2023/03/03 14:03 1/4 Conditions of Learning

Conditions of Learning

General

Robert Gagné was an American educational psychologist who's ideas of conditions of learning and
instructional design implications were first introduced in 19651). Gagné assumed that there are
different types of learning outcomes, each of which is best achieved through its specific
instructional design, but also that there is a set of steps required in every learning environment
(sometimes also known as the Gagné Assumption2)).

“Robert M. Gagne is truly one of the most influential educational psychologists of our
generation, and he gave academic respectability to the practice of instructional systems
design.”3)

What are conditions of learning?

Gagné, influenced with behaviorist learning theories, suggested there are eight types or conditions of
learning, mostly all based on S-R learning. They are (categorized by complexity)4):

Signal learning - (clasicall conditioning)

Stimulus-response learning - (operant conditioning)
Chaining - (complex operant conditioning)
Verbal association - (creation of associations using verbal connections)
Discrimination learning - (learning of responding different to different stimuli)
Concept learning - (learning a general response to a class of stimuli)
Rule learning - (a rule is a chain of two or more concepts)
Problem solving - (application of previously learned rules and concepts to new situations)

Outcomes of this types of learning can be divided into five categories of performance or learning
outcomes. Gagne speculated that they distinct in terms of internal organization in the long-term
memory and required mental processing. These are verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive
strategies, motor skills and attitudes. The differences in the internal organization and performance of
the mentioned categories of performance result in the critical conditions needed for learning. Both
categories of performance and their critical conditions of learning are explained in the table that
follows.

Category of
Description How to enhance learning?
performance
New material should be related to
Verbal Declarative knowledge like laws, stored previously learned information,
information as distributed representations. but also distinctive through visual
representation.
Procedural knowledge like dividing
The subordinate involved skills must
integers, stored as linked procedural steps
Intellectual skills be learned first or be already
arranged in hierarchies where higher skills
present (prior knowledge).
include lower ones.

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Skills that influence the selection and

activation of other production Little use of prior learning, but a lot
Cognitive
systems, usually simple like “break a use of practicing with different
strategies
problem into parts”, retrieved by external examples.
or internal cueing.
Skills like inserting contact lens,
Prior learning and practice
Motor skills manifesting with smooth and error-less
enhances learning of motor skills.
performance.
Acquired mental states that in certain Requires a human model to learn
Attitudes
situations influence one's actions. from.

But aside from the special conditions that will enhance each of these specific types of learning, there
are also nine events of instruction which should be the starting point for every type of learning and
every instructional design. These events were based on empirical observations of the instructional
procedures and the information-processing model of learning and memory. These nine events are5):

1. Gain attention (reception) - The first step is to gain students' attention and motivate him to
engage with the content.
2. Inform objectives (expectancy) - Student needs to be clarified what he can expect.
3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge (retrieval) - Prior knowledge should be activated since it
is important for learning new materials.
4. Present stimulus material (selective perception) - Present the material to the students,
possibly using various learning styles.
5. Provide learner guidance (semantic encoding) - Guidance in terms of communication
enables the teacher to direct the students in their learning or enable them easier information
encoding through visual or other materials.
6. Elicit performance (responding) - Students need practice. Practice should immediately follow
instructions and be well defined in terms of its nature, objectives and expected student
responses.
7. Provide feedback (reinforcement) - Feedback is additional guidance offering the student
immediate evaluation of his performance enabling him to realize his mistakes and
misconceptions.
8. Assess performance (retrieval) - At the end of each course student's knowledge should be
assessed in order to check if expected learning has occurred.
9. Enhance retention and transfer (generalization) - The learning process does not end when
the class does. The teacher should advise students how and in which context to apply and
transfer the just gained knowledge in the world outside the classroom.

Based on his research, Gagné in 1968 proposed the theory of cumulative learning, based on the
premise that new learning most of all depends on combining previously acquired and recalled
material and skills, but also on the ability of learning transfer. In his own words,

“There is a specifiable minimal prerequisite for each new learning task. Unless the learner can
recall this prerequisite capability… he can not learn the new task”6)

This theory was in contrast to developmental theories of the time and, particularly, Jean Piaget's stage
theory of cognitive development which assumed that master higher-order skills doesn't depended on
successfully learned lower-order skills, but rather on the specific stage in cognitive development,
related to age.

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2023/03/03 14:03 3/4 Conditions of Learning

What is the practical meaning of conditions of learning?

An example of how each of Gagné's nine events of instruction can be implemented follows7)8):

1. Gain attention - Show students a short interesting film related what they are about to learn,
pose them an intriguing question or give them a case study.
2. Inform objectives - Tell students what they will learn by the end of the course.
3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge - Activate students' prior knowledge by posing related
questions.
4. Present stimulus material - Present the material to the students and use additional materials
like timelines, various examples, concept maps, diagrams, and encourage students to engage
in the discussion.
5. Provide learner guidance - Give students time for discussion, answer their questions and
offer them additional materials on topic. Be available to the students also when not in class.
6. Elicit performance - Give students a brief test after each unit to let them check their own
knowledge and see if they understand everything before moving on.
7. Provide feedback - Discuss quiz results with students. Answer students' questions, also ones
posed through e-mail, but instead of giving them a direct answer, give them hints or guidelines
that will lead them to the answer.
8. Assess performance - Either by a test at the end of the course, seminar, case study, assess
students' performance to see if the course objectives defined at the beginning have been
accomplished.
9. Enhance retention and transfer - Provide students with real-life examples or contexts in
which they can use the acquired knowledge.

Criticisms

Gagne's theory was criticized because it is9):

insufficient for self-learning (which resulted in suggestions to supplement it with learner-

initiated strategies)
“…not particularly applicable to situations in which incidental learning, discovery-based learning
or other forms of instruction are desired…” and assumes “content can be sufficiently structured
and that enough activities can be provided for the learners to acquire the desired knowledge
and skills”10)
ineffective in adult teaching.
1)

Gagné, R. M. The conditions of learning and theory of instruction (1st ed.). New York, NY: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, 1965.
2)

Specht, P. Robert Gagne - Learning Theorist. Boise State University, College of Education.
3)

Zimmerman, Barry J., and Dale H. Schunk. Educational psychology: a century of contributions, p328.
Routledge, 2003.
4)
, 5)
Gagné, Robert Mills. The conditions of learning and theory of instruction. Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1985.
6)

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Cited in Zimmerman, Barry J., and Dale H. Schunk. Educational psychology: a century of contributions.
Routledge, 2003.
7)

For more examples see: Sadaf S, Ali SK., Zuberi RW. Problem-based Learning: Enhancing Tutors'
Facilitation Skills Using Structured Small Group Experiential Learning . Education for Health 9 (online),
96. 2009. or Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction. The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing
Education Digital Education Strategies.
8)

Gagné, Robert Mills. The conditions of learning and theory of instruction. Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1985.
9)

Zimmerman, Barry J., and Dale H. Schunk. Educational psychology: a century of contributions.
Routledge, 2003.
10)

Dills, Charles R., and A. J. Romiszowski. Instructional development paradigms. Educational

Technology, 1997.

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