Gagne's Learning Outcomes

Gagne (1985) classified the learning outcomes into five categories, all of which fall
under the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains as discussed previously.
The five learning outcomes include: intellectual skills, cognitive strategy, verbal
information, motor skills, and attitude. The intellectual skills, cognitive strategy, and
verbal information are in the cognitive domain. The motor skills are in the
psychomotor domain. The attitude is the affective domain. Let's discuss each
learning outcome.

Intellectual skills
Intellectual skills involve the procedural knowledge (how to do things). The
intellectual skills are subdivided into different levels of learning: discrimination,
concrete concept, defined concept, rule, and problem-solving (Gagne et al., 1992).

 Discrimination is the ability to differentiate objects based on one or more of their

physical characteristics, features, and/or dimensions. For example: differentiate
between crocodile and alligator, octopus and squid, cat and dog, etc. Use
reinforcement and repetition to assist and enhance learning of this skill.
 Concrete concept is the ability to identify an object as a member of a group
based on common physical characteristic, feature, property, attribute, and/or
dimension (e.g., color, shapes, length, position, etc.). For example: identify
whether tomatoes are considered vegetable. Learning concrete concept is more
complex than learning discrimination. The latter only requires responding to a
difference. The former requires the ability to identify an object correctly based on
its main properties. For example: regardless of color, thickness, or/and size
(irrelevant properties), students correctly identify different figures as triangles.
Students must learn discrimination before they learn concrete concepts.
Concrete learning is believed to be a prerequisite to abstract learning (defined
concept, described next). To enhance learning of this skill, present different
examples of an object (concept) with a wide variety of irrelevant characteristics
and ask students to identify a correct answer.
 Defined concept is the ability to understand the meaning of an object, event,
or/and relation. It requires more than stating a definition or defining a concept.
For example: Understand the meaning of family, justice, community, mass,
acceleration, force, etc. Although defined concept may overlap concrete concept,
the former represents more abstract learning. To enhance learning of this skill,
first ask students to recall all components within the definition of a concept,
including the relations among those components. Have students watch a
demonstration, video, or film on how the concept works.
 Rule is the ability to understand the relationships among objects and events
(concepts). For example: know how to multiply numbers, to construct a sentence,
or to play a game. To learn the skill, help students recall the components that
make up the rule and their relationships. Clearly communicate the rule to
students. Provide guidance (e.g., prompts, cues, strategies) during learning.
 Problem-solving is the ability to combine different rules to solve a problem.
Teach or recall relevant rules and information essential to solving the problem.
Offer cues or prompts to help students solve the problem or engage them in
discovery learning (guided and unguided) to find a solution.

Cognitive strategy
Cognitive strategy is another type of intellectual skills for learning and thinking.
Learning strategies include rehearsal (verbally repeat, underline, or copy materials),
elaboration (associate new information with the existing one through paraphrasing,
summarizing, note-taking, and questions and answers), and organizing (arrange
material in an organized and meaningful order through outlining, concept mapping,
advance organizer, etc.). The metacognitive strategies (thinking) involve students
setting learning goals, tracking learning progress, and modifying strategies to
achieve the goals. The affective strategies are used to focus and maintain attention,
to control stress and anxiety, to manage time effectively, and so on.

Verbal information
Verbal information is concerned with the declarative knowledge (e.g., facts,
information, names, places, etc.). To assist learning of verbal information, the
instructor may teach students different mnemonic techniques (e.g., keyword, loci,
imagery, etc.) and help students relate new information to what already exists in
memory to make learning meaningful and memorable. Use one of the learning
strategies (rehearsal, elaboration, and organize) and provide distinct cues to assist
memory.

Motor skills
Motor skills (also called psychomotor skills) are sequences of motor responses or
movements, which are combined into complex performances. These physical
performances are assessed by rapidity, accuracy, force, or smoothness. For
example: dancing, skateboarding, fly-fishing, skiing, writing with a pencil, etc. The
motor skills can be further divided into sub skills (part skills), which are performed
simultaneously or in sequential order to produce performances. These skills are best
learned by repeated practice. To teach the part skills, provide clear instruction to
learn the skills. Provide a checklist, picture, or diagram to guide learning. Encourage
students to practice the skills repeatedly, accompanying by timely and appropriate
feedback from the instructor.
Attitude
Attitude is an internal state that affects personal choices and actions over an object,
person, event, and so on. Although it is a complex human state, it can be measured
by observing the person's choice or action. The measurement of attitude is often
seen in a form of a self-reported questionnaire, which may use Likert-scale and/or
open-ended questions. Using a role model has been known to teach attitude
effectively. Other methods involve using reinforcement to encourage a desired
behavior and using a conditioned response method to promote certain attitudes. To
change attitude, help students recall a situation to which the attitude applies, present
an appealing and credible role model, use the model to communicate or
demonstrate the desired choices or actions for the given situation, and communicate
or demonstrate satisfaction the model obtains as a result of the selected choices or
actions.