EDUC-5 FLCT

Mendoza, Jefferson M.
BSED 3B English

Gagne's Categories of Learning Theory

The term "Instructional Events" refer to actions of both teacher and learners during the
teaching-learning session. The teacher has to select appropriate events and plan them in the right
format and the right sequence is crucial in a successful lesson design (Khadjooi, Rostami, &
Ishaq, 2011). A lesson design is a plan showing the type of instructional events, their order and the
kind of activity taking place in each event. In designing a lesson plan, there are 2 important
factors: the objectives and the learners.
Essential to Gagne's ideas of instruction are what he calls "conditions of learning":
internal conditions deal with what the learner knows prior to the instruction, external conditions
deal with the stimuli that are presented to the learner, e.g. instructions provided by the teacher.

Principles
1. Different instruction is required for different learning outcomes.
Gagne's theory, as cited by Lucas & Corpuz (2014), asserts that there are several
different types or levels of learning. Further, this theory implies that each different type
requires different types of instruction. Gagne identifies five major categories of
learning: verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and
attitudes. Different internal and external conditions are necessary for each type of
learning. 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 which is practical and useful
in their daily life.
 Gagne identifies five major categories of learning: verbal information, intellectual skills,
cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes.
Category of
Description
Performance How to enhance learning
Verbal information New material should be related to
Declarative knowledge like
previously learned information, but
laws, stored as distributed also distinctive through visual
representations. representation.

Intellectual skills The subordinate involved skills must be

Procedural knowledge like dividing learned first or be already present
integers, stored as linked procedural (prior knowledge).
steps arranged in hierarchies where
higher skills include lower ones.

Cognitive strategies Little use of prior learning, but a lot use

Skills that influence the selection of practicing with different examples.
and activation of other production
systems, usually simple, like "break
a problem into parts", retrieved by
external or internal cueing.

Motor skills Skills like inserting contact lens, Prior

manifesting with smooth and error-
less performance. learning and practice enhances learning
of motor skills.

Attitudes Acquired mental states that in Requires a human model to learn from.
certain situations influence one's
actions.
2. 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 generation, procedure following,
use of terminology, discriminations, concept formation, rule application, and problem
solving. The primary significance of the hierarchy is to identify prerequisites 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 (Lucas & Corpuz, 2014).
3. Events of learning operate on the learner in ways that constitute the conditions of
learning.
Gagne suggests that learning tasks for intellectual skills can be organized in a hierarchy
according to complexity: stimulus recognition, response generation, procedure
following, use of terminology, discriminations, concept formation, rule application,
and problem solving (Culatta, 2018). The primary significance of the hierarchy is to
identify prerequisites 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 theory identifies nine instructional events and corresponding cognitive processes
(Culatta, 2018):

1. Gaining attention (reception)

2. Informing learners of the objective (expectancy)
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval)
4. Presenting the stimulus (selective perception)
5. Providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)
6. Eliciting performance (responding)
7. Providing feedback (reinforcement)
8. Assessing performance (retrieval)
9. Enhancing retention and transfer (generalization).
Example 1 Lesson: Equilateral Triangles
Objectives: Recognize an equilateral triangle
Target grade: Grade 5 pupils
a. Gain attention - show variety of computer-generated triangles
b. Identify objective - pose question: "What is an equilateral triangle?"
c. Recall prior learning -review definitions of triangles
d. Present stimulus -give definition of equilateral triangle
e. Guide learning-show example of how to create equilateral
f. Elicit performance - ask students to create 5 different examples
g. Provide feedback- check all examples as correct/incorrect
h. Assess performance- provide scores and remediation
i. Enhance retention/transfer- show pictures of objects and ask students to identify equilaterals

4. The specific operations that constitute instructional events are different for each different
type of learning outcome.
Gagne, who is concerned with learning and instruction proposed the Conditions of
Learning/instructional events which outlined the relation of learning objectives to
appropriate instructional designs. Gagne's Nine Levels of Learning model gives educators a
checklist to use before they engage in teaching activities. Each step highlights a form of
communication that aids in the learning process. When each step is completed in turn,
learners are much more likely to be engaged and to retain the information or skills that they
are being taught.
Implications to Teaching
different types or levels of learning requires different types of instruction
different internal and external conditions are necessary for each type of learning. 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.
learning tasks for intellectual skills can be arranged in a hierarchical order: stimulus
recognition, response generation, procedure following, use of terminology, discriminations,
concept formation, rule application, and problem solving
prerequisites are important in doing a task analysis of a learning task
learning hierarchies provide a basis for the sequencing of instruction

Khadjooi, Rostami, & Ishaq (2011) concluded that Gagne's theories provide a great deal of
valuable information to teachers. In the event of applying Gagne's nine-step model, it is an
excellent way that would help ensure an effective and systematic learning program as it provides a
clear structure to the lesson plans and a holistic view to the teaching. Therefore, teachers need to
keep in mind that the exact form of these events is not something that can be specified in general
for all lessons, but rather must be decided for each learning objective.

TOLMAN'S COGNITIVE MAP

ID Edward Chance Tolman had great contribution to the field of learning and motivation
when he proposed his theory of cognitive learning. In his theory" Cognitive Maps in Rats and
Men", Tolman introduced the concept of a cognitive map, which has found extensive application
and intellectual accomplishments in almost every field of psychology, and even among scientists
who are unaware that they are

using the early ideas that were formulated to explain the behavior of rats in mazes (Miller et al.,
1960) as cited by Johnson and Crowe (2008).
He said, rats and people live in worlds of paths and tools, obstacles and by-paths. Both rats and
people sometimes find an easy means of achieving a goal though it will take them so much effort
or experience such as difficulties. More so, having á goal-directed behavior implies about getting
toward something or getting away from something. That includes what the individual or rat is
doing, what he, she, or it is trying to do, and where it is going.
According to Tolman's experiment, rats learned the layout of a maze, which they
explored freely even without reinforcement. After some trials and errors, a food item was placed to
a certain point of the maze, and the rats learned to navigate persistently until they were able to
reach the food very quickly.
Tolman assessed both the rats' response learning and place learning. Tolman found out
that the rat knows that the response of going a certain way in the maze will always lead to
reaching out the food, he referred this as response learning; when the rats learn to associate the
food in a specific spot each time, he referred this as place learning. In his trials he observed that all
of the rats in the place-learning maze learned to run following the correct path within eight trials
and that none of the response-learning rats learned that quickly, and some did not even learn it at
all after seventy-two trials.
Based on the results of these experiments Tolman came up with the idea postulating the
phenomenon of latent learning. He also viewed the latent learning experiments as one type of
experiment that provided evidence in favor of cognitive maps. However, in his most direct
treatment on the topic, Cognitive Maps in Rats and Men (1948),he referred to cognitive maps as
"something like a field map of the environment" that "gets established in the rat's brain" and once
established, is then employed by "intervening brain processes" in the selective attention to stimuli
by the nervous system, and the execution of responses