Robert Gagné (August 21, 1916 – April 28, 2002)

Robert Gagné(August 21, 1916 – April 28, 2002) Father of Instructional Design

Robert Mills Gagné • American educational psychologist known for “Conditions of Learning” which identified the mental conditions of learning. • Earned B. A. from Yale in 1937 and a Ph. D. in psychology from Brown University in 1940. • Worked as professor for Connecticut College for Women, Penn State University, and Florida State University. • Served as Director of the U. S. Air Force Perceptual and Motor Skill Laboratory. • Referred to as the Father of Instructional Design.

The Phenomenon of Learning • Gagné first became interested in how people learn after observing psychology graduate students at Brown University. • While teaching psychology at Connecticut College for Women he became more interested with human learning. • Got drafted into the military in 1941 where he was able to use his knowledge in psychology and his interest in human learning for the first time in instructional technology.

Conditions of Learning • Consist of internal and external conditions. • Internal conditions deal with prior knowledge. • External conditions deal with stimuli that is presented externally to the learner.

The Gagné Assumption • For each of the different types of learning (learning goals) that exist different instructional conditions are required. • Learning theory that consists of: • Five Types of Learning = learning is similar to processing it is sequential and builds on prior knowledge. • Nine Event of Instruction = apply to each of the 5 types of learning but not necessarily in the same order for each type. • Eight Conditions of Learning = the hierarchal structure is listed lowest to highest, you must master each step before reaching the next.

Five Types of Learning Gagne’s Taxonomy of Learning (adapted from R. M. Gagne, 1985) arcmit01.uncw.edu

Nine Events of Instruction • Gaining Attention = pique the learners interest • Informing learners of objectives = discuss what will be taught • Stimulating recall of prior knowledge = ask questions to call upon what they already know • Presenting the stimulus = teach the lesson • Providing learning guidance = allow teacher facilitated student practice

Nine Events of Instruction • Eliciting performance = have learner complete a task on what was taught • Providing feedback = let learner know how they did on the task • Assessing performance = evaluate learner on their knowledge of what was taught • Enhancing retention and transfer = provide activity to help learners remember what was taught

Eight Conditions of Learning • Signal learning = the learner makes a general response to a signal • Stimulus - response learning: the learner makes precise response to a signal • Chaining = the connection of a set of individual stimulus and responses in a sequence • Verbal association = the learner makes association using verbal connections

Eight Conditions of Learning • Discrimination learning = the learner makes different responses to different stimuli that are somewhat alike • Concept learning = the learner develops the ability to make a generalized response based on a class of stimuli • Rule learning = a rule is a chain of concepts linked to a demonstrated behavior • Problem solving = the learner discover a combination of previously learned rules and applies them to solve a novel situation

Theory of Instruction Overview of Gagné’s instructional theory en.wikipedia.org

Systems Approach to Instructional Design • Walter Dick, Lou Carey and James O. Carey developed the Dick & Carey instructional design model which incorporates much of Gagné’s model. • Their systems approach to instructional design relies on Gagné’s domains of learning or learning outcomes. • “The first step in conducting a goal analysis is to categorize the goal into one of Gagné’s (1985) domains of learning. Each goal should be classified into one of the domains because of the implications for the goal analysis and to identify the appropriate subordinate skills analysis techniques. ‘ • (Dick & Carey, 1996)

Systems Approach to Instructional Design • Dick and Carey also adopted Gagné’s hierarchical approach o analyzing goals. • It consists of asking the question “What must the student already know so that, with minimal amount of instruction, this task can be learned? (Dick & Carey, 1996) • This allows the designer to identify one or more critical subordinate skills that will be required of the learner prior to attempting instruction on the step itself…This hierarchy of skills is helpful to the designer because it can be used to suggest the type of specific subordinate skills that will be required to support any step in the goal (Dick & Carey, 1996).

http://www.innovativelearning.com/people/richard_culatta.htmlhttp://www.innovativelearning.com/people/richard_culatta.html

References • Culatta, R. (2001). Instuctional design: Dick and carey model. Retrieved from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/models/dick_carey_model.html • Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J. O. (1996). The systematic design of instruction . (4 ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon • Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J. O. (2005). The systematic design of instruction . (6 ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon

References • http://itls.usu.edu:8080/groups/6505_knowledgebase/revisions/f20c6/22/ • http://www.personal.psu.edu/wxh139/gagne.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Gagné • http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/spechtp/575/learningtheorist.html

Robert Gagné (August 21, 1916 – April 28, 2002)