Robert Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction

Robert Gagne

         

          After how many months of moratorium of education topics, I am back at my usual postings. And to break the ice, may I present you Robert Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction. These are just simple steps on how to discuss or present a lesson in which I suppose, most teachers are familiar with. Perhaps most of the teachers are not aware that classroom practices that we usually do came from this instructional design. 

          

          Gagne's theory can be considered neobehaviorist-ic, taking into consideration both behaviorist's and cognitivist's perspective. As you read the events of instruction, you will later realize that the conditions can be divided into internal (cognitivism) and external (behaviorism) conditions.

          The nine events of instruction are as follows: (Notice how are these related to the parts of the lesson plan and the actual classroom teaching practices.Take note also that these events can be design variously depending on the subject matter and the learning goals or outcome intended by the instructional process.)

        

1. Gain attention. This is the so called "Preparatory Activities" in the lesson plan. At this stage of instruction, teachers must gain the attention of the students and motivate them as well by the use of  games, pictures, an interesting question or any attention-getting activity. 
2. Describe the goal. Present the goals or the objectives of the lesson. Explain to the students how will these be achieved.
3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge. These includes review questions and drills related to the previous learning of the students.
4. Present the material to be learned. This can be done in numerous ways depending on the subject matter. Teachers can also use advanced organizers to provide a global perspective of what will be learned.
5. Provide guidance for learning. Teachers guide the students to the whole learning process. Teachers accommodate questions, demonstrate steps and facilitate learning in general. Of course, this can be done through various activities like experiments, groupwork, reading activity etc.
6. Elicit performance "practice". This is the "Exercises" part of the lesson. Teachers give the chance for the pupils to do or apply what they learned by themselves. This can also be a trial-and-error phase wherein students are open to mistakes on the process of developing their newly-acquired learning.
7. Provide informative feedback. Very self-explanatory. Teachers provide feedback that is constructive in nature. Teachers give corrections, alternative solutions, etc.
8. Assess performance test, if the lesson has been learned. Also give sometimes general progress information. This is the "Evaluation" part of the lesson. Teachers can give a short quiz that can be formative or summative in nature. Formative to check what the learners have learned so far and summative to check the overall learning of the learners.
9. Enhance retention and transfer. This can either be the "Applications" part of the lesson wherein learners must apply or "transfer" what they have learned in different situations related to them. Or the "Assignment" part that enhances retention through extended practice or activities to be accomplished by the students.

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