Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction: An Analysis of Whether It Best Illustrates a Philosophy from the Behaviorist Approach or the Cognitive Approach

 

Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction: An Analysis of Whether It Best Illustrates a Philosophy from the Behaviorist Approach or the Cognitive Approach

Author: Santosh Kumar Biswa, Sr. Teacher, Damphu CS, Tsirang, Bhutan

 

Introduction

Robert Mills Gagné was a well-known American educational psychologist known for his philosophy on learning conditions. His condition of learning was well praised by Gredler (1997), who stated that there was a shift in the study culture from classroom learning to learning through real-world settings to meet the future needs of the learners. Thus, he classified those learning outcomes into five different categories, such as verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills, and attitudes (Corry, 1996). All those five different categories explore learners' varied human performance in the real world (Gagne, Briggs, and Wager, 1992). Gagne went on to develop the nine events of learning in order to integrate his theory of instruction and make it useful to educators and learners (Mahoney, 2021), which are used to promote the transfer of knowledge using perception and the stages of memory (Corry, 1996). He then structured his conditions of learning into internal and external conditions based on the information processing model, in which the internal condition refers to the background knowledge of the learners and the external condition refers to the knowledge that is available externally from other sources. They are addressed by combining both of them with memory for better instructions in the classroom (Catio23, 2015) because they serve as a medium for planning instructions and selecting relevant media materials for the purpose of effective teaching (Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1992). This paper discusses Gagne’s nine events of instruction and the in-depth analysis of whether it best illustrates a philosophy from the behaviorist approach or the cognitive approach, along with one practical classroom example.

Gagne’s Nine Events in Account of Learning Philosophies from Two Different Approaches (The Behaviorist or the Cognitive Approach)

The main purpose that Gagne came up with in the nine events of instruction is to help educators develop constructive activities and strategies for better instruction and learning processes in the classroom. It promotes intuitive thinking among learners for the critical analysis of any incomplete evidence with the help of their cognitive skills for systematic learning. Moreover, it can be used as a checklist by a teacher before planning a lesson for teaching because every step helps to provide a guide for the learning process (Emerald Works Limited, 2022). It can further be aligned with Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy in making the instructions more meaningful and engaging (Northern Illinois University, 2020). According to Schunk (2012), Gagne’s nine events of instruction are divided into three major phases as below:

A.     Preparation for Learning

In this phase, learning activities are introduced through gaining attention, revealing the learning objectives, and recalling background knowledge in which learners are required to focus on stimuli while attending that are related to the learning materials. Their expectancy leads them to focus on their goal (Schunk, 2012).

Event 1: Gain attention (attending): This event is also called the "processing of perception." The learners are provided with a stimulus to formally begin the instructions through their gaining of attention. It generally ensures that learners are ready to participate during the lesson. Some of the examples are presenting an issue, uncertainty, thought-provoking questions, introducing a new situation, interesting video clips, ice-breaking activity, etc. This event is considered to have a behaviorist approach because it is on the verge of shaping the affiliations between experience and motivation. This is because it helps to process the lesson through motivation (EduTech Wiki, 2007).

Event 2: Inform learners of the objectives (expectancy): This event describes the goal of the lesson, as students should understand what and why they are learning in that particular lesson. Learning becomes accurate and meaningful if the objectives, learning expectations, and outcomes are clear so that they organize their learning to accomplish knowledge, skills, and experience. According to Coskun and Gultepe (2015), since this event stimulates learners to frame information and generate ideas through verbal prompts, it falls under the cognitive approach to learning.

Event 3: Recall of prior knowledge (retrieval): This even helps the teacher to stimulate recall of their previous knowledge prior to the present lesson so that they are able to make sense based on the new information. It can be accomplished by asking students questions based on their prior experience or by having them relate prior knowledge to the current topic (Northern Illinois University Center, 2020). By doing so, the students will be involved in linking their previous knowledge with the new information they have in hand. Since this event involves students having to think mentally and make sense by linking their previous knowledge, it falls under the cognitive approach because it intends to retrieve knowledge from the working memory.

B.     Acquisition and Performance

This is the main learning phase where the learners generate new information to make responses. The teacher is involved in reinforcing students’ responses for the accuracy of the information.

Event 4: Present the stimulus (selective perception): In this event, the teacher cues students' interest in effective instruction by presenting learning materials in various ways. The content is chunked in groups in meaningful ways. The teacher should make sure to provide a thorough explanation right after the demonstration is completed. It can be done through the use of graphics, case studies, facts and figures, audio, pictures, notes, etc. This event engages learners through the behaviorist approach because, according to Wan (2017), students are directly involved in selecting and perceiving the stimulus by linking it to the learning outcome.

Event 5: Provide learning guidance (semantic encoding): In this event, in order to help learners learn better and retain the information well, the teacher provides instructional support by restructuring the lesson and guiding learners by providing alternative strategies so that the lesson will be conveyed well (Emerald Works Limited, 2022). A teacher uses stories, analogies, rubrics, case studies, hints, graphics, etc. to help the learners learn in an effective manner. This event follows the behaviorist approach as it is all about the encoding process based on the observation made by the learners, which is measurable.

Event 6: Eliciting performance (retrieval and responding): In this event, the teacher guides and encourages students to engage themselves to apply their newly acquired knowledge, skills, and experiences to reinforce their understanding of the contents. They involve students in practicing the skills or applying knowledge that they have acquired based on what the teacher has taught them. The teacher uses role-playing activities, quizzes, tests, or questioning to check the development of their knowledge. According to Marina (n.d.), this event considers both the behaviorist and cognitive approaches because its focus is on the response that the student gives based on the demonstration they show on how to use it by utilizing neurological connections.

Event 7: Provide feedback (reinforcement): In this event, the teacher provides constructive feedback to the students and also reinforces the points that need to be rectified after students demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and behavior (Emerald Works Limited, 2022). The feedback should be immediate and clear, pointing out their actual mistakes and creating room for them to correct them immediately. Feedback can be in any form, and it should follow the peer-evaluation or self-evaluation process so that students can identify their own learning gaps. This event follows the behaviorist approach since the focus is on the response from the students, which is based on their behavior, which gets altered based on its correctness.

C.     Transfer of Learning

In this phase, the learners are provided with cues for the retrieval of accurate information. They are provided with ample opportunity to practice their skills through the generalization of different content.

Event 8: Assess performance (cues retrieval): This event tries to establish cueing retrieval that ultimately gives general information on the progress of the learning. This enables teachers to check the effectiveness of the lesson, whether or not they have learned the skills effectively. It can be accessed through conducting tests, rubrics, questionnaires, quizzes, etc. (Northern Illinois University, 2020). This event follows the behaviorist approach as responding and retention are tested through various activities at the end.

Event 9: Enhance retention and transfer (generalizability): This event is the last stage in which students will be encouraged to showcase their ability to retain information that they have learned by transferring it into new knowledge, skills, or behavior based on the situation outside their classroom. Drills and repeated practice on similar situations and issues should be used by teachers to ensure effective retention (EduTech Wiki, 2007). It can be possible if the teachers engage students in creating mind maps, reviewing content, reviewing lessons, etc. This event applies the cognitive approach as it follows the generalization process of problem-solving using cognitive skills and strategies.

One Practical Strategy or Classroom Practice that illustrates Gagne’s Nine Events of Learning

The following procedures will illustrate the practical classroom application of Gagne’s nine events of learning through the teaching of Shakespeare’s play, "The Merchant of Venice," to the twelfth-standard students in Bhutan. 

·       Gain attention by posing thought-provoking questions at the beginning of the lesson.

·       Inform students about the learning outcomes of the lesson at the end by describing the criteria for expected performance and the assessment process.

·       Ask students to recall and tell you about what they remember from Acts I to III based on the literature background from the lessons that they have taken in class XI and let them relate it to the lesson they are going to take (i.e., Acts IV and V).

·       With the help of ppt and video clips, the teacher will present some similar content on the historical and literary background of the play to engage students in learning the concept.

·       Based on the ppt. and video clips presented to the class, the teacher will provide instructional guidance on how to learn the content with the help of the literature and historical background in order to understand Shakespearian plays, especially Acts IV and V, and at the end of the entire play. The materials, like visual images, other relevant video clips, or handouts, can be used in providing learning guidance to the students.

·       The teacher then engages students through group collaboration to confirm their understanding of the concept using the previously learned knowledge. The group will be asked to come up with a written project so that they can demonstrate their comprehension and analytical skills in understanding the concept.

·       Right after they complete their project, engage students through group evaluation, whereby they will be asked to provide remedial feedback and suggestions to each other. After the feedback and suggestions from the group, ask students to present their work to the whole class, whereby the teacher will provide feedback based on their write-ups and allow them to identify their learning gaps by making them write the reflections.

·       Next, in order to test their learning outcome, they will conduct a test to check their progression based on their competency in understanding the content and required skills.

·       Finally, help them retain the information by making them make text-to-real-life connections and providing additional practice in the form of assignments so that they retain what they have learned from the course.

Conclusion

Gagne's Nine Levels of Learning is the step-by-step approach that can correlate to and meet the required conditions of learning that can make it possible for any educator to create an instructional sound learning experience in their classroom. It can really help any educator to make their teaching more effective by creating learning opportunities for the students. Gagne has given priority to the mental events of the learners in which they can be exposed to a variety of stimuli. He also provides ideas on how to streamline instructional events to achieve specified learning outcomes.

 

 

References

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Gagne, R. M., Briggs, L. J., & Wager, W. W. (1992). Principles of instructional design. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

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Mahoney, D. J. (April 5, 2021). Meet Robert M. Gagne. https://trainingmag.com/meet-robert-m-gagne/

Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (2020). Gagné’s nine events of instruction. In Instructional guide for university faculty and teaching assistants. https://www.niu.edu/citl/ resources/guides/instructional-guide

Schunk, D. H. (2012). Learning theories: An educational perspective (6th ed.). Pearson.  https://www.researchgate.net/file.PostFileLoader.html?id=53ad2847cf57d75c068b45c5&assetKey=AS%3A273549456019456%401442230680395

Marina. (n.d.). How to Engage Learners and Increase Retention. Your eLearning World. https://yourelearningworld.com/synchronous-elearning-ways-to-engage-learners-and-increase-retention/