Instructional design	65

basis within a curriculum that supplies an appropriate context for the development of executive control skills.

Verbal information

This is declarative knowledge and is dependent on the recall of internally-stored complexes of ideas which constitute meaningfully organised structures. Gagne´ contributed to the debate regarding the status of declarative and procedural knowledge by claiming that it is possible to be told how to do something (and then be able to do it well) without understanding the process. In fact, focusing too much on unpacking the processes can interfere with learning.

Motor skills

These are psychomotor chains.

Attitudes

Most attitudes are learned incidentally through modelling by key figures, rather than as a result of pre-planned instruction. Attitudes are influential in determining to what and how we pay attention.

Evaluation

Gagne´’s original work was based on concepts developed by experimental psychologists, such as paired-associate learning, serial learning, operant conditioning, concept learning and gestalt problem-solving. He later incorporated ideas from information-processing accounts of cognition and instructional design, but retained an analytic focus on the components of learning and a model of instruction in which learners are passive recipients.

According to his framework of learning, aspects of thinking skills, such as concept and rule formation, can be located in intellectual skills. Gagne´’s analysis of these can be a useful corrective for those who are over-dismissive of structured ways of teaching skills and concepts and procedures, as in direct instruction. Gagne´ is probably correct in believing that different instructional approaches are needed for different kinds of learning.

According to Gagne´, problem finding, discovery learning and creative problem-solving depend on a sound knowledge base, extensive practice

66 Frameworks for Thinking

and general intelligence. Gagne´ expresses reservations regarding the amenability to instruction of the necessary cognitive strategies. This view is incompatible with the idea that young children are highly creative, not least in their play and developing use of language.

Gagne´’s emphasis on learning hierarchies, prerequisite knowledge and linking new learning to prior learning has had a major impact on instructional design (Gagne´ and Briggs, 1974). His influence has been strong in the design of computer-mediated instruction, for example integrated learning systems. However, an atomistic and linear approach to instruction is likely to encourage rote learning rather than the integration of components into meaningful wholes and the capacities to generalise and reframe.

Gagne´’s view of learning does not problematise what is to be learned, or seek to define good thinking. Its main focus is on efficiency in processing and on the retention of information.

Summary: Gagne´

				Relevance for teachers
Purpose and structure		Some key features		and learning
Main purpose(s):		Terminology:		Intended audience:
•	to help teachers	•	clear	•	designers of
	understand learning	•	some psychological		instruction and
	and instruction		terms used		assessment
•	to identify the			•	teachers
	conditions of
	learning, particularly
	in terms of
	prerequisites and the
	sequencing of learning
Domains addressed:		Presentation:		Contexts:
•	psychomotor	•	detailed breakdown	•	education
•	cognitive		of conditions for	•	work
•	affective		learning	•	citizenship
		•	clear guidelines on	•	recreation
			instructional design
			and practical issues