Robert Gagne Essay

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Robert Gagné was an American educational. Essence of Theory: During the 1960s, there was a flurry of activity within the field of instructional development that focused on systems of instruction. It was during this time that the components of the instructional system and their system properties were articulated. In 1965 Robert Gagne published his book entitled The Conditions of Learning. In his book, Gagne (1965) described the analysis of learning objectives, and how these different classes of learning objectives relate to the appropriate instructional designs. 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 Assumption). Gagne (1985), distinguishes between two types of conditions, internal and external. The internal conditions can be described as "states" and include attention, motivation and recall. The external conditions can be thought of as factors surrounding one's behavior, and include the arrangement and timing of stimulus events. Thus, his phases of learning include: · Phase I: receiving the stimulus situation · Phase II stage of acquisition · Phase III storage · Phase IV retrieval Implications for Instructional Technology: Gagne's (1965) theory of conditions of learning has several implications for instructional technology. The design of instruction should involve: analyzing requirements, selecting media and designing the instructional events. Additionally the instructional technologist must keep in mind the following learning concepts when developing methods of instruction. · Skills should be learned on at a time and each new skill learned should build on previously acquired skills · The analysis
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