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Gagne’s Nine Levels of Learning/Gagne’s Taxonomy of Learning

About the Author: Abirlal Mukherjee

Assistant Professor (Amity University), Digital Humanist
Ph.D in English (GITAM, India), M.A. and B.A. in English (B.C.C., B.K.U, India), P.G.D.E. -I by Research (B.C.U, UK), TESOL Prof. Certification (Arizona State University, USA)

Founder, Chair of the Secretaries of University Learner, India School on Internet Governance Fellow 2024, IIM-B, Member of Internet Society, Bangalore, Internal Complaints Committee Member, GITAM Deemed to be University, Bengaluru, Teach for India Fellow 2023 and Fellowship Recruitment Committee, Delhi

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Gagne’s Nine Levels of Learning/ Gagne’s Taxonomy of Learning
In 1965, Robert Gagné proposed a series of events that are associated with and address the mental conditions for learning.
***** In his book The Conditions of Learning, he identifies 9 essential mental conditions.
  1. Reception: Gaining attention of learners.
    1. Voice modulation, gestures, short introductory videos.
    2. Stimulate students with novelty, uncertainty, and surprise
    3. Pose thought-provoking questions to students
    4. Have students pose questions to be answered by other students
    5. Lead an ice breaker activity
  2. Expectancy: What we can expect from a lesson or chapter.
    1. Describe required performance
    2. Describe criteria for standard performance
    3. Have learners establish criteria for standard performance
    4. Include course objectives on assessment prompts
  3. Retrieval: Relate information to prior knowledge.
    1. Ask questions about previous experiences
    2. Ask students about their understanding of previous concepts
    3. Relate previous course information to the current topic
    4. Have students incorporate prior learning into current activities
  4. Selective perception (Present the Content): Have to present the best and effective perceptions/Content.
    1. Present multiple versions of the same content (e.g. video, demonstration, lecture, podcast, group work, etc.)
    2. Use a variety of media to engage students in learning
    3. Incorporate active learning strategies to keep students involved
    4. Provide access to content on Blackboard so students can access it outside of class
  5. Semantic encoding: build long lasting knowledge retention.
    1. Provide instructional support as needed – i.e. scaffolding that can be removed slowly as the student learns and masters the task or content
    2. Model varied learning strategies – e.g. mnemonics, concept mapping, role playing, visualizing
    3. Use examples and non-examples – examples help students see what to do, while non-examples help students see what not to do
    4. Provide case studies, visual images, analogies, and metaphors – 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
  6. Responding/Feedback: Giving  chances to demonstrate learning.
    1. Confirmatory feedback informs the student that they did what they were supposed to do. This type of feedback does not tell the student what she needs to improve, but it encourages the learner.
    2. Evaluative feedback apprises the student of the accuracy of their performance or response but does not provide guidance on how to progress.
    3. Remedial feedback directs students to find the correct answer but does not provide the correct answer.
    4. Descriptive or analytic feedback provides the student with suggestions, directives, and information to help them improve their performance.
    5. Peer-evaluation and self-evaluation help learners identify learning gaps and performance shortcomings in their own and peers’ work.
  7. Reinforcement: Reinforce important points for clearing doubt.
    1. Facilitate student activities – e.g. ask deep-learning questions, have students collaborate with their peers, facilitate practical laboratory exercises
    2. Provide formative assessment opportunities – e.g. written assignments, individual or group projects, presentations
    3. Design effective quizzes and tests – i.e. test students in ways that allow them to demonstrate their comprehension and application of course concepts (as opposed to simply memorization and recall)
  8. Retrieval: Evaluate their performance.
    1. Administer pre- and post-tests to check for progression of competency in content or skills
    2. Embed formative assessment opportunities throughout instruction using oral questioning, short active learning activities, or quizzes
    3. Implement a variety of assessment methods to provide students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate proficiency
    4. Craft objective, effective rubrics to assess written assignments, projects, or presentations
  9. Generalizations: All should be able to in general apply what they learned.
    1. Avoid isolating course content. Associate course concepts with prior (and future) concepts and build upon prior (and preview future) learning to reinforce connections.
    2. Continually incorporate questions from previous tests in subsequent examinations to reinforce course information.
    3. Have students convert information learned in one format into another format (e.g. verbal or visuospatial). For instance, requiring students to create a concept map to represent connections between ideas (Halpern & Hakel, 2003, p. 39).
    4. To promote deep learning, clearly articulate your lesson goals, use your specific goals to guide your instructional design, and align learning activities to lesson goals (Halpern & Hakel, 2003, p. 41).
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Posted in NTA UGC NET Paper One

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