Robert M. Gagné described learning as a series of eight phases that learners progress through unconsciously: motivation, attention, retention, recall, generalization, and performance. He believed instruction should be designed to initiate, activate and support learning at each phase. Gagné also identified nine types of learning outcomes including verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, and attitudes. Teachers play an important role as designers, managers and evaluators of instruction to optimize learning according to Gagné's model.
7. Verbal
• Stating previously learned materials such as facts,
concepts, principles, and procedures
• Critical Learning Conditions
– 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.
8. Intellectual Skills
• Discriminations: Distinguishing objects, features, or symbols, e.g.,
hearing different pitches played on a musical instrument
• Concrete Concepts: Identifying classes of concrete objects, features,
or events, e.g., picking out all the green M&Ms from the candy jar
• Defined Concepts: classifying new examples of events or ideas by their
definition, e.g., noting "she sells sea shells" as alliteration
• Rules: Applying a single relationship to solve a class of problems, e.g.,
calculating the earned run averages (ERA) of the Atlanta Braves
• Higher Order Rules: Applying a new combination of rules to solve a
complex problem, e.g., generating a balanced budget for a state
organization
9. Intellectual Skills (cont.)
• Critical Learning Conditions
– 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.
10. Cognitive Strategies
• Employing personal ways to guide learning,
thinking, acting, and feeling
• Critical Learning Conditions
– Describe or demonstrate the strategy.
– Provide a variety of occasions for practice using
the strategy.
– Provide informative feedback as to the creativity
or originality of the strategy or outcome.
11. Attitude
• Choosing personal actions based on internal states of
understanding and feeling
• Critical Learning Conditions
– 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.
– Give feedback for successful performance; or allow
observation of feedback in the human model.
12. Motor Skills
• Executing performances involving the use
muscles
• Critical Learning Conditions
– 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.
26. The Phases of Learning
• Gagné described learning as a series of 8 phases that
the learner goes through but is unaware of (Gagné,
1974)
– Motivation Phase – Expectancy
– Apprehending Phase – Attention Selective Perception
– Acquisition Phase – Coding: Storage Entry
– Retention Phase – Memory Storage
– Recall Phase – Retrieval
– Generalization Phase – Transfer
– Performance Phase – Responding
– Feedback Phase -- Reinforcement
27. What is learning?
• Gagné believed that an external observer could recognize learning by
noting behavioral changes that remains persistent over time (Gagné,
1974)
• He also stated that maturation is not learning because the individual
does not receive stimulation from the outside environment (Gagné,
1974).
• Learning has two parts, one that is external to the learner and one that
is internal (Gagné, Briggs, & Wager, 1992)
28. Learning and the Teacher
• Gagné felt that the teacher’s job was to provide instruction
(Gagné, 1974).
• Gagné defined instruction as “the set of events designed to
initiate, activate, and support learning in the human learner.”
(Gagné, 1974)
• The teacher had three primary functions:
– Designer
– Manager
– Evaluator