Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction is an instructional design framework developed by educational psychologist Robert Gagne, most fully set out in his 1965 book The Conditions of Learning, proposing a sequence of nine external instructional events that a teacher or course designer should provide to support the internal cognitive processes a learner needs to move information into long-term memory. The nine events are gaining attention, informing learners of the lesson's objective, stimulating recall of prior learning, presenting the new content, providing guidance for learning, eliciting performance through practice, providing feedback, assessing performance, and enhancing retention and transfer through varied practice and application. Gagne grounded the sequence in his broader theory that different types of learning outcome, such as verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, attitudes and motor skills, require somewhat different internal conditions to be learned, and the nine events framework has remained a widely taught reference model in instructional design and teacher training for structuring an individual lesson from opening to close.
Facts
Core ClaimNine sequential instructional events, each tied to a cognitive process (gaining attention, informing learners of the objective, stimulating recall of prior learning, presenting the stimulus, providing learning guidance, eliciting performance, providing feedback, assessing performance, and enhancing retention and transfer), proposed by Robert Gagne as the conditions instruction should satisfy. 2 Classification
Education Level FAQs
What kinds of feedback does the seventh event of Gagne's sequence cover?
Confirmatory, evaluative, remedial, descriptive or analytic, and peer or self-evaluation feedback.
The seventh event is providing feedback, and the Northern Illinois University teaching center guide that adapts the sequence lists several types. Confirmatory feedback tells the student they did what they were supposed to do, which encourages them but does not say what to improve. Evaluative feedback tells the student whether the performance or response was accurate without showing how to progress. Remedial feedback directs students to find the correct answer without supplying it. Descriptive or analytic feedback gives suggestions, directives and information to help the student improve, and peer evaluation and self-evaluation help learners spot gaps in their own and each other's work. The guide says feedback should be timely so that students can identify gaps in understanding before it is too late.
Are the nine events meant to be used on their own when planning a lesson?
The guide pairs them with Bloom's Revised Taxonomy when designing instruction.
Not necessarily. The Northern Illinois University teaching center guide recommends using the nine events together with Bloom's Revised Taxonomy to design engaging and meaningful instruction. It presents each event with sample methods, such as posing thought-provoking questions to gain attention, stating objectives before instruction begins, asking about previous experiences to stimulate recall, and giving pre-tests and post-tests to assess performance. The guide notes that its steps were adapted from Gagne, Briggs and Wager (1992).
Connections
Associated With
Both frameworks originate with the same theorist, Robert M. Gagne, whose cumulative-learning model of hierarchical prerequisite skills underlies his separately catalogued Nine Events of Instruction.
Source Cumulative Learning (Wikipedia)
Developed By
Source Wikipedia: Conditions of Learning
Sources
1. Conditions of Learning (Wikipedia)
describes eight kinds of learning and nine events of instruction...The theory has been applied to the design of instruction in all domainsView the Source 2. Wikipedia: Conditions of Learning
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia, Conditions of Learning, nine instructional events list
the theory outlines nine instructional events and corresponding cognitive processes
Wikipedia, Conditions of Learning, lead paragraph
Conditions of Learning, by Robert M. Gagne, was originally published in 1965 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Developed By: Robert M. Gagne, Lead
Conditions of Learning, by Robert M. Gagné, was originally published in 1965 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston and describes eight kinds of learning and nine events of instruction.
View the Source Cumulative Learning (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Cumulative Learning, Theory sectionQuote, Associated With: Cumulative Learning, Theory section
American psychologist Robert M. Gagne first introduced the concept of cumulative learning in 1968
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