The corporate landscape is fast-paced and ever-evolving. As a result, any company that wants to remain competitive must prioritize employee learning, development, and growth. Continuous training empowers people and businesses, unlocking their potential.
The conditions of learning theory, developed by American psychologist Robert Mills Gagné, provides a framework that companies can use when designing their learning and development programs. It identifies five distinct categories of learning outcomes while offering valuable insights into how individuals acquire knowledge and skills.
Gagné’s theory also introduces nine events of instruction. These events are a sequential guide for designing impactful learning experiences. Let’s delve into Gagné’s theory, the aspects of each category, and how it can enhance corporate training, learner retention, and application.
What Does Conditions of Learning Theory Outline?
Gagné posits that learning is the result of human behavior. It is influenced by one’s environment and thinking processes. He also suggests five learning outcomes that, when combined with students’ learning requirements, can be used to describe a set of ideas that make up a theory of instruction. The idea is to relate external instruction with the outcomes of learning to show how these events support or enhance internal learning processes. Per Robert Mills Gange, the five categories of learning outcomes include:
Intellectual Skills
This emphasizes the “know-how” aspect of learning. Gagné breaks it down into subcategories, like discriminations, concrete concepts, defined concepts, and higher-order rules. For professionals, this category can mean mastering specific tasks, procedures, or crucial problem-solving techniques.
Note that the conditions of learning are highly relevant and focused on the development of intellectual skills.
Verbal Information
Verbal information represents knowledge or the “knowing that” aspect of learning. It entails acquiring facts or principles that can be shared with students either through speech or print.
Cognitive Strategies
Cognitive strategies use internal processes to learn, remember, and think about problem-solving techniques and critical thinking skills. Simply put, they involve analyzing problems and approaching them with a solution.
Motor Skills
Motor skills pertain to the execution of coordinated movements. Think of it as hands-on skills required for specific tasks, like operating software or machinery or performing technical procedures.
Attitudes
One’s attitude influences actions and choices. Cultivating positive attitudes can enhance teamwork, adaptability, and overall job satisfaction. It also promotes open communication and feedback channels.
These points offer corporate learning specialists a checklist for training and learning activities. After each step is fulfilled, learners can better retain and use the skills that have been taught.
Understanding the Nine Events of Instruction
The events of instruction are external events that facilitate learning. They are designed to achieve each of the five different learning outcomes. Let’s explore the nine events of instruction so you can understand how to optimize the learning experience in corporate settings.
Gaining Attention
This event’s main goal is to capture the audience’s attention. Posing thought-provoking questions or problems, capturing visual and auditory cues, sharing engaging multimedia, and retelling relatable anecdotes can capture learners’ attention. Creating an emotional connection can make the audience more receptive to learning.
Inform Learners of the Objective
Learners must be aware of the learning objectives they are expected to achieve. The clear communication of these goals helps them focus their attention, motivates them to learn, and instills a sense of purpose.
Stimulate Recall of Prior Knowledge
Your audience is more likely to connect with new information when they can relate it to something they already know. Drawing on knowledge is key to effective instruction. Think of it as connecting new information with existing skills and experiences. Creating a collaborative atmosphere with diverse perspectives can contribute to a rich collective knowledge pool.
Present Stimulus
This makes learning relevant. The learning material used must be logically sequenced, categorized into units, and presented with instructional strategies such as lectures, visuals, or multimedia. Use real-life scenarios, case studies, or practical examples that can help an individual relate.
Guide Learning
An instructor must provide guidance to make the content as meaningful as possible. While there are several ways to achieve this, using concrete examples is best. Think of it as semantic encoding, where an instructor can enhance learning through examples of abstract terms and concepts.
Elicit Performance
How do you know if your audience has understood the lesson? An easy way is to ask a participant to demonstrate what they learned. This could involve practical exercises, simulations, or projects that allow individuals to apply their knowledge in real-world scenarios. Those who understand the material will be able to solve new problems using the principles learned while responding in a positive manner.
Provide Feedback
Feedback is essential for reinforcing knowledge. It offers room for improvement through constructive feedback. As a result, it can motivate and guide employees toward continuous development. For example, you can offer feedback by acknowledging the unique qualities and strengths of students by telling them directly or writing them a note.
Assess Performance
This step confirms the learning process by assessing performance. To ensure learning, an instructor can test the students. In a corporate setting, assessments can be practical evaluations or collaborative projects that showcase skills.
Enhance Retention and Transfer
The last instructional event, enhancing retention and transfer, refers to retaining the lessons learned over a long period and the student’s ability to apply them to new situations. Methods of practice ensure retention. The best way to ensure retention is by ensuring recall at various intervals. This should be spaced over many days and weeks so it can be applied in varied situations.
Gagné’s conditions of learning theory can be helpful in corporate training as it uses a systematic approach. It recognizes the diverse experiences, perspectives, and strengths of employees and organizations to customize learning and make it relatable.
EduPivot LLC is a learning agency that specializes in empowering small and mid-sized companies with tailored eLearning solutions. Whether you’re seeking to optimize existing training programs, implement a cutting-edge LMS, or craft custom eLearning tailored to your industry, we’ve got you covered. Contact us for a free consultation.