Gagne´’s eight types of learning and five types of learned capability

Description and intended use

Gagne´ (1985, p. xv) seeks to enable those with an interest in education to: ‘acquire an organised schema of human learning as it occurs in situations of instruction . . . such a schema will be valuable as a referential model against which the complex events of teaching and learning can be compared and evaluated.’

He is concerned with the translation of psychological theory into the effective design of instruction. He believes that a better understanding of how learning operates will facilitate planning for learning, managing learning and instructing. For Gagne´, learning ability consists partly of trainable intellectual skills and partly of a strategic thinking capability that can only evolve as a function of experience and

intelligence. He analyses learning in terms of the conditions of learning and learning outcomes. The conditions of learning are concerned with the external events that support different types of learned capability, as well as with internal processes.

According to Gagne´, we first need to identify and classify learning outcomes. We then analyse the procedural components of learning to reveal prerequisites and to facilitate retrieval of previously learned material from long-term memory. Finally, we provide detailed task descriptions.

For Gagne´, the factors that influence learning are chiefly determined by the environment, and many external conditions can be altered and controlled. It is, therefore, possible to study learning in a scientific manner. When analysing a learning task, it should be broken down into steps and a line drawn to indicate what the learner can already do (what is below the line), and what will be learned through the task (above the line). Essentially, Gagne´ subscribes to an informationprocessing model of learning, emphasising the mastery that can be achieved through learning and applying rules. His work has its roots in a behaviourist model, which he subsequently revised to address cognitive aspects of problem-solving.

Gagne´ considers prior learning to be extremely important, and this applies to the development of thinking skills. He argues that, as we cannot think in a vacuum, we always draw on acquired basic skills and knowledge. For Gagne´, the time spent in formal school acquiring knowledge and intellectual skills does not mean that problem-solving and cognitive strategies are being neglected.

In his earlier work, Gagne´ (1965) identifies eight distinct types of learning, ordered here from simple to complex:

1.signal learning (classical Pavlovian conditioning)

2.stimulus/response learning (Skinner’s operant conditioning)

3.chaining (learning sequences of actions through practice)

4.verbal chaining (learning sequences of words through practice)

5.discrimination learning (distinguishing similar items by their various features)

6.concept learning (the identity of classes)

64Frameworks for Thinking

7.rule learning (organising information using ‘if, then’ statements about concepts)

8.problem-solving (learning new rules or applying them to new situations).

Categories 2–8 are organised in what is claimed to be a hierarchy of prerequisite skills and abilities. For example, it is impossible to solve a problem without applying a rule. However, motor and verbal chaining provide an exception to the linear hierarchy, as they are at the same level and both have stimulus–response learning as prerequisite skills.

In his later work (Gagne´, 1985), the eight categories are replaced by five varieties of learned capability (which can be presented in any order).

Intellectual skills

Intellectual skills (which are forms of procedural knowledge) are oriented towards aspects of the learner’s environment and are used to solve problems. It is possible to identify organised sets of intellectual skills relevant to learning at the level of rules in specific domains, and these are ‘learning hierarchies’. The skills of which the hierarchies are composed are: making discriminations, learning concepts, using rules, using higher-order rules and using procedures.

Cognitive strategies

These are defined as metacognitive and novel problem-solving processes – that is, processes of executive control. Thinking skills are included under cognitive strategies and Gagne´ talks about the possible existence of a ‘master thinking skill’ – a form of executive control that governs the management of other skills and strategies. He is of the opinion that this capability, which is essentially the ability to formulate situationally-relevant learning strategies, is a form of strategic problemsolving that cannot be taught effectively using traditional methods. It is generalised thinking ability – that is, processing ability not tied to a particular intellectual skill – and can only be inductively derived by students through incidental learning over years of practice. Consequently, metacognitive training can only be effective if it is accompanied by opportunities for frequent practice on a long-term