MODULE 2 in EDUCATION 8 – FACILITATING LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING

Last meeting, we discussed about Information Processing theory which compares the human
brain to a computer. From the lesson, you have learned that the information received by the sensory
memory is encoded into one’s memory. You have learned further that not everything is received by
the brain; it filters information, from what the person is paying attention to in the present moment, to
what gets stored in the short-term or working memory and ultimately into the long-term memory.

Now, we will look at another theory which focuses on the development of intellectual skills and
what conditions may be applied to develop these skills

LESSON 2 – GAGNE’S CONDITIONS OF LEARNING

 Intended Outcome/Learning Objectives: In this lesson, you are expected to:

1. Explain Gagne’s conditions of learning

2. Identify learning outcomes appropriate for each category of learning
3. Make a simple lesson outline using Gagne’s instructional events
4. Identify the benefits of using Gagne’s principles in teaching

 Stimulating Learning

Activity: The following are some learning outcomes which students should learn in class.
As a prospective teacher, identify the best instructional strategy which you believe can be used in
teaching effectively each topic/skill to your students.

Topics/skills Instructional Strategies

Preparing a macaroni salad
Defining the term, alliteration
Learning the value of honesty
Differentiating vertebrates from
invertebrates

Questions:
1. Is it good to use the same instructional strategy in teaching your students all the identified
topics/skills?
2. Why or why not?

From your answers, we can see that it is difficult for students to learn the above topics/skills
using the same strategy because each of them belongs to a different domain or category. This is the
essence of Gagne’s theory which we will discuss in the succeeding section of your module.

 Lesson Proper

Robert Gagné defines learning as a change in an individual’s capacities that continues during a
specific period, and that cannot be ascribed to the natural process of ageing. Moreover, he believes
that learning is a resource that individuals and groups of people can use to acquire the skills needed
to become a full-fledged member of society. As a psychologist he believes that learning is a direct
result of human capacities and behaviours that take place through stimulation from the environment
and the individual thought processes.

Gagne formulated a learning theory which has played a major significance in education. His theory
covers all aspects of learning but places major emphasis on the development of intellectual skills. His
theory has been utilized in designing instruction in all domains.

Likewise, his theory stipulates that there are several different types of learning and that each type
requires different types of instruction. These categories of learning are verbal information,
intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes. Furthermore, he stressed the
idea that different internal and external conditions are necessary for each type of learning to happen.
For example, for cognitive strategies to be learned, there must be a chance to practice developing new
solutions to problems; to learn attitudes, the learner must be exposed to a credible role model or
persuasive arguments; to learn verbal information, the learner’s attention must be drawn to
distinctive features of the concept to be learned. The table below shows the various categories of
learning with corresponding learning outcomes and conditions of learning.

Category of Learning Example of Learning Outcome Conditions of Learning

Verbal information
Stating previously learned
materials such as facts,
concepts, principles, and
procedures, e.g. listing the 14-
learner centered psychological
principles
1. Draw attention to distinctive
features by variations in print
or speech
2. Present information so that it
can be made into chunks
3. Provide meaningful context
for effective encoding of
information
4. Provide cues for effective
recall and generalization of
information

Intellectual skills Mental operations that 1. Call attention to distinctive

permits individuals to
respond to
conceptualizations of the
environment:
 Discriminations:
distinguishing objects,
features, or symbols, e.g.
distinguishing an even and
odd number
 Concrete concepts:
identifying classes of concrete
objects, features of events,
e.g. picking out all the red
beads from a bowl of beads
 Defined concepts: classifying
new examples of events or
ideas by their definition, e.g.
features
2. Stay within the limits of
working memory
3. Stimulate the recall of
previously learned
component skills
4. Present verbal cues to the
ordering or combination of
component skills
5. Schedule occasions for
practice and spaced review
6. Use a variety of contexts to
promote transfer
 noting “she sells sea shells”
as alliteration
 Rules: applying a single
relationship to solve a class of
problems, e.g. computing
average monthly income of a
company
 Higher order rules: applying
a combination of rules to
solve a complex problem, e.g.
generating a balanced budget
for a school organization
Cognitive strategies, Employing personal ways to
guide learning, thinking,
acting, and feeling e.g.
constructing concept maps of
topics being studied
Attitudes Choosing personal actions
based on internal states of
understanding and feeling,
e.g. deciding to avoid soft
drinks and drinking at least 8
glasses of water everyday
Motor skills Executing performances
involving the use of muscles,
e.g. doing the steps of the
Singkil dance
Therefore, based on the matrix shown above, you can see Gagne’s first major principle: Different
instruction is required for different learning outcomes.
1. Describe or demonstrate the
strategy
2. Provide a variety of occasions
for practice using the
strategy
3. Provide informative feedback
as to the creativity or
originality of the strategy or
outcome
1. Establish an expectancy of
success associated with the
desired attitude
2. Assure student identification
with an admired human
model
3. Arrange for communication
or demonstration of choice
of personal action
4. Give feedback for successful
performance or allow
observation of feedback in
the human model
1. Present verbal or other
guidance to cue the
executive subroutine
2. Arrange repeated practice
3. Furnish immediate feedback
as to the accuracy of the
performance
4. Encourage the use of mental
practice
 The second principle in his theory states that learning hierarchies define what intellectual skills
are to be learned and a sequence of instruction. Gagne suggests that learning tasks for intellectual
skills can be organized in a hierarchy according to complexity: stimulus recognition, response
generalization, procedure following, use of terminology, discriminations, concept formation, rule
formation, rule application, and problem solving. The primary significance of the hierarchy is to
identify pre-requisites that should be completed to facilitate learning at each level. Prerequisites are
identified by doing a task analysis of a learning/training task. Learning hierarchies provide a basis for
the sequencing of instruction.

The third principle states that events of learning operate on the learner in ways that constitute
the conditions of learning. These events should satisfy the necessary conditions for learning and
serve as the basis for designing instruction and selecting appropriate media. The theory includes nine
instructional events that support the learning process. According to Gagne, the instructional events
should be used in every lesson and applied in the right order and in the right way to make learning as
easy as possible. These events are as follows:

1. Gaining attention (reception). The principle for each learning process is that the student must be
motivated and open to receiving new information. This can be achieved by mentioning the students
by name, involving them in the problem, or calling them to order so their full attention is directed at
the provider of information.

2. Identifying objective (expectancy). Students can more easily be involved in the learning when
they become aware of the objectives and skills they must gain at the end of the session. By sharing
objectives with the students, they can develop their own expectations about what is expected of them
during the lessons.

3. Stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval). A concept that often recurs in Gagnés Conditions
of Learning is recalling previously learned knowledge. That is important to clarify the context. Recalling
prior knowledge can be facilitated in various ways, such as through a Q&A prior to the lesson. An
online quiz is taken in the classrooms increasingly often, where students take a test on what they’ve
previously learned.

4. Presenting stimulus (selective perception). These instructions depend on the skill to be learned.
It’s important that the stimulus is aimed at characteristics of the desired outcomes, so students can
understand the nature and reason of the learning experience.

5. Providing learning guidance (semantic encoding). These instructions also depend on the
desired result. Learning support concerns drawing on prior knowledge to advance the retention of
information in the long term. This is done by offering a meaningful context to the students. When they
have questions or experience difficulties in solving problems or in coming up with solutions, there must
be a guide who can point them to previously gained knowledge enabling them to solve the problem
independently.

6. Eliciting performance (responding). The first five instructions attempt to ensure that the
learning process is effective. These instructions, however, allow the student to demonstrate what they
have learned to the people around them and to themselves. It concerns carrying out a learned skill as
indication that the learning process has been successful
 7. Providing feedback (reinforcement). It is crucial that the feedback students receive is not just
based on whether or not the work is correct; it must also be discussed how well they have done, the
areas that could do with improvement, and how their general performance can be improved.

8. Assessing performance (retrieval). These instructions, or the phase of the process, can only take
place when the students have had sufficient opportunity to practice so a skill is fine-tuned. Most
theories on learning agree that demonstrations of actions must be repeated through time to prove
that knowledge has been gained. It requires both a formative and summative assessment. Formative
assessment is the continuous process of evaluation, and summative assessments take place at the end
of a process to demonstrate that a skill or learning aspect has been mastered.

9. Enhancing retention and transfer (generalization). Enhancing the retention of knowledge and
the transfer of the knowledge is the last instruction of Gagné’s Conditions of Learning. It’s
important to recognize the value of the use of different activities to optimize the retention and
transfer of skills. There are various tools available for memory training, but in most cases, the best
results are achieved through repetition.

The following example illustrates a teaching sequence corresponding to the nine instructional
events for the objective, Recognize an equilateral triangle:

1. Gain attention – show a variety of computer - generated triangles

2. Identify objective – pose question: “What is an equilateral triangle?”
3. Recall prior learning – review definitions of triangles
4. Present stimulus – give definition of equilateral triangle
5. Guide learning- show example of how to create equilateral triangle
6. Elicit performance – ask students to create 5 different examples
7. Provide feedback – check all examples as correct/incorrect
8. Assess performance- provide scores and remediation
9. Enhance retention/transfer – show pictures of objects and ask students to identify equilaterals

Here’s a short video from Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lofSd0o7iY)

which you can open to help you gain more ideas or inputs for your lesson.
 Application/Assessment: Do what is required in each set of activities that follow:

Read the given text below and work on the activity found after it.

For hundreds of years before the invention of airplanes, man had longed to fly like birds. It was two Frenchmen,
the Montgolfier brothers who finally made it possible for men to fly and ascend the sky.
Joseph Montgolfier noticed that when a fire was lit, small pieces of paper and wood-ash rose into the air above it.
He thought that a special gas produced by the fire pushed the paper and ash into the air. We know now that it was a
current of hot air which rose as it was heated.
The two brothers made a small silk bag and held it over a fire. When the bag was released full of hot air, it rose to
the ceiling. They tried further experiments using larger silk balloons and on one occasion succeeded in sending a balloon
two thousand meters high in the sky. Encouraged by these successes, they decided to attempt a passenger flight. A silk
balloon lined with paper and nearly twenty-five meters tall was filled with hot air. A wicker basket was hung beneath it and
the first passengers to travel by air embarked. They were a sheep, a duck, and a cockerel. The demonstration, which was
watched by a large crowd, including the King and Queen of France, was a great success. This first flight took place in
September 1783.
A few months later, the first men to fly took the air in a Montgolfier balloon. This balloon was fitted with a small
brazier or burner beneath the open end. This kept the air inside warm and allowed the balloon to stay up for a longer time.
The first airmen, Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’ Arlandes flew over Paris for nearly half an hour.
Once in the air, the balloonists had no control over the direction taken by the balloon. They were at the mercy of
the wind. They did not so much fly as float and drift on the air. It was not until the Wright brothers did invent the first
engine- driven airplane in 1903 that it became possible to control the direction of the flight. With the coming of the
airplane, man’s ambition to fly like the bird had at last been achieved.

A picture of one of the earliest hot-air balloons

1. The following are skills or outcomes which may be derived from the text you have read. Classify
each item into a category of learning by putting a check mark (/) in the appropriate column.

Skills or outcomes learned Categories of Learning

Verbal Intellectual Cognitive Attitudes Motor
information skills strategie skills
s
a. Recall the names of hot-air balloon
inventors
b. Stimulate creativity and innovativeness in
making a hot-air balloon
c. Differentiate a hot-air balloon from an
airplane
d. Give examples of air transportation
e. Identify the steps in making a hot-air
balloon
f. Draw a picture of a hot-air balloon
g. List down the materials needed in making
a hot-air balloon
h. Describe hot-air balloon
 i. Showing significant events in the story
through a timeline
j. Developing appreciation for discovery
learning

2. Look for a sample lesson plan and use it as basis in completing the given matrix following
Gagne’s instructional events

(Note: When submitting your work, please attach the sample lesson plan.)

Event of Instruction Lesson Example/ Conditions of Learning

a. Gaining attention Example: Identify situations or conditions which
the teacher create to gain student’s attention.
b. Informing the learner of the objective
c. Stimulating recall of prior learning
d. Presenting the stimulus
e. Providing learner guidance
f. Eliciting performance
g. Giving feedback
h. Assessing performance
i. Enhancing retention and transfer

3. In not less than three paragraphs, write a reflection essay on how Gagne’s Conditions of Learning
Theory help you become a better teacher someday.
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Congratulations for completing this lesson! Now, take a short break for
a while. Have an exercise if you may and then, work on your next lesson.