Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction

Owned by Liam Mason (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jun 14, 2023 by Alyssa Goudy
4 min read

Robert GagnƩ's nine events of instruction, designed to address the mental conditions for learning, are a valuable framework for creating engaging and meaningful instruction. By combining GagnƩ's events with Bloom's Revised Taxonomy, you can design effective instructional methods. The steps outlined below offer sample methods to implement these events in your own teaching.

1. Gain attention

Ensure the learners are ready to learn and participate in activities by presenting a stimulus to capture their attention.

  • Stimulate with novelty, uncertainty, and surprise in stories, cases, roles, or scenarios

  • Pose thought-provoking questions

  • Have students pose questions to be answered by other students

  • Lead an ice breaker activity

  • Discuss current issues or reflect on ā€œthe news todayā€

  • Record a life experience

  • Appeal to mental or emotional senses and imagery

2. Inform students

Inform students of the objectives or outcomes for the course and individual lessons to help them understand what they are expected to learn and do. Provide objectives before instruction begins.

Inform students of the objectives or outcomes for the course and individual lessons to help them understand what they are expected to learn and do.

3. Stimulate prior learning

Help students make sense of new information by relating it to something they already know or something they have already experienced.

  • Ask questions about previous experiences

  • Ask students about their understanding of previous concepts

  • Relate previous course information to the current topic

  • Have students incorporate prior learning into current activities, such as:

    • Creating a world cloud

    • Facilitating 1:1 Conversation-Discussions

    • One minute write ups

    • Seek examples (connection to Jesuit ā€œexperienceā€)

    • Cases

    • Relateables - current technology, evolution of the product

    • Revisit prior content

    • ā€œAnticipation guideā€ - agreement/survey/etc

    • Pretest

    • Recall enduring knowledge

  • Provide alternates or context for the students

  • Make instructional adjustments

4. Present the content

Use strategies to present and cue lesson content to provide more effective instruction. Organize and group content in meaningful ways, and provide explanations after demonstrations.

  • Present multiple versions of the same content (e.g. video, demonstration, lecture, podcast, group work, etc.)

  • Use a variety of media to engage students in learning

  • Incorporate active learning strategies to keep students involved

  • Provide access to content on Canvas so students can access it outside of class

  • Other examples include, but are not limited to:

    • Website (existing)

    • Textbook

    • Video/Audio

    • Media selection

    • Library

    • Journal articles

    • PPT/Prezi

    • Polling

    • Discussion content

    • Case(s)

    • Expert Account

    • Guest Speaker

    • Live data

    • Infographics

    • Current events

    • Storytelling

    • Observations

    • Students Presenting

5. Provide learning guidance

Advise students of strategies to aid them in learning content and of resources available. In other words, help students learn how to learn.

  • Provide instructional support as needed ā€“ i.e. scaffolding that can be removed slowly as the student learns and masters the task or content

  • Model varied learning strategies ā€“ e.g. mnemonics, concept mapping, role playing, visualizing

  • Use examples and non-examples ā€“ examples help students see what to do, while non-examples help students see what not to do

  • Provide case studies, visual images, analogies, and metaphors ā€“ Case studies provide real world application, visual images assist in making visual associations, and analogies and metaphors use familiar content to help students connect with new concepts

Help students learn how to learn!

6. Elicit performance (practice)

Have students apply what they have learned to reinforce new skills and knowledge and to confirm correct understanding of course concepts.

7. Provide feedback

Provide timely feedback of studentsā€™ performance to assess and facilitate learning and to allow students to identify gaps in understanding before it is too late.

8. Assess performance

Test whether the expected learning outcomes have been achieved on previously stated course objectives.

9. Enhance retention and transfer

Help learners retain more information by providing them opportunities to connect course concepts to potential real-world applications.

Summary

The goals and objectives will help situate the events in their proper context. The nine events of instruction can then be modified to fit both the content and studentsā€™ level of knowledge.