Gagne Theory

Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction

Robert Gagné proposed a series of events which follow a systematic instructional design process that share the behaviorist approach to learning, with a focus on the outcomes or behaviors of instruction or training. Each of the nine events of instruction is highlighted below, followed by sample methods to help implement the events in your own instruction. Use Gagné’s nine events in conjunction with Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to design engaging and meaningful instruction.

The following nine steps have been adapted from Gagné, Briggs, and Wager (1992).

1. Gain attention of the students

Ensure the learners are ready to learn and participate in activities by presenting a stimulus to gain their attention.

Methods for gaining learners’ attention include:

• Stimulate students with novelty, uncertainty and surprise
• Pose thought-provoking questions to the students
• Have students pose questions to be answered by other students

2. Inform students of the objectives

Inform students of the objectives or outcomes to help them understand what they are to learn during the course. Provide objectives before instruction begins.

Methods for stating the outcomes include:

• Describe required performance
• Describe criteria for standard performance
• Learner establishes criteria for standard performance

3. Stimulate recall of prior learning

Help students make sense of new information by relating it to something they already know or something they have already experienced.

Methods for stimulating recall include:

• Ask questions about previous experiences
• Ask students about their understanding of previous concepts

4. Present the content

Use strategies to present and cue lesson content to provide more effective, efficient instruction. Organize and chunk content in a meaningful way. Provide explanations after demonstrations.

Ways to present and cue lesson content include:

• Present vocabulary
• Provide examples
• Present multiple versions of the same content, e.g., video, demonstration, lecture, podcast, group work
• Use a variety of media to address different learning preferences

5. Provide learning guidance

Advise students of strategies to aid them in learning content and of resources available.

Methods to provide learning guidance include:

• Provide instructional support as needed – as scaffolds (cues, hints, prompts) which can be removed after the student learns the task or content
• Model varied learning strategies – mnemonics, concept mapping, role playing, visualizing
• Use examples and non-examples – in addition to providing examples, use non-examples to help students see what not to do or the opposite of examples
• Provide case studies, analogies, visual images and metaphors – case studies for real world application, analogies for knowledge construction, visual images to make visual associations, metaphors to support learning

6. Elicit performance (practice)

Activate student processing to help them internalize new skills and knowledge and to confirm correct understanding of these concepts.

Ways to activate learner processing include:

• Elicit student activities – ask deep-learning questions, make reference to what students already know or have students collaborate with their peers
• Elicit recall strategies – ask students to recite, revisit, or reiterate information they have learned
• Facilitate student elaborations – ask students to elaborate or explain details and provide more complexity to their responses
• Help students integrate new knowledge – provide content in a context-rich way (use real-world examples)

7. Provide feedback

Provide immediate feedback of students’ performance to assess and facilitate learning.

Types of feedback include:

• Confirmatory feedback – Informs the student they did what he or she were supposed to do
• Corrective and remedial feedback – informs the student the accuracy of their performance or response
• Remedial feedback – Directs students in the right direction to find the correct answer but does not provide the correct answer
• Informative feedback – Provides information (new, different, additions, suggestions) to a student and confirms that you have been actively listening – this information allows sharing between two people
• Analytical feedback – Provides the student with suggestions, recommendations, and information for them to correct their performance

8. Assess performance

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional events, you must test to see if the expected learning outcomes have been achieved. Performance should be based on previously stated objectives.

Methods for testing learning include:

• Pretest for mastery of prerequisites
• Use a pretest for endpoint knowledge or skills
• Conduct a post-test to check for mastery of content or skills
• Embed questions throughout instruction through oral questioning and/or quizzes
• Include objective or criterion-referenced performances which measure how well a student has learned a topic
• Identify normative-referenced performances which compares one student to another student

9. Enhance retention and transfer to the job

To help learners develop expertise, they must internalize new knowledge.

Methods for helping learners internalize new knowledge include:

• Paraphrase content
• Use metaphors
• Generating examples
• Create concept maps or outlines
• Create job-aids, references, templates, or wizards

Summary

Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction can help build the framework with which to prepare and deliver instructional content. Ideally, you should prepare course goals and learning objectives before implementing the nine events (the goals and objectives will actually help situate the events in their proper context). The nine events of instruction can then be modified to fit both the content to be presented and the students’ level of knowledge.