Robert Gagne (1916- 2002)

-Was an American Educational Psychologist best known for his Condition of Learning
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Full name: Robert Mills Gagne

Birthday: August 21, 1916
Died: April 28, 2002
Wife: Pat ( a Biologist)
Son: Sam
Daughter: Ellen
He studied high school at North Andover, Massachusetts
He had a scholarship to Yale University, and received A. B. in 1937.

Contribution
Gagnes Condition of Learning can cover all aspect of learning, the focus of the theory is
the retention and honing of intellectual skills. The theory has been applied to the design of
instruction in all fields, though in its original formulation special attention was given to military
training settings.
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Provides examples of events for each category of learning outcomes.

Nature of learning
Gagne suggest that learning tasks for intellectual skills can be organized in hierarchy
according to complexity: stimulus recognition, response generation, procedure following use of
terminology, discrimination, concept formation, rule application, and problem solving. The
primary significance of the hierarchy is to identify prerequisites that should be completed to
facilitate learning at each level.
Strategy

Implication

Reference:
Gagne, R. (1962). Military Training and Principle of Learning.
American Psychologist 17, 263 - 276

Ivan Pavlov
1849 - 1936
Theory of Classical Conditioning
Biography
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born September 14, 1849 in Ryazan. His father was a priest, and
Ivan & apos;s early education was in the church school and later the theological seminary. At age
21 (1870) he began his studies of physiology and other natural sciences. In 1879 he completed
his studies at the Academy of Medical Surgery. Then he earned a fellowship which enabled him to
continue his studies and research, and in 1883 he earned is doctoral degree for work on the
nerves of the heart. This work demonstrated that there was a reflexive regulation of the activity
of the heart and circulation.
Contribution

Pavlov described all learning in terms of classical conditioning. Later researchers disagreed
with this position and demonstrated other modes of learning. We now know that we learn in
many ways. Classical conditioning fails to acknowledge the active nature of an organism and its
effect on the environment and other organisms in the environment.
Strategy.
Collaborative
Nature of learning
Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires
the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING- IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING
1. Avoid classically conditioned negative emotions. Anticipate situations where negative
emotions might be learned through classical conditioning.
2. Link learning with positive emotions. Arrange repeated pairing of positive feelings with certain
kinds of learning, especially subjects that are anxiety provoking.
3. Teach students to generalize and discriminate appropriately. Poor performance on one
assignment or test does not mean that the student is a poor performer.
4. Help students cope with classically conditioned anxiety. Help students learn to relax when
facing anxiety provoking situations.

Edward Lee Thorndike

-Thorndike married Elizabeth Moulton on August 29, 1900. They had four children, all of
whom earned PhDs. The second son, Robert L., followed in his fathers footsteps at Teachers
College.
-An American pioneer in comparative psychology, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1874
to the family of a Methodist minister..
-He became interested in the field of psychology after reading William James'
"Principles of Psychology" and after graduating from Weslyan University enrolled at Harvard in
order to study under James. Thorndike did not complete his education at Harvard. Later he
transferred to Columbia University, where he completed his Ph.D.
- In 1898, he was awarded the doctorate for his thesis, "Animal Intelligence: An Experimental
Study of the Associative Processes in Animals", in which he concluded that an experimental
approach is the only way to understand learning and established his famous "Law of Effect".
Nature of Learning
The theory suggests that transfer of learning depends upon the presence of identical elements in
the original and new learning situations; i.e., transfer is always specific, never general. In later
versions of the theory, the concept of "belongingness" was introduced; connections are more
readily established if the person perceives that stimuli or responses go together (c.f. Gestalt

principles). Another concept introduced was "polarity" which specifies that connections occur
more easily in the direction in which they were originally formed than the opposite. Thorndike
also introduced the "spread of effect" idea, i.e., rewards affect not only the connection that
produced them but temporally adjacent connections as well.
Contribution
E. L. Thorndike influence on education and psychology is so pervasive that it is hard to detect.
He pioneered the scientific study of education and made major contributions to the
measurement of human abilities, comparative psychology, and social psychology.
Strategy

Reference
Thorndike, E. (1913). Educational Psychology: The Psychology of Learning. New York: Teachers
College Press.
Thorndike, E. (1921). The Teacher Word Book. New York: Teachers College.