporate

cognitivist psychology theories, specifically the information-processing model of cognition.

According to Gagné (1974) , (cited in Reigeluth: 1999, 196) "This model posits a number of

internal processes that are subject to the influence of a variety of external events. The

arrangement of external events to activate and support the internal processes of learning

constitutes what is called instruction”.

During the 1960s, there was a flurry of activity within the field of instructional

development that focused on systems of instruction. It was during this time that the

components of the instructional system and their system properties were articulated. In 1965

Robert Gagne published his book entitled The Conditions of Learning. In his book, Gagne

described the analysis of learning objectives, and how these different classes of learning

objectives relate to the appropriate instructional designs. Robert Gagne's theory of instruction

has provided a great number of valuable ideas to instructional designers, trainers, and

teachers. In this paper, I will discuss Gagne's theory of instruction in terms of the taxonomy of

learning outcomes, the conditions of learning, and the events of instruction. I will focus on

each of these three areas while briefly describing strengths and weaknesses of the theory.

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Chapter 1. Gagne’s Instructional Theory

1.1 Gagne’s Taxonomy of Learning Outcomes

Bloom’s taxonomy dealt with the cognitive outcomes. Bloom then worked with Masia to

develop a taxonomy that dealt with the affective domain. Simpson’s plan dealt with the

psychomotor domain. Gagne’s taxonomy however was the first to identify learning outcomes

in all three domains. Gagne's taxonomy of learning outcomes is somewhat similar to Bloom's

taxonomies of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor outcomes. Both Bloom and Gagne

believed that it was important to break down humans' learned capabilities into categories or

domains. In their book Norton and Wilburg (1998: 56-57) describe Gagne's outcomes or

objects of learning which consist of five major categories of human capabilities:

• Verbal information: Being able to state previously learned material -ex. learning the

alphabet.

• Intellectual skills With five subcategories: discriminations, concrete, concepts, defined

concepts, rules, and higher order rules -- Be able to discriminate objects or features(hear

different pitches), be able to identify concrete concepts or feature (pick all the green M &

Ms), use defined concepts, and using rules.-ex. addition and subtraction

• Cognitive strategies: Personalize ways to guide learning, thinking, feeling – ex. exploring

the action of a magnet.

• Attitudes: Act as you feel-ex. how one feels about reading a book

• Motor skills: Use muscles to perform -ex. fastening buttons.

In 1984 Gagné pointed out that the verbal information category could also be termed “declarative

knowledge” and the intellectual skills category could be termed “procedural knowledge.” Instructors

begin by identifying learning outcomes desired for the course. Because courses and

instruction can vary greatly. In theory, the teaching objectives you identify for your course

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should fall into one of the following forms of learning: verbal information, intellectual skills,

cognitive strategies, attitudes, or motor skills.

1.2 The Condition of Learning

Gagne distinguishes between two types of conditions, internal and external. The internal

conditions can be described as "states" and include attention, motivation and recall. The

internal conditions deal with previously learned capabilities of the learner. Or in other words,

what the learner knows prior to the instruction. The external conditions can be thought of as

factors surrounding one's behavior, and include the arrangement and timing of stimulus

events. The external conditions deal with the stimuli that is presented externally to the

learner. For example, what instruction is provided to the learner. Thus, his phases of learning

include:

• Phase I: receiving the stimulus situation

• Phase II stage of acquisition

• Phase III storage

• Phase IV retrieval (Merill:1994, 121)

1.3 Events of Instruction

Robert Gagne believes that within any learning hierarchy, less complex skills transfer

positively to more complex skills (Merill, 1994:130). Once skills are taught, these simple

skills are able to be generalized to other situations. Therefore, Gagne believes learning is

cumulative. That is, skills build on skills to achieve higher levels of learning, and this learning

itself is developed intellectually by teachers through planned or directed learning. Gagne does

not believe that learning is maturational, or dependent on age. Such directed learning assumes

that learning is sequential, universal, determinable, countable, and objectively defined.

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 According to Norton and Wilburg (1998:60) Gagne's model for design of instruction

includes a sequence of nine instructional events and its corresponding learning processes that

guide the design of instruction. Gagné’s “nine events of instruction” refer to steps instructors

should take in an effort to meet learning outcomes. First it is imperative to gain students’

attention. Second, instructors should make students aware of the learning outcome(s). Third, it

is important to help students recall previously learned information which might be helpful in

learning new material. Fourth, new material should be presented. After having done so, the

fifth step is for instructors to provide students with learning guidance. For example, you might

suggest an effective way for students to organize the new information. Sixth, students should

be given a chance to demonstrate they’ve learned the information. The seventh step, providing

feedback, is corrective rather than final. Once feedback has been provided and any mistakes

have been addressed, the eighth step is to assess performance— specifically, whether students

have achieved your initial learning outcomes. And the final event of instruction involves

retention and transfer. Instructors should strive to reinforce learning and help students apply it

to other situations.

Nine Events of Instruction: Clarifying Example

1. Gaining attention Teacher flip lights on and off to gain
2. Informing learner of the
Teacher tells students what they will study
objective
3. Stimulating recall of
Reviews yesterdays work
prerequisites
4. Presenting the stimulus
Books, and/or a film in order to meet desired outcome
material
5. Providing learning guidance Show an example of a problem.
6. Eliciting the performance Ask students to solve 10 questions
7. Providing feedback Reinforcement and error correction of material learned
Does student perform new skill, tests, portfolio, skill
8. Assessing the performance
demonstrations

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9. Enhancing retention and Able to generalize and transfer skills to new problems or
transfer situations

To put it simply, Gagne's formulated nine events of instruction. When followed, these events

are intended to promote the transfer of knowledge or information from perception through the

stages of memory. Gagne bases his events of instruction on the cognitive information

processing learning theory.

The way Gagne's theory is put into practice is as follows. First of all, the instructor determines

the objectives of the instruction. These objectives must then be categorized into one of the

five domains of learning outcomes. Each of the objectives must be stated in performance

terms using one of the standard verbs (i.e. states, discriminates, classifies, etc.) associated

with the particular learning outcome. The instructor then uses the conditions of learning for

the particular learning outcome to determine the conditions necessary for learning. And

finally, the events of instruction necessary to promote the internal process of learning are

chosen and put into the lesson plan. The events in essence become the framework for the

lesson plan or steps of instruction.

Chapter 2. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Theory and it's Assumptions

I will first examine the domains of learning outcomes. The domains of learning help

teachers to better organize their thoughts and the objectives of the instructional lesson. This

proves to be very beneficial since most teachers are always looking for a good way to put

more structure into the objectives of their lesson plans. Additionally, the domains of learning

helped to better understand what types of learning they are expecting to see from students.

One of the greatest weaknesses that is experienced with Gagne's theory is taking the

goals for my students, putting them into the correct learning outcome category, and then

creating objectives using Gagne's standard verbs. This problem can be broken into two parts.

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First, some goals are easy to classify into the learning outcome categories, but that many are

not as easy to categorize. The second half of this weakness has to do with creating objectives

using Gagne's standard verbs. After the experience with categorizing the goal into the proper

learning outcome, many teachers are faced with changing their goals into a performance

objective using one of the standard verbs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to summarize the points I have tried to cover in this paper. First of

all, Gagne's theory does provide a great deal of valuable information to teachers like myself. I

believe it is mostly appealing to those teachers who may be early in their teaching careers and

are in need of structure for their lesson plans and a holistic view of their teaching. The theory

is very systematic and rigid at most points. It is almost like a cookbook recipe to ensure

successful teaching and ultimately learning by the students. However, the systematic nature of

the theory may be a turn-off for many teachers, particularly those who like to be creative,

don't like rigidity, and who don't believe in a cookbook approach to ensure learning. The final

point I would like to cover deals with the learning theory upon which Gagne bases his theory.

First of all, if the events of instruction really match up with the learning process, then I do not

believe it would be advisable to change the sequence of the events or to leave certain events

out of the sequence altogether. Second, cognitive information processing is not acceptable to

all teachers. Many teachers would not agree with this idea of how learning takes place. For

those who disagree with cognitive information processing, Gagne's theory of instruction

would not fit their needs.

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References

Merill, M. David. (1994) Instructional Design Theory: Educational Technology Publications

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Norton, P. and Wiburg, K. M. (1998) Teaching With Technology. Orlando, FL: Harcourt

Brace & Company.

Teaching Matters, December 12, 2010: Available at:

http://www.otl.wayne.edu/pdf/newsltr/may03.pdf

Reigeluth, Charles M. (1999) Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm

of Instructional Theory, Volume II. Lawrance Earlbaum Associates Press