Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Educ 633: Gagnes Nine Steps of Instruction Theory
My chosen theory is Gagne’s Nine Steps of Instruction. The nine steps that he outlined to effect learning are as follows: 1. Gain Attention. 2. Inform Learner of Objective. 3. Stimulate Recall of Prior Knowledge. 4. Present the Material. 5. Provide Guidance for Learning. 6. Elicit Performance. 7. Provide Feedback. 8. Assess Performance. 9. Enhance Retention and Transfer. The theory establishes 9 steps that are sequential in order to help establish a positive learning environment for both the instructor and the student.
The strengths for this theory would be that it is very detailed. Each steps help to establish a framework for education that can benefit all parties in the learning environment. The steps could assist an instructor with developing their instruction. This could be particularly helpful when in kindergarten when schools are using the new Common Core State Standards. These steps would allow the teachers to have an additional support document to help develop activities to fit with their pacing guides. The pacing guides for each subject area are used as an overview for all standards and objectives that must be taught, however these steps would help to dissect the standards further and turn them into concrete lessons and activities that would help to thoroughly enhance the students learning.
The weakness for this theory at the kindergarten level would be that it does not give to flexibility. Too often lessons at the kindergarten grade level are short mini lessons that are taught during whole group, small group and one-on-one instruction. Therefore these nine steps would almost be too overbearing on time due to the transition times that occur throughout the daily schedule. Another weakness could be that these steps are designed in a particular order and some of them may need to be skipped or rearranged to accommodate the needs of a particular student, group of students or activity.
This theory can be applied in distance education course development by myself, as the instructor, being able to take these steps and help design my objectives and assignments. The big factor of distance limits professor and student interactions, so these steps would allow for the instructor to help develop a course where students take their prior knowledge, gain upon it, and are able to assess their performance while giving them reinforcement as well.
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Porsher,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you included Common Core standards as your example to explain the Gagne’s Nine Steps of Instruction. Sometimes hearing Common Core just makes me feel a certain way, I have elementary kids of my own, but that would be another post. I think that those steps are effective and could be overbearing as a teacher, I was thinking just that as I read your post. Although, we as teachers do not follow the nine steps, we do have a process hopefully to reach each student as an individual. I believe with a process and steps, you can do just that. Utilized these nine steps online is a great tool, this would help the instructor and the students both will be able to assess their learning performance. Great examples, I look forward to viewing more of your posts in the future.
Many Blessings,
Corretta
Tysheonna,
ReplyDeleteThanks for a thorough explanation of Gagne’s Nine Steps of Instruction. I was looking through the blogs to find one where I could learn about something new and this was it! I think the steps are helpful in lesson design, but as you say, it would be a different type of application in kindergarten. Similarly, in an online learning environment, some of the steps could be used over several components of a course. For example, I could see some components at the beginning of a course designed to get the learners attention or to stimulate prior knowledge recall, while other components provide feedback and assessment. Anyway, thanks for explain something different. Patricia.
I would think that with Kindegarten another problem would be attention span. The attention span of a knodegartener would probably not give enough time to get thourh all of the steps. They would have to be broken up into pieces. Also with kindegarteners, some of the steps may have to be done several times to get students to remember what they learned. I would think that a short review session to promote recall would almost have to happen before every lesson.
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