Conditions of Learning (Robert Gagne) – InstructionalDesign.org? ?Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction – Educational Technology? ?Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction – Center for Instructio

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Hidayat Ullah, Atiq Ur Rehman, Saeeda Bibi*

Armed Forces Institute of Radiology & Imaging Rawalpindi, Pakistan, *Khyber Medical College Peshawar, Pakistan

ABSTRACT Objective: To demonstrate the effect of using Gagné's 9 events of instruction in teaching. Study Design: Quasi experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Radiology and Imaging, Rawalpindi, Pakistan and Armed Forces Postgraduate Medical Institute, Rawalpindi, Pakistan from May 2014 to Sep 2014. Material and Methods: This two phased study consisted of 4 lectures in each phase. In Phase I conventional lectures were delivered without taking Gagné's 9 events of instruction into account while in Phase II lectures were based on these events. Learners' Approval Rate (LAR) was used as performance assessment tool for every lecture. LAR for every lecture was calculated, making use of a score assigned by the learners in a feedback proforma. Average LAR for each phase was also calculated. Data was presented in tabulated and graphical form and analyzed by 2-sample t-test with Minitab version 16. Results: Lecture LAR in phase I of the study ranged from 57% to 66% with phase LAR of 60.7%. In phase II however a significant (p<0.05) rise in lecture LAR was seen ranging from 78% to 88% with phase LAR of 82.5% suggesting greater learners' approval and satisfaction after using Gagné's 9 events of instruction. A steady increase in LAR was also noted in phase II. Conclusion: Gagné's 9 events of instruction provide an important framework for teaching sessions which improves performance as a teacher and also ensures improved Learners' Approval Rate because of better understating and retention of knowledge. Keywords: Gagné, Instruction, Learning events, Teaching.

INTRODUCTION Learning has been the reason of human

progress. With the passage of time, human being also learned to facilitate the learning process itself in the form of organized teaching. Since then, there has been continuous progress in the ways and means of imparting knowledge from one human being to others. Before the presently preferred and advocated student centered constructivist approach, the emphasis was on a teacher centered behaviourist mode of teaching1. It resembled a one way traffic with flow of knowledge from the teacher to the learners2. The behaviourist approach was based on the assumption that behaviour could be predicted and controlled if we could control the environment in which people were placed3.

Robert Gagné is known for his "Conditions of Learning" which describes five levels of learning namely verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes4. Different internal and external conditions are necessary for each type of learning5,6. His theory of instruction consists of a taxonomy of learning outcomes, conditions of learning and nine events of instruction7. Table-1 shows Gagné's 9 events of instruction which are sequenced in this manner because each of them affects the internal processing of information in the same order. The input from our senses moves information into the sensory registers and then into short-term memory. From there it is encoded, stored in long-term memory, and finally retrieved when required. The learning model takes into account these steps of memory and also includes specific actions for every event8.

Our undergraduate and postgraduate teaching contains a significant portion of conventional lectures. Based on these nine events, these lectures can become more interactive, leading to better learning and

Correspondence: Dr Hidayat Ullah, Classified Radiologist, Armed Forces Institute of Radiology and Imaging, Rawalpindi, Pakistan Email: [email protected] Received: 12 Jun 2014; received revised: 22 Dec 2014; accepted: 12 Jan 2015

Original Article

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enhanced retention. This study was conducted to see the effectiveness of Gagné's 9 events of instruction in improving our teaching sessions. MATERIAL AND METHODS

This study was carried out in Armed Forces Institute of Radiology and Imaging

Rawalpindi and Armed Forces Postgraduate Medical Institute Rawalpindi in two phases consisting of four lectures each. Each phase consisted of four lectures delivered either to the postgraduate residents or radiographers. During the first phase lectures were delivered in a conventional way without taking Gagné's 9 events of instruction into account. In the second phase lectures were planned, organized and

delivered making use of these events of instruction as shown in Table-1.

Gaining attention was achieved by starting with a quiz, question, quote or statistic pertinent to the topic of the lecture. Objectives of the lecture were announced by listing /

negotiating expectations of the day's lesson. The topic of the day was related to relevant knowledge the learners already had which provided a framework for knowledge transfer. The actual new content to be learnt was presented in structured form followed by providing learning guidance by using metaphors, chunking, mnemonics, rehearsal thus helping learners to organize the new content. Learners' performance was elicited by

Table-1: 'Gagné's 9 events of instruction', suggested actions and the mental processes involved Adapted from Gagné RM and Medsker KL. (1996). Event Action Mental process 1. Gaining attention Use questions, pictures or relevant

scenarios Reception

2. Informing learners of the objective Tell learners what they will be able to do after learning

Expectancy

3. Stimulating recall of prior knowledge Ask for recall of prior relevant knowledge

Retrieval to working memory

4. Presenting the content Structured display of the contents to be learned

Selective perception

5. Providing "Learning guidance" Use mnemonics, elaboration, pictures, graphs

Semantic encoding

6.Eliciting performance Ask learners to perform Responding 7. Providing feedback Give corrective feedback Reinforcement 8. Assessing performance Additional learner performance

with feedback Retrieval & reinforcement

9. Enhancing retention & Transfer Ask learners to apply knowledge in real life scenarios

Retrieval & generalization

Table-2: Learners' Approval Rate. Lecture LAR was calculated from Average score (SAverage) for that lecture. Phase LAR was obtained by averaging Lecture LARs in that phase.

Lecture (Lec)

Learner (L)

S Aver age

Lec- ture LAR

Phase LAR

L 1

L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 L9 L10 L11 L12 L13 L14 L1 5

Phase I Lec-1 17 15 14 15 15 16 18 15 16 14 17 16 – – – 15.7 58%

60.7% Lec-2 19 17 18 17 18 18 16 17 20 19 18 17 17 18 17 17.8 66% Lec-3 17 16 16 17 15 17 16 20 17 18 17 15 16 – – 16.7 62% Lec-4 16 18 15 16 19 12 11 18 16 14 – – – – – 15.5 57% Phase II Lec-1 22 22 21 20 22 18 21 21 23 22 – – – – – 21.2 78%

82.5% Lec-2 22 20 25 21 21 25 20 24 20 22 20 21 20 23 24 21.8 81% Lec-3 24 23 26 26 25 24 26 26 23 25 25 – – – – 22.4 83% Lec-4 23 22 24 23 25 26 22 25 25 24 25 – – – – 24 88%

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giving them an opportunity to practice followed by positive corrective feedback. Learning progress was assessed by appropriate questions and finally enhance retention and transfer was achieved by putting the new content learnt in real life situation9. Learners' Approval Rate

In each phase, after every lecture, a feedback proforma was circulated among the learners. They were asked to assign a score ranging from 0-3 to each learning event depending upon their approval and satisfaction. Thus every learner had a total score (STotal) of 27 for the lecture. An Average score (SAverage) was calculated for each lecture considering the feedback of all learners. The average score was converted into Learners' Approval Rate (LAR) for that lecture by using formula (SAverage/STotal) x 100 which was used as a performance assessment tool in the study. Phase LAR was calculated by averaging lecture LARs in that phase. Data was represented in tabulated and graphical forms for comparing LAR of the two phases. Data Analysis

The Data for LAR in two phases was analysed by 2-sample t-test with Minitab Version 16 (Minitab Inc, State College, PA, USA) at a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS

The number of students in four lectures of phase I was 12, 15, 13 and 10 respectively while in phase II it was 10, 15, 11 and 11 respectively (Table-2).

Lecture LAR during phase I ranged from 57% to 66% while in phase II it ranged from 78% to 88% (Table-2). Phase LAR for phase I was 60.7% while for phase II it was 82.5% indicating a greater learners' approval and satisfaction after Gagné's 9 events of instruction were taken into account.

A significant (p<0.05) increase in LAR was observed in phase II (Fig-1). A steady increase in LAR was also found in phase II indicating an improved teacher's performance with increasing experience resulting in better application of the events of instruction.

Better LAR in phase II was found to be associated to the use of Gagné's 9 events of instruction in the lectures. DISCUSSION

Learning and memory are closely associated with each other and cannot be

considered in isolation. Teaching can be more effective if the learning events take into account and facilitate memory10. Memory has been divided into sensory memory, short term or working memory and long term memory and depends upon encoding, storage and retrieval11. Better encoding results in better retrieval or better memory. It depends upon attention, expecting what is to be learnt and association with prior knowledge. It also results from structuring the content to be learnt, reinforcing it with eliciting learners' performance and a positive, corrective feedback. Assessing performance and retrieval/generalization also help in better encoding. Gagné's 9 events of instruction take care of all these processes and thus ensure better learning and enhanced retention of knowledge.

In our study the teacher had exposure to Gagné's 9 events of instruction as part of a contact session in medical education program which led to their practical application in actual teaching sessions. A comparison with lectures delivered without taking into account these events showed that there was a positive

Figure-1. Percent Learners’ Approval Rate calculated from Average scores (SAverage) of the two phases. A significant (p< 0.05) increase in values of LAR in two phases is shown by * obtained by using 2-sample t-test.

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learners' response after taking care of these events.

Gaining attention of the learners is an oft ignored part of our teaching sessions. Without attention the information we receive is easily lost and does not make its way even to the short term memory. Attention of the learners can be ensured by showing a relevant picture, presenting a scenario or asking a question12.

Informing learners about the content to be learnt allows them to recall their prior knowledge. Memory, as we know is a constructive process which makes use of the previous knowledge while building new knowledge. A deliberate effort should be made to stimulate learners to recall the relevant prior knowledge13.

Presenting the new content bit by bit with repeated summaries and chunking helps in retention. Learning guidance can be provided in the form of mnemonics, repeated rehearsals, graphical presentation and scenario elaboration. All these help in encoding the content to be learned to the long term memory14.

Eliciting performance aims at correct understanding and comprehension. It is not used for scoring and is followed by corrective feedback to ensure better learning. Performance can be assessed later by relevant questions or scenarios, giving a feeling of satisfaction to learners when successfully completed. Finally putting the content learnt in real life situations attempts at enhanced retention and transfer of knowledge for prolonged storage in long term memory and retrieval when required.

Our study emphasizes the importance of considering the internal mental processes leading to better understanding and comprehension during our teaching sessions. It also shows that there is a steady improvement in teacher's performance with growing experience as indicated by a steady rise in LAR in phase II.

Our results are in accordance with TK Neo et al, 2010 who assessed the effects of using 'Gagné's events of instructions' in a multimedia student-centered environment and their results were positive and encouraging. They showed

the positive role of these events even in a more constructivist situation15.

A limitation of our study is considering a small number of lectures. We suggest that all lectures should be followed by getting feedback from the learners for improving the performance on the basis of these events of learning. This feedback can later be used as a foundation for larger studies.

Though coming from a behaviourist background, Gagné's 9 events of instruction is one of the most popular instructional models that can be adapted to assimilate the notions of constructivism16. While advocating a shift from behavioural to constructivist approach, we all know our limitations and we feel that Gagné's 9 events of instruction provide a middle ground between these two schools of thought despite its obvious tilt towards behaviourist principles. Our study demonstrated the positive effect of Gagné's 9 events of instruction in our teaching sessions.

Our study demonstrated that we could improve our traditional teaching by making our lectures more interactive by taking Gagné's 9 events into account. This was in accordance with Wessels A et al. who showed the importance of interactive lectures in effective teaching and learning17. Using modern audio- visual technology along with Gagné's 9 events of instruction makes teaching even more interesting and useful18.

CONCLUSION

Gagné's 9 events of instruction provide a very important framework for our teaching sessions. Their consideration not only significantly improves our performance as a teacher but also increases Learners' Approval Rate suggesting better understating and retention of knowledge.

Acknowledgement

We appreciate Dr Majid Suhail Hashmi, Department of Food Science & Technology, Faculty of Nutrition Sciences, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar for his help in data analysis and proof reading of the manuscript.

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CONFLICT OF INTEREST This study has no conflict of interest to

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