I am an education psychologist best known for my "Conditions of Learning" which identified the mental conditions of learning and was published in 1965. I was born in North Andover, Maine in 1916 and died in 2002. I earned my Ph.D. in psychology from Brown University in 1940. I went on to work as a professor for Connecticut College, Penn State University and Florida State University. I also served as Director of the U.S. Air Force Perceptual and Motor Skill Laboratory were I began developing my principles of my learning theory.
I am considered to be a major contributor to the systematic approach of instructional design. My learning theory is summarized as The Gagne Assumption and consists of five types of learning (each requires a different type of instruction) and nine events of instruction. I've also identified a hierarchy of eight conditions to learning.
Five Types of Learning - learning is similar to processing it is sequential and builds on prior knowledge.
- Verbal Information
- Intellectual Skills
- Cognitive Strategies
- Motor Skills
Nine Events of Instruction - these events apply to each of the 5 types of learning but not necessarily in the same order for each type.
- Gaining attention - pique the learners interest
- Informing learners of objectives - discuss what will be taught
- Stimulating recall of prior learning - ask questions to call upon what they already know
- Presenting the stimulus - teach the lesson
- Providing learning guidance - allow teacher facilitated student practice
- Eliciting performance - have learner complete a task on what was taught
- Providing feedback - let learner know how they did on the task
- Assessing performance - evaluate learner on their knowledge of what was taught
- Enhancing retention and transfer - provide activity to help learners remember what was taught
Eight Conditions of Learning - the hierarchal structure is listed lowest to highest, you must master each step before reaching the next.
The Gagne Assumption ~ is for each of the different types of learning (learning goals) that exist different instructional conditions are required.
- Signal learning: the learner makes a general response to a signal
- Stimulus-response learning: the learner makes a precise response to a signal
- Chaining: the connection of a set of individual stimulus & responses in a sequence.
- Verbal association: the learner makes associations using verbal connections
- Discrimination learning: the learner makes different responses to different stimuli that are somewhat alike
- Concept learning: the learner develops the ability to make a generalized response based on a class of stimuli
- Rule learning: a rule is a chain of concepts linked to a demonstrated behavior
- Problem solving: the learner discovers a combination of previously learned rules and applies them to solve a novel situation
© 2008 Patrick Specht, Boise State University, College of Education