Instructional Design: The Events of Instruction

1. Instructional Design:The Events of Instruction Week 6 Anthony Girasoli, 6th Year Ed. Husky University

2. What is Instruction? • During a lesson, there is a progression from one event to the next (Gagne, Golas, Wager, & Keller, 2005). • It is important to know what these events are in order to plan the “nitty-gritty” (i.e., details) of the lesson.

3. The Learning Process • What is going on in the learner’s mind to process information? • Gagne’s “Nine Events of Instruction” is an Information Processing View. • There are inputs, processes, and outputs.

4. How Does the Mind Process Information?

5. How Does Dual Coding Theory Fit In? • There are two input channels: audio (ears) and visual (eyes) (Pavio, 1986; Pavio, 2006). • Can work together to enhance transfer of information from STM to LTM. • Can also interfere with each other to hinder transfer from STM to LTM. • Also can affect strengthening meaning in LTM. • Mayer’s (2009) Principles of Multimedia Learning is based on this.

6. How Does Gagne Define “Instruction”? • Instruction consists of a set of events external to the learner designed to support the internal process of learning (Gagne, et. al, 2005).

7. The Events of Instruction • Designed to take a learner from their existing understanding to the learning objective. • Usually, the events are arranged by an instructional designer or teacher. • The events are usually in the form of communications (can be verbal or non-verbal) between the instructor and learner. • Typically applied in order but not always.

8. Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction

9. 1. Gaining Attention • You can appeal to the learner’s interests. • You can try a stimulus change. • Mayer’s (2009) Personalization Principle is related. • Information process: reception of patterns in LTM.

10. 2. Informing the Learner of the Objective • Communicate the performance objectives to the learner. • What are the learning goals? • Information process: activating a process of executive control.

11. 3. Stimulating Recall of Prerequisite Learned Capabilities • What prerequisite knowledge is expected of the learner? • Ensure accessibility to prior knowledge by recalling this knowledge just before the new learning takes place. • “Do you remember…?” • Analogies can assist in linking existing schemas to new ones (Atkinson, Derry, Renkl, & Wortham, 2000; Catrambone & Holyoak, 1989). • Information process: retrieval of prior learning from LTM to STM.

12. 4. Presenting the Stimulus Material • Usually the presentation of facts. • Can be text, diagrams, graphics, video, audio. • Features are emphasized. • Similar to Mayer’s (2009) Signaling Principle. • Gagne, et. al (2005) recommends a variety of examples. • Retention and transfer can be enhanced by presenting problems stated in words, in diagrams, and in combinations of the two (Gagne, et. al, 2005). • See Mayer’s (2009) principles for reducing extraneous processing. • Information process: selective perception.

13. 5. Providing Learning Guidance • Use communications to guide the learner. • Instead of telling the learner the answer, help the learner understand strategies and facts to arrive at the answer. • Facilitating online discussions can help guide learning. • Guidance can also help increase the learner’s self-efficacy (e.g., vicarious experiences). • Information process: semantic encoding and cues for retrieval.

14. 6. Eliciting the Performance • Hopefully, the learning (knowledge transfer) event has taken place! • Are the learners demonstrating they have an understanding of what is being taught? • Learners are developing a mastery experience which is the strongest source of self-efficacy. • Information process: activating response organization.

15. 7. Providing Feedback • There should be feedback communications to the learner concerning the degree of correctness of the learner’s performance. • Can increase learner’s self-efficacy through verbal persuasion. • Information process: establishing reinforcement.

16. 8. Assessing Performance • Reliability and validity. • Should be linked to learning objectives. • Different types of assessments: tests, exams, papers, presentations, or just verbal/textual question and answers. • Information process: activating retrieval, making reinforcement possible.

17. 9. Enhancing Retention and Transfer • Practice • Setting a variety of new tasks for the learner which require the application of the newly learned skills. • Information process: providing cues and strategies for retrieval.

18. Instructional Events and Learning Outcomes • How could the following learned capabilities (covered in Week 2) relate to some of the nine events of instruction? • Intellectual Skills • Cognitive Strategies • Verbal Information • Attitudes • Motor Skills

19. Discussion Topic • How would you use Gagne’s nine events of instruction to teach a class on a topic of your choice? • See the Gagne et. al (2005) book for an example. • Post your example on Google Groups, review other students’ examples, and comment. • A student will be facilitating the discussions.

20. References • Atkinson, R., Derry, S. J., Renkl, A., & Wortham, D. (2000). Learning from examples: Instructional principles from the worked examples research. Review of Ecucational Research, 70(2), 181-215. • Catrambone, R. C., & Holyoak, K. J. (1989). Overcoming contextual limitations on problem- solving transfer. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15(6), 593-603. • Gagne, R. M., Wager, W. W., Golas, K. C., & Keller, J. M. (2005). Principles of instructional design (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. • Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia Learning (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. • Pavio, A. (1986). Mental representations: A dual-coding approach. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. • Pavio, A. (2006). Mind and its evolution: A dual coding approach. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.