ROBERT  GAGNE  (1916-­‐2002)  
Education  
Yale,  A.B.  1937    
Brown,  Ph.D.  1940    
 
Career  Highlights  
Professor,  Connecticut  College  (1940-­‐49)    
Professor,  Penn  State  University  (1945-­‐46)    
Director  of  Perceptual  and  Motor  Skills  Laboratory,  U.S.  Air  Force  (1949-­‐58)    
Professor,  Florida  State  University  (present)    
 
Major  Contributions  to  Instructional  Development  
co-­‐developer  of  "Instructional  Systems  Design"    
wrote  The  Conditions  of  Learning,  1965    
co-­‐wrote  Principles  of  Instructional  Design    
 
Findings,  Research,  Studies  
Although  Gagne's  earlier  work  reflected  behaviorist  thought,  he  is  considered  to  be  an  experimental  
psychologist  who  is  concerned  with  learning  and  instruction.  In  1965,  Gagne  published  The  Conditions  of  
Learning,  which  outlined  the  relation  of  learning  objectives  to  appropriate  instructional  designs.  Gagne  
identifies  five  categories  of  learning:  
 
Taxonomy  of  
Learning   Example   Critical  Learning  Conditions  
Outcomes  
 Draw  attention  to  distinctive  
features  by  variations  in  print  or  
speech.    
Stating  previously  learned  materials  such  as  
 Present  information  so  that  it  can  
Verbal   facts,  concepts,  principles,  and  procedures,  
be  made  into  chunks.    
Information   e.g.,  listing  the  seven  major  symptoms  of  
 Provide  a  meaningful  context  for  
cancer  
effective  encoding  of  information.    
 Provide  cues  for  effective  recall  
and  generalization  of  information.    
  Discriminations:  Distinguishing  objects,  
features,  or  symbols,  e.g.,  hearing  different  
pitches  played  on  a  musical  instrument  
 Call  attention  to  distinctive  
 Concrete  Concepts:  Identifying  classes  of  
features.    
concrete  objects,  features,  or  events,  e.g.,  
Intellectual    Stay  within  the  limits  of  working  
picking  out  all  the  green  M&Ms  from  the  
Skills:   memory.    
candy  jar  
Discriminations,    Stimulate  the  recall  of  previously  
 Defined  Concepts:  classifying  new  
Concrete   learned  component  skills.    
examples  of  events  or  ideas  by  their  
Concepts,    Present  verbal  cues  to  the  
definition,  e.g.,  noting  "she  sells  sea  shells"  
Defined   ordering  or  combination  of  
as  alliteration  
Concepts,  Rules,   component  skills.    
 Rules:  Applying  a  single  relationship  to  
Higher  Order    Schedule  occasions  for  practice  
solve  a  class  of  problems,  e.g.,  calculating  
Rules   and  spaced  review.    
the  average  scores  of  basketball  teams  
 Use  a  variety  of  contexts  to  
 Higher  Order  Rules:  Applying  a  new  
promote  transfer.    
combination  of  rules  to  solve  a  complex  
problem,  e.g.,  generating  a  balanced  
budget  for  a  state  organization  
 Describe  or  demonstrate  the  
strategy.    
Employing  personal  ways  to  guide  learning,    Provide  a  variety  of  occasions  for  
Cognitive  
thinking,  acting,  and  feeling,  e.g.,  devising  a   practice  using  the  strategy.    
Strategies  
corporate  plan  to  improve  customer  relations    Provide  informative  feedback  as  to  
the  creativity  or  originality  of  the  
strategy  or  outcome.    
 Establish  an  expectancy  of  success  
associated  with  the  desired  
attitude.    
 Assure  student  identification  with  
Choosing  personal  actions  based  on  internal  
an  admired  human  model.    
states  of  understanding  and  feeling,  e.g.,  
Attitudes    Arrange  for  communication  or  
deciding  to  exercise  daily  as  a  part  of  
demonstration  of  choice  of  
preventive  health  care  
personal  action.    
 Give  feedback  for  successful  
performance;  or  allow  observation  
of  feedback  in  the  human  model.    
 Present  verbal  or  other  guidance  
to  cue  the  executive  subroutine.    
Executing  performances  involving  the  use    Arrange  repeated  practice.    
Motor  Skills   muscles,  e.g.,  doing  a  triple  somersault  dive  off    Furnish  immediate  feedback  as  to  
the  high  board   the  accuracy  of  performance.    
 Encourage  the  use  of  mental  
practice.    
 
Information  from:  Driscoll,  M.  (1991)  Psychology  of  Learning  for  Instruction.  Allyn  and  Bacon.  
Gagne's  idea  is  tied  to  Skinner's  idea  of  sequenced  learning  events  as  displayed  in  his  Nine  Events  of  Instruction.  The  
table  below  shows  Gagne's  events  of  instruction  and  an  example  lesson  that  follows  it.  
Sample  Lesson  
Objective:  Students  will  learn  about  predators  in  the  animal  kingdom  
 
Event  of  
Lesson  Example   Rationale  
Instruction  
Giving  background  information  creates  
Teacher  shows  a  video  clip  of  National  
validity.  The  use  of  multimedia  grabs  
1. Gain   Geographic  “Built  for  the  Kill.”      
the  audience's  attention.  Asking  
Attention   Asks  learners  questions  about  what  they  saw,  
questions  in  the  beginning  creates  an  
felt,  heard,  thought  about  the  show.  
interactive  atmosphere.  
2. Inform   Teacher  says,  "for  the  next  few  days,  we  are   Make  learners  aware  of  what  to  
Learner  of   going  to  learn  about  predators  of  the  animal   expect  so  that  they  are  aware  and  
Objective   kingdom."   prepared  to  receive  information.  
3. Stimulate   For  this  particular  group  of  learners,  they   When  learning  something  new,  
Recall  of   have  already  learned  about  the  different   accessing  prior  knowledge  is  a  major  
Prior   animal  groups:  mammals,  reptiles,   factor  in  the  process  of  acquiring  new  
Learning   amphibians,  birds,  fish  etc   information.    
4. 4.  Presenting   Teacher  conducts  activity  where  students  
The  goal  is  information  acquisition.  
the  Stimulus   match  predators  and  prey.  
Teacher  uses  "discovery  learning"  
because  learners  are  adults  and  it  
5. Provide  
Teacher  gives  students  step-­‐by-­‐step  guidance   gives  them  the  freedom  to  explore.  
Learner  
on  plotting  predator-­‐prey  relationships   Teacher  facilitates  the  learning  
Guidance  
process  by  giving  hints  and  cues  when  
needed.    
Students  conduct  further  research  on  other  
Requiring  the  learner  to  produce  
predators  not  covered  by  the  teacher  and  
6. Elicit   based  on  what  has  been  taught  
“teach”  their  classmates  through  reporting,  
Performance   enables  the  learner  to  confirm  their  
role  playing,  demonstrations,  PowerPoint  
learning.  
presentation,  illustrations  
7. Give   Teacher  gives  immediate  feedback  to  learners  
Regular  feedback  enhances  learning.  
Feedback   after  eliciting  responses.    
Assign  a  practice  activity  –  students  can  make  
Independent  practice  forces  students  
their  own  test  questions  (2-­‐3)  about  the  
to  use  what  they  learned  and  apply  it.  
8. Assess   predators  they  researched  on.  Teacher  
Assessing  such  gives  instructors  a  
Performance   compiles  the  questions  and  give  the  test  
means  of  testing  student  learning  
(which  means  each  student  gets  at  least  3  
outcomes.  
answers  correct)  
Teacher  asks  students  to  create  a  play  using  
9. Enhance   their  predators  and  their  prey  as  the  cast.  OR  
Applying  learning  in  real-­‐life  situations  
Retention   Students  can  be  tasked  as  “teachers”  to  teach  
is  a  step  towards  Mastery  Learning.    
and  Transfer   the  lower  grade  levels  about  what  they  had  
just  learned  
 
Sources  
‫ ﻬﮭ‬Conditions  of  Learning:  Gagne  http://tip.psychology.org/gagne.html  
‫ ﻬﮭ‬Robert  Gagne's  Instructional  Design  Approach  
http://www.gsu.edu/~mstswh/courses/it7000/papers/robert.htm  
‫ ﻬﮭ‬Driscoll,  M.(1991)  Psychology  of  Learning  for  Instruction:  Allyn  and  Bacon.