Instruction and learning encompass more processes than are included in learning theories themselves. Instruction involves gaining and controlling attention, stimulating recall, guiding the learning, providing feedback, arranging for remembering, and assessing outcomes. These functions are performed by various media of instruction, but ultimately…

Comparisons are drawn between the ideas of mastery learning and instructional design. Agreement is noted concerning the main factors contributing to the quality of instruction. Differences exist in the taxonomic categories of learned performance of the two systems and in the proposal of instructional design that each category requires a different…

It is suggested that generalizations about critical learning conditions and outcomes can be made within categories of learning processes but not across them. Implications of this proposition are examined. (Author/MM)

Research supported by U.S. Office of Education. Reprints from: Robert M. Gagne, Department of Educational Research, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306.

This paper defines a schema as a memory structure representing a general concept and its framework of associated concepts, and identifies the three processes by which learning can occur in individuals whose memories are schema-based, i.e., accretion, tuning, and restructuring. Ways in which schema might influence instructional design are then…

An educational psychologist outlines some recent changes in the conception of human learning and memory, and discusses their implications for the design and practice of instruction. (MF)

Content analysis of connected instructional discourse depends on the fundamental distinction between the content to be learned ("intrinsic") and the content intended only to support the learning processes ("mathemagenic"). Depending on the expected outcome of learning and the learner's entering competencies, the nature and…

Effects on learning of most principal independent variables can be generalized within, but not between, five different categories: intellectual skills, verbal information, cognitive strategies, motor skills, and attitudes. Psychological research has been and continues to be well-served by this categorization. (GC)

Proposes that Gagne's nine events of instruction be incorporated into the systematic design of computer assisted instruction (CAI) for microcomputers and describes the nine events in relation to five different kinds of learning outcomes which occur frequently in CAI. Seven references are cited. (MER)

Task analysis is a procedure having the purpose of identifying different kinds of performances which are outcomes of learning, in order to make possible the specification of optimal instructional conditions for each kind of outcome. Task analysis may be related to content analysis in two different ways: (1) it may be used to identify the probably…

An observational study is described, not yet completed, of learning in school classrooms. Observations were made in a number of classes ranging from grade 1 to grade 12, including teaching in a variety of school subjects. The purpose of the study was to explore and refine a method for observing the events which support (or fail to support)…

In order to ensure the effectiveness of instruction on a new topic, teachers must help students recall prior "prerequisite" learning. The type of learning to be recalled varies with the type of learning outcome expected. (RJG)