Week5-notes


 * Robert Gagne’s Nine Events **

As you no doubt know only too well, teaching and training involve skills “in the moment” that include classroom management techniques, approachability, deliberate use of humor for effect, questioning skills, and that almost indefinable quality, charisma. However, relying on those artful skills alone is rarely effective. Instead, during your development step, integrate the art of teaching into the science of a structured plan. One such generic approach is Robert Gagne’s “nine events of instruction.”

Here is a quick overview: 1. ** Gain attention ** This step is sometimes called the “hook” or the “grabber.” It’s where a creative method is used to capture the group’s attention and interest. Some ways of getting attention include asking a thought-provoking question, offering an unusual analogy, presenting an arresting quote, showing a visual such as a movie clip, or presenting a finished physical product. Note that this is a very incomplete list. Let your creative juices mix with your knowledge of your learners to find a unique way to “grab” them.

2. ** Identify objective ** This doesn’t necessarily mean projecting or handing a list of instructional objectives to the group, and in particular, it’s recommended not to present them in “educationese.” However, the learners should know what the point of the lesson is, at least in general terms. For example, “Today we’re going to look at a type of poem that I think will be new to you, called haiku, and by the end of the class, you’ll each have written a haiku poem of your own” or “In the next 90 minutes, I’m going to show you how to use a profit and loss statement to calculate fixed and variable costs. You’re going to practice doing this in class today and then for homework tonight, you’ll complete a second exercise.”

3. ** Recall prior learning ** Just as you wouldn’t start planning a trip without knowing your point of departure, you shouldn’t start presenting new information without establishing what the learners already know as a starting point. In general, it’s wise to move from concrete to abstract.

Have you ever had this experience? You begin your presentation by asking a question based on their assigned reading, and your students simply stare back at you in bewilderment. Many times, this is because you’ve begun at a higher level of abstraction than they are prepared to deal with. Their reaction tells you that you need to work your way up from a more concrete level. For instance, if your class isn’t able to answer “How does a lever work?” you might drop back to “Who remembers playing on a teeter-totter?” Once you’ve established their understanding of the very concrete teeter-totter, you can use that to build their understanding of the principle of leverage.

4. ** Present content ** You’ve already given this event quite a bit of thought; you’ve created objectives, an instructional sequence and instructional strategies for your course project, and this is the type of planning you’d do in any context to present your content. One additional point, however, should be mentioned. Use transitions to “signpost” movement to a next point. Many times, the instructor knows clearly that he is going to discuss several distinct ideas or steps, but without “traffic signals” to the class, some students can become lost. Look at some of these transitions: “OK, so now we’ve established the setting. Next, let’s look at the characters.” “Now that we can select a range of cells, let’s move on to auto-sum and auto-averaging those ranges.” “So at this point, we’ve looked at cumulous clouds and cirrus clouds. The third type of cloud is called stratus.” “Entering the name was the third step. The fourth step is to enter the account number.” Note that the Regis K-12 Lesson Plan Template includes space for carefully planned transitions. For corporate audiences, transitions are just as important. Without them, a presentation can feel like a handful of disconnected ideas, rather than a cohesive experience.

5. ** Guide learning ** As any teacher or trainer knows, it’s one thing to present the content and another altogether to have the learners understand it and incorporate it into their own mental schemas. Some of the ways to guide them to those achievements are to have them take notes, to ask them to paraphrase, to generate metaphors that allow them to see new facets of the material, and to have them create examples, mind-maps or textual outlines.

6. ** Elicit performance (practice) ** This event is clear on its face. Giving learners opportunities to “get their hands dirty” is essential for true learning. (This is why you’re creating a project for this class!) These opportunities could include doing math problems, writing an essay, reading poetry, assembling a widget, or role-playing a conflict-resolution model.

7. ** Provide feedback ** In this step, the learners receive feedback on their performance or practice. This feedback may come from the facilitator or from other learners, and it may be given in a variety of formats, from informal verbal response to a written rubric to a formal score. Note, however, that this step is still part of learning, not assessment. This feedback should be given to enhance learning.

8. ** Assess performance ** Here is where the formal assessment takes place, using observation, demonstration of skills, self-evaluation, or a written exam. We’ll be looking at assessment more closely in the “E” for Evaluation step of ADDIE, next week.

9. ** Enhance retention/transfer ** This ninth and final step is about applying what has been learned to new situations; for corporate learners, this typically means on-the-job application. It’s all too common for both K-12 and adult learners to be exposed to the first eight steps but then, without real application, for the learning to fade through disuse.