Conditions of Learning

General
Robert Gagné was an American educational psychologist who's ideas
of conditions of learning and instructional design implications were first
introduced in 19651). Gagné assumed that there are different types
of learning outcomes, each of which is best achieved through
its specific instructional design, but also that there is a set of steps
required in every learning environment (sometimes also known as the
Gagné Assumption2)).
 “Robert M. Gagne is truly one of the most influential
educational psychologists of our generation, and he gave
academic respectability to the practice of instructional
systems design.”3)
What are conditions of learning?
Gagné, influenced with behaviorist learning theories, suggested there
are eight types or conditions of learning, mostly all based on S-R
learning. They are (categorized by complexity)4):
 Signal learning - (clasicall conditioning)
 Stimulus-response learning - (operant conditioning)
 Chaining - (complex operant conditioning)
 Verbal association - (creation of associations using verbal
connections)
 Discrimination learning - (learning of responding different
to different stimuli)
 Concept learning - (learning a general response to a class
of stimuli)
 Rule learning - (a rule is a chain of two or more concepts)
 Problem solving - (application of previously learned rules
and concepts to new situations)
Outcomes of this types of learning can be divided into five categories
of performance or learning outcomes. Gagne speculated that they
distinct in terms of internal organization in the long-term memory and
required mental processing. These are verbal information, intellectual
skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes. The differences
in the internal organization and performance of the mentioned
categories of performance result in the critical conditions needed for
learning. Both categories of performance and their critical conditions of
learning are explained in the table that follows.
Category of
Description How to enhance learning?
performance
New material should be related
Declarative knowledge like
Verbal to previously learned information,
laws, stored as distributed
information but also distinctive through visual
representations.
representation.
Procedural knowledge like
dividing integers, stored as The subordinate involved skills must be
Intellectual
linked procedural steps arranged learned first or be already present
skills
in hierarchies where higher (prior knowledge).
skills include lower ones.
Skills that influence the
selection and activation of
Cognitive other production systems, Little use of prior learning, but a lot use
strategies usually simple like “break a of practicing with different examples.
problem into parts”, retrieved
by external or internal cueing.
Skills like inserting contact lens,
Prior learning and practice enhances
Motor skills manifesting with smooth and
learning of motor skills.
error-less performance.
Acquired mental states that in
Requires a human model to learn
Attitudes certain situations influence one's
from.
actions.
But aside from the special conditions that will enhance each of these
specific types of learning, there are also nine events of
instruction which should be the starting point for every type of
learning and every instructional design. These events were based on
empirical observations of the instructional procedures and the
information-processing model of learning and memory. These nine
events are5):
1. Gain attention (reception) - The first step is to gain
students' attention and motivate him to engage with the
content.
 2. Inform objectives (expectancy) - Student needs to be
clarified what he can expect.
3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge (retrieval) - Prior
knowledge should be activated since it is important for
learning new materials.
4. Present stimulus material (selective perception) - Present
the material to the students, possibly using various learning
styles.
5. Provide learner guidance (semantic encoding) - Guidance
in terms of communication enables the teacher to direct the
students in their learning or enable them easier information
encoding through visual or other materials.
6. Elicit performance (responding) - Students need practice.
Practice should immediately follow instructions and be well
defined in terms of its nature, objectives and expected
student responses.
7. Provide feedback (reinforcement) - Feedback is additional
guidance offering the student immediate evaluation of his
performance enabling him to realize his mistakes and
misconceptions.
8. Assess performance (retrieval) - At the end of each course
student's knowledge should be assessed in order to check if
expected learning has occurred.
9. Enhance retention and transfer (generalization) - The
learning process does not end when the class does. The
teacher should advise students how and in which context to
apply and transfer the just gained knowledge in the world
outside the classroom.
Based on his research, Gagné in 1968 proposed the theory of
cumulative learning, based on the premise that new learning most
of all depends on combining previously acquired and recalled material
and skills, but also on the ability of learning transfer. In his own
words,
 “There is a specifiable minimal prerequisite for each new
learning task. Unless the learner can recall this prerequisite
capability… he can not learn the new task”6)
This theory was in contrast to developmental theories of the time and,
particularly, Jean Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development which
assumed that master higher-order skills doesn't depended on
successfully learned lower-order skills, but rather on the specific stage
in cognitive development, related to age.
What is the practical meaning of conditions of
learning?
An example of how each of Gagné's nine events of instruction can be
implemented follows7)8):
1. Gain attention - Show students a short interesting film
related what they are about to learn, pose them an
intriguing question or give them a case study.
2. Inform objectives - Tell students what they will learn by
the end of the course.
3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge - Activate students'
prior knowledge by posing related questions.
4. Present stimulus material - Present the material to the
students and use additional materials like timelines, various
examples, concept maps, diagrams, and encourage students
to engage in the discussion.
5. Provide learner guidance - Give students time for
discussion, answer their questions and offer them additional
materials on topic. Be available to the students also when
not in class.
6. Elicit performance - Give students a brief test after each
unit to let them check their own knowledge and see if they
understand everything before moving on.
7. Provide feedback - Discuss quiz results with students.
Answer students' questions, also ones posed through e-mail,
but instead of giving them a direct answer, give them hints
or guidelines that will lead them to the answer.
8. Assess performance - Either by a test at the end of the
course, seminar, case study, assess students' performance
to see if the course objectives defined at the beginning have
been accomplished.
 9. Enhance retention and transfer - Provide students with
real-life examples or contexts in which they can use the
acquired knowledge.
Criticisms
Gagne's theory was criticized because it is9):
 insufficient for self-learning (which resulted in
suggestions to supplement it with learner-initiated
strategies)
 “…not particularly applicable to situations in which incidental
learning, discovery-based learning or other forms of
instruction are desired…” and assumes “content can be
sufficiently structured and that enough activities can be
provided for the learners to acquire the desired knowledge
and skills”10)
 ineffective in adult teaching.

Robert Gagné's Nine Steps of

I n s t r u c ti o n
According to Robert Gagné (1985) there are nine events that provide a
framework for an effective learning process:
While Gagnés Nine Steps are often treated as iron clad rules, it has
been noted for quite some time that the nine steps are more like a
framework or guidelines:

“[Gagnés nine steps are] general considerations to be taken

into account when designing instruction. Although some
steps might need to be rearranged (or might be unnecessary)
for certain types of lessons, the general set of considerations
provide a good checklist of key design steps” (Good, Brophy,
1977).

The Nine Steps

1. Gain attention: Present a story, problem, or a new situation that will

grab the learners' attention. This can be thought of as a interest
device or teaser, such as the short segment often shown in a TV
program right before the opening credits that keeps you watching the
program. The ideal is to grab the learners' attention so that they will
become involved in the learning process. You can use such interest
devices as:

o Storytelling
o Demonstrations
o Presenting a problem to be solved
o Identifying why it is important to them

Wick, Pollock, Jefferson, and Flanagan (2006) describe how the

research also supports extending the interest device into the workplace
in order to increase performance when the learners apply their new
skills to the job. This is accomplished by having the learners and their
managers discuss what they need to learn and be able to perform when
they finish the training. This pre-class activity ends in a mutual contract
between the learners and managers on what is expected to be achieved
from the learning process.

The reason this works is that workers often perform what their
managers stress, and tend to ignore what their managers ignore.

2. Provide a Learning Objective: This allows the learners to organize

their thoughts on what they will learn and perform. There is an old
saying among presentation professionals to tell them what you're going
to tell them, tell them, and finally tell them what you told them. This
works by helping to cue  the learner on the goals of the instruction and
how they will be able to use their new skills in the workplace.

The problem that some instructors run into is telling the learners the
formal Learning Objectives word for word, rather than breaking it down
into a less formalized statement. Learning Objectives are normally
designed for the instructional designers and trainers, rather than the
learners, thus they must be transformed into a more causal language.

Marzano (1998, p.94) reported an effect size of 0.97 (which indicates

that achievement can be raised by 34 percentile points) when goal
specification is used. When students have some control over the
learning outcomes, there is an effect size of 1.21 (39 percentile points).

3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge: This allows the learners to use

two important learning processes:
 o Retrieval Practice: Retrieval enhances learning by retrieval-specific
mechanisms rather than by elaborative study processes and is an effective
tool to promote conceptual learning (Butler, 2010; Karpicke, Janell, 2011) .
o Scaffolding is building upon the learners' previous knowledge and skills.

Taking practice tests allows learners to retrieve and reconstruct their

knowledge. Remembering information we are organizing allows us to
create patterns, cues, and connections that our brains can recognize.

Scaffolding is the support that a skilled performer gives her

apprentices in carrying out a task (Collins, Brown, Holum, 1991). It is
accomplished by building upon the student's prior learning. The basic
steps of scaffolding include:

1. Start by building on what the learners already know

2. Add more details and information over a period of time
3. Allowing the learners to perform on their own
4. Afterwards, the fading process begins by slowly removing the support in order
to give the learners more responsibility.

In addition, part of stimulating recall is having the learners take notes

and drawing mind maps. Learning is enhanced by encouraging the use
of graphic representations when taking notes (mind or concept maps).
While normal note-taking has an overall effect size of .99, indicating a
percentile gain of 34 points, graphic representations (mind maps )
produce a percentile gain in achievement of 39 points (Marzano, 1998).

One of the most effective of these techniques is semantic mapping or

concept mapping. With this technique, the learner represents the key
ideas in a lesson by drawing nodes (circles) with spokes depicting key
details emanating from the node. Having the learners draw a semantic
map produces an effect size of 1.48 (n=1), indicating a percentile gain
of 43 points (Toms-Bronowski, 1982).

4. Present the material: Sequence and chunk  the information to

avoid cognitive overload. Blend the information to aid in information
recall. This is directly related to Skinner's sequenced learning events by
allowing the learners to receive feedback on individualized tasks,
thereby correcting isolated problems rather than having little idea of
where the root of the learning challenge lies.Bloom's
Taxonomy  and Learning Strategies  can be used to help sequence the
lesson by helping you chunk them into levels of difficulty.

5. Provide guidance for learning: Provide coaching on how to learn

the skill. The rate of learning increases because learners are less likely
to lose time and become frustrated by practicing the wrong way or
using poorly understood concepts. Coaching the learners to learn-to-
learn also has the benefit of helping them to gain metacognitive skills
that will aid them with future performance initiatives.

6. Elicit performance: Practice  by letting the learner do something with

the newly acquired behavior, skills, or knowledge.

In addition, demonstrate as required (modeling ). Albert Bandura (1997)

noted that observational learning may or may not involve imitation. For
example if you see someone driving in front of you hit a pothole, and
then you swerve to miss it, you learned from observational learning, not
imitation (if you learned from imitation then you would also hit the
pothole). What you learned was the information you processed
cognitively and then acted upon. Observational learning is much more
complex than simple imitation. Bandura's theory is often referred to
as social learning theory as it emphasizes the role of vicarious
experience (observation) of people affecting people (models). Modeling
has several affects on learners:

o Acquisition - New responses are learned by observing the model.

o Inhibition - A response that otherwise may be made is changed when the
observer sees a model being punished.
o Disinhibition - A reduction in fear by observing a model's behavior go
unpunished in a feared activity.
o Facilitation - A model elicits from an observer a response that has already
been learned.
o Creativity - Observing several models performing and then adapting a
combination of characteristics or styles.

7. Provide feedback : This can be a test, quiz, or verbal comments.

The feedback   needs to be specific, rather than something similar to “you
are doing a good job.” Tell them why they are doing a good job and/or
provide specific guidance.

8. Assess performance : Evaluate the learners to determine if the

lesson has been learned and provide general progress information.

9.   Enhance retention and transfer : Inform the learners about similar

problem situations, provide additional practice (see   over-
learning   below), put the learners in a   learning transfer   situation, and
review the lesson.