Gagne
Gagne points to five domains of learning, each with conditions of learning specific to that domain. In the domain of intellectual skills, a learning hierarchy exists, which must be attended to for each student by the teacher. That is to say that the teacher needs to place each student at the proper place in the learning hierarchy, above skills mastered and below those left to be mastered. The learning hierarchy dictates what is to be learned and in what sequence. New learning depends on previously acquired knowledge, so that larger principles form for students from a combination of simpler principles. The learner needs to learn the basics, remember them, and then transfer them in learning higher or more complex principles. The sequence of nine instructional events is outlined by Gagne so that teachers can follow these and thus provide the needed conditions for learning. The teacher designs the lesson according to this order of events.
In order for a child to learn, it is necessary that he or she be taught explicitly. Gagne’s instructional events model would organize a lesson in the following way:
Gain learners’ attention: This would involve changing the intensity of a stimulus, for example, flicking the lights.
Inform learners of the objective: The teacher then overtly tells the learners what the objective for the day is, e.g., ‘Today I am going to show you how a solid can change into a liquid, a liquid into a gas, etc.’
Stimulate recall of prior learning: The teacher associates previous lessons with the lesson of the day. For a middle school science lesson on types of matter, for example, this event could involve the teacher bringing up types of matter familiar to the students in everyday life, showing some pictures of matter in various forms or showing them as manipulatives, and asking learners questions about matter.
Present the stimulus: The teacher describes the change in forms of matter explicitly and step by step.
Provide learner guidance: The teacher demonstrates how to do change a liquid into a solid, e.g. makes liquid into solid by demonstrating the creation of ice cream in a Ziploc bag.
Elicit performance: The teacher asks students to demonstrate how they made this matter change forms.
Give feedback: The teacher gives immediate feedback on the student response, e.g. if student can name each ingredient in the bag and how the change occurred or cannot do this, the teacher adjusts feedback accordingly giving hints and prompts as needed.
Assess performance: The teacher then assigns students to practice. In this case, the learners may get in pairs and discuss the experiment with a sheet on which they need to draw how the process occurred, including ingredients and steps.
Enhance retention and transfer: The teacher does so by king learners to teach another learner about the process and also by extrapolating what they have learned with this activity to other types of matter and under what conditions they change forms.