Nine events of instruction

Definition

"Nine events of instruction" is an instructional design model put together by Gagne. This is a behaviorist model, but it also draws from cognitivism.

The nine events of instruction

Gagné's most essential ingrediants of teaching are:

• presenting the knowledge or demonstrating the skill
• providing practice with feedback
• providing learner guidance

These elements have be designed differently according to the type of learning level (learning goal) to be achieved. For Gagné, instructional design means to first identify the goal (a learning outcome) and then construct the learning hierarchy, i.e. do a task analysis of skills needed to perform a measurable activitiy that demonstrates a learning goal.

Gagne's 9 general steps of instruction for learning are:

1. Gain attention:
   • e.g. present a good problem, a new situation, use a multimedia advertisement, ask questions.
   • This helps to ground the lesson, and to motivate
2. Describe the goal:
   • e.g. state what students will be able to accomplish and how they will be able to use the knowledge, give a demonstration if appropriate.
   • Allows students to frame information, i.e. treat it better.
3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge
   • e.g. remind the student of prior knowledge relevant to the current lesson (facts, rules, procedures or skills). Show how knowledge is connected, provide the student with a framework that helps learning and remembering. Tests can be included.
4. Present the material to be learned
   • e.g. text, graphics, simulations, figures, pictures, sound, etc. Chunk information (avoid memory overload, recall information).
5. Provide guidance for learning
   • e.g. presentation of content is different from instructions on how to learn. Use of different channel (e.g. side-boxes)
6. Elicit performance "practice"
   • let the learner do something with the newly acquired behavior, practice skills or apply knowledge. At least use MCQ's.
7. Provide informative feedback ,
   • show correctness of the trainee's response, analyze learner's behavior, maybe present a good (step-by-step) solution of the problem
8. Assess performance test, if the lesson has been learned. Also give sometimes general progress information
9. Enhance retention and transfer :
   • e.g. inform the learner about similar problem situations, provide additional practice. Put the learner in a transfer situation. Maybe let the learner review the lesson.

See also instructional curriculum map for planning at larger scale.

Links

• http://www.my-ecoach.com/idtimeline/theory/gagne.html
• http://www.patsula.com/usefo/webbasedlearning/tutorial1/learning_theories_full_version.html

References

• Aronson, Dennis T., & Leslie J.Briggs, (1983). "Contributions of Gagn� and Briggs to a Prescriptive Model of Instruction", in Reigeluth, C.M. (1983) (e.d). Instructional Design Theories and Models: An Overview of their Current Status. Hillsdale, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

• Gagne, Robert M., Briggs, Leslie, J., Wager, Walter, F. (1985). Principles of Instructional Design, Wadsworth, ISBN 0030347572