Utilizing Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction To
Build Effective Lessons
By Sharon Mahabir
 What
 What
makes a lesson effective?
do you feel is the most important part
of the lesson plan cycle?
 Born
in Maine in 1916; died in 2002
 Began
developing his learning theory while
serving as Director of the U.S. Air Force
Perceptual and Motor Skill Laboratory
 Believed
that the traditional methods of
learning did not aid in improving training
results
 Five
Types of Learning
1.
Verbal Information
2.
Intellectual Skills
3.
Cognitive Strategies
 Five
Types of Learning
4.
Motor Skills
5.
Attitude
Think-Pair-Share: Which type of learning do you feel
is the hardest to develop in students?
 What
 How
are they?
do they fit into a lesson design plan?
One Light Bulb Expert Coming Up!
1. Gain your students attention
•
Provides students with a stimulus to gain their
attention
Ask thought-provoking questions
• Encourage students to develop questions to ask of
each other
• Utilize the element of surprise or unknown.
•
2. Inform students of the objectives
•
Gives students opportunity to understand what
they will be expected to learn
•
State the objectives before the instruction takes
place
Think-Pair-Share: What needs to be present in a wellwritten objective?
3. Stimulate the recall of prior
knowledge
•
This event aids students in making connections
to new information by relating it to prior
knowledge.
Questions about prior experiences
• Relate previous concepts
•
Think-pair-share: Give one example of a method you
used to activate prior knowledge.
4. Present the content
•
Use of differentiated instructional strategies
•
Organization in a meaningful way is essential
•
When utilizing demonstrations, it is important to
provide explanations.
5. Provide learning guidance
•
Providing learning guidance gives students
strategies to help when learning the material
•
Methods include:
Providing instructional support
• Using examples and non-examples
• Demonstrate different strategies for learning
•
6. Elicit Performance
•
Guided practice assists students in internalizing
the new information.
•
Ideas for activities that elicit performance
Student collaboration
• Higher level questioning
• Higher level thinking activities
• Utilizing real-world applications
•
7. Provide feedback
•
Teacher feedback gives students opportunity to
correct misconceptions.
•
Types of Feedback
•
•
•
•
•
Confirmatory
Corrective
Remedial
Informative
Analytical
Think-Pair-Share: What
type of feedback do you
use most often in your
class? What are its
benefits?
8. Assess performance
•
•
•
Assessment should be based on the objectives
set at the beginning of lesson
Assessment aids the teacher in revising the
lesson and re-teaching as needed
Types of assessment
Pretest/post-test
• Formative Assessment
• Summative Assessment
•
9. Enhance retention and transfer to
the job
•
Aids students in truly internalizing the skills
learned.
•
Lateral transfer—ability to apply learning to new
situations
 Using
Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction,
work with your table group to create an
effective lesson of your choice.
 Explain
how you will incorporate each of
Gagné’s Nine Events into your lesson cycle.
 Ticket
Out

Identify one thing you have learned about Gagné
and/or his Nine Events of Instruction.

Identify one method/idea that you would like to
include in your current lesson plan cycle this
year.
Amriez, S. [Shaqiss Enamenamenam]. (2013, May 21). Gagne’s
Instructional Events. [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKe4Og5j9Xs
Denton, Jon J.; Armstrong, David G.; Savage, Tom V. Matching
Events of Instruction to Objectives. Theory Into Practice.
Winter80, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p10-15.
Gredler, Margaret. (2009). Learning and Instruction: Theory into
Practice. Columbus, Ohio: Pearson.
Northern Illinois University. (n.d). Gagné’s Nine Events of
Instruction. Retrieved from
http://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/guide/
Recker, M. (1996). Robert Mills Gagne’s Biography. Retrieved from
http://itls.usu.edu/