From the preceding eight phases of learning, Gagne, Briggs, and Wager (1988) have derived nine events of instruction, which are listed in Figure 3.3 and in Table 3.2. The difference is that the instructional events listed in the left-hand column of Table 3.2 focus on activities that can be performed by the teacher or system delivering the instruction in order to stimulate or facilitate the events in the mind of the learner that were previously described in Table 3.1. The following paragraphs describe strategies for implementing the instructional activities listed in Figure 3.3:

1. Gaining attention. Guidelines for gaining attention and facilitating the process of moving information from the sensory register to working memory are discussed in chapter 6 of this book.
   
   
2. Activating motivation: Informing the learner of the objective. Strategies for activating motivation are discussed in detail in chapter 5. Different levels of instructional objectives are discussed later in the present chapter. Specific guidelines for developing instructional objectives are discussed in chapter 15.
   
   
3. Stimulating recall of prerequisite learning. Strategies for stimulating this process of moving information to and from long-term memory are described in chapter 6. Advance organizers are discussed in greater detail in chapter 15.
   
   
4. Presenting stimulus material. Strategies for presenting lessons are covered in the present chapter and in chapter 15.
   
   
5. Providing learning guidance. Strategies teachers can employ to guide thinking and learning are discussed in several chapters in this book, especially in chapter 7, in the present chapter, and in chapter 15.
   
   
6. Eliciting the performance. Teachers perform this event informally through such activities as learning probes (chapter 15) and more formally through tests at the end of units of instruction (chapter 14).
   
   
7. Providing feedback. Teachers do this by their reactions to student responses and activities in class and to other student assignments. The importance of using feedback strategies that promote autonomy is discussed in chapter 5. Other aspects of feedback are discussed in chapter 15.
   
   
8. Assessing the learner's performance. This involves the evaluative component of feedback. Step 7 is less formal and occurs while the student is learning. The present step occurs when the learner wants to demonstrate a formal mastery of the objectives of instruction. Strategies for assessment and grading are discussed in chapter 14.
   
   
9. Promoting retention and transfer. Guidelines for enhancing the retention of information in long-term memory and bringing it back to working memory when it is needed are discussed in chapter 6. The "Remember when... now let's" rule described in chapter 7 is an example of a specific attempt to implement this event of instruction. The value of distributed practice is discussed later in chapter 6.

It is not mandatory for teachers always to perform all the activities listed in the first column of Figure 3.3. What is essential is that the learner perform all the activities listed in the second column of Figure 3.3; the activities listed in the right column are simply ways to stimulate the events in the left column. The instructional activities listed in the first column can be regarded as a convenient checklist to help teachers and others design instructional units that are likely to be as effective as possible.

Table 3.2 shows examples of how these instructional events can occur in either group instruction, tutorial instruction, or individual learning. The third column of that table suggests ways in which a teacher might deliver an event of instruction to support a particular phase of learning. The fourth column suggests how students may perform these events of instruction on their own. The final column suggests times when it would be appropriate for instructors to skip a particular event of instruction. Remember: these are only examples; the events could occur in many other ways.

 Figure 3.3. The events of instruction.

 

Table 3.2. Events of Instruction and Phases of Learning and How They Relate to Learner Activities.
Event of Instruction	Learning Phase	How Teacher or Text Does It	How Students Self-Instruct	When to Skip This Event
1 Gaining attention	1 Attention: Alertness	Sudden stimulus change. Call for attention.	Underlining Attentional set Mood management.	When attention can be assumed - when learner is already alert.
2 Informing the learner of the objective: activating motivation.	2 Expectancy	State objectives and relate them to students’ needs and interests.	Student selects own objectives. (This usually comes first.)	Almost never - but maybe if the objective is obvious.
3 Stimulating recall of prior knowledge.	3 Retrieval to Working Memory of prerequisite information	"Remember...." Give an exercise or review activity to recall previous information.	Student looks for and retrieves relevant prior information. Often students do this without even realizing that it is happening.	Almost never - but skillful self-learners may do this themselves.
4   Presenting the stimulus material.	4   Selective Perception	Text, audiovisual, or voice presentation. Objects or demonstration materials Show distinctive features and focus attention on them.	Student seeks out and finds relevant material to provide instruction.	Almost never - although learners may acquire stimulus material on their own initiative.
5 Providing learning guidance	5 Encoding: Entry to Long-term Memory Storage	Provide meaningful context. Offer organizing strategies. Relate encoding to the objectives.	Student uses rehearsal or chunking strategies. Student selects storage structures to retain in-formation. Student employs cognitive strategies	When the learner already possesses effective cognitive strategies.
6 Eliciting performance	6 Responding	Ask learner to perform. Use review quizzes or recital questions	Student performs without prompting from teacher.	Student performs without prompting
7 Providing feedback	7 Feedback	Inform learner of degree of correctness of answer.	Student evaluates own performance	Almost never - but sometimes the student does it.
8 Assessing performance	7 Feedback	Teacher samples repeated performance and makes judgment about quality.	Student tests self and modifies strategies or plans for self-instruction as necessary.	Student may assess self and make accurate judgments.
9 Enhancing retention and transfer	8 Cueing Retrieval	Spaced reviews, including a variety of examples and applications.	Student looks for more examples of additional relationships.	Student may take initiative to seek additional examples and relationships.

 Review Quiz 3 - Instructional Events Matching Exercise

Listed below are the events of instruction and examples of activities teachers or teaching materials may perform in order to carry out these events of instruction. Match each activity with the instructional event.

a. Gaining attention

b. Activating motivation

c. Stimulating recall of prerequisite learning

d. Presenting stimulus material

e. Providing learning guidance

f. Eliciting the performance

g. Providing feedback

h. Assessing the learner's performance

i. Promoting retention and transfer

 

1 _____ The computer program responds, "Wrong. But you're getting close!" when the child gives an incorrect answer during a computer drill.

2 _____ The teacher snaps her finger to remind John to stop talking and to pay attention.

3 _____ A teacher tries to help a child remember how to spell a word by stating the rule "I before E except after C."

4 _____ A computer program flashes key words in a sentence as it presents the definition of a concept on the screen.

5 _____ A dance instructor reviews with students two basic moves that will be combined into a new, more complex move.

6 _____ The physics teacher tells students that at the end of the unit they will be able to estimate the distance a projectile will travel by knowing the angle at which it is shot and the force exerted on it.

7 _____ On each weekly quiz, the math teacher includes 50 questions - 25 covered that week and 25 from previous weeks. (Focus here on the 25 from the previous weeks.)

8 _____ The teacher encourages a child to use in science class a strategy that she learned in social studies class.

9 _____ When the student cannot remember the capital of Ohio a week after learning it, the teacher says it begins with C.

10 _____ The English teacher gives a student an 85% on the final exam and also gives detailed information regarding the nature of each mistake.

 This is a chapter 4 of a Study Skills book that runs parallel to Educational Psychology: Applied Approach. This chapter describes the events of instruction from the perspective of a learner. That is, it teaches the reader how to make use of information about these events in order to become a better student.

 Study Skills by Edward Vockell.

 Although this site presents an elaborate synthesis of Gagne's phases of learning, the information is almost directly parallel to the events of instruction. The web site describes the phases of learning from the perspective of a learner. That is, it teaches the reader how to make use of information about these phases in order to become a better student. For each phase the web site gives detailed examples and guidelines how students, parents, and teachers can support each phase.

Mastery Learning

Traditional instruction holds time constant and allows achievement to vary within a group of students. A college course may last sixteen weeks, for example, and at the end of that time students who have mastered the subject thoroughly receive grades of A, those who have mastered very little get grades of F, and so on. Mastery learning, on the other hand, holds achievement constant and lets the time students spend in pursuit of the objectives vary. In the same college course, a few students might meet the standards in ten weeks; most might meet the standards in sixteen weeks; but a few students might take twenty-five or thirty weeks to meet these standards.

Mastery learning overlaps considerably with other principles discussed in this chapter and throughout the rest of this book.

Mastery learning takes into account the elements cited by Carroll in the preceding section and states that given enough time and help, about 95 percent of the learners in any group can gain complete mastery of the designated instructional objectives. Mastery learning is not synonymous with pass/fail grading, nor does it imply that standards should be lowered. When mastery learning is successful, high standards are articulated and students receive ample time and help to meet these standards. Additional information about mastery learning can be found in Guskey and Gates (1986), Slavin (1987), and Levine (1987).

Mastery learning overlaps considerably with other principles discussed in this chapter and throughout the rest of this book. Mastery learning has received formal emphasis only in the past thirty years, but students and teachers have known about this principle for a long time. For example, if you have ever had trouble learning something, you very likely believed you could master it if you were given enough time and if you worked hard enough. That is a very simple statement of the principle of mastery learning.

Two problems often arise with mastery learning.

• First, grouping and scheduling may become difficult. Teachers often find it easier to force people to work at a constant pace and to complete tasks at a predictable rate than to permit wide variations in activities within a class.
  
  
• Second, while slow learners spend extra time on minimum standards, the faster learners may be forced to wait when they could be progressing to higher levels of achievement.

These problems are not insurmountable. We can overcome them by providing individualized attention, setting high but attainable standards, and making additional materials available for learners who master objectives more quickly than others.

Topics Related to Mastery Learning:

• What Happens to Motivation When Students Fail Repeatedly during Mastery Learning?
  
• Cooperative Mastery Learning
  
• Play (Flow)
  
• Minimalist Instruction

Implementation of Mastery Learning and Outcome-Based Education: A Review and Analysis of Lessons Learned by Doris W. Ryan
http://courses.ed.asu.edu/berliner/readings/fuss/fuss.htm

This article analyzes mastery learning and relates it to Outcome-Based Education. An abstract of this1998 article can be found online at this web site, from which you can also download the entire article for free:

 

Connecting Performance Assessment to Instruction
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed381984.html

This ERIC Digest from 1995 is subtitled "A Comparison of Behavioral Assessment, Master

• Introduction
• Models of Learning
• Mastery Learning
• Phases of Learning
• The Events of Instruction <<You are here>>
• Learning and Instruction
• Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
• Gagne's Outcomes of Learning
• Summary and Overview
• What Teachers Can Do About the Processes of Learning and Instruction
• What Parents Can Do About the Processes of Learning and Instruction
• What Students Can Do About the Processes of Learning and Instruction
• Annotated Bibliography
• Answers to Quizzes and Questions