1-3. Where does the stumbling block lie? Gagne and the design of instruction
Repeating problems you cannot solve still leads to failure
We have been taught to practice the problems we cannot solve over and over again.
That is how we were taught.
If you make a mistake on a kanji character, you write the same character again.
If you make a mistake in a calculation, you solve a similar problem.
If you fail at work, you check the same procedure once more.
However, there are times when no amount of repetition will help you master it.
Skinner focused on the design of instruction rather than the child's ability.
Break problems down into small parts.
Provide immediate feedback on correctness.
Allow each individual to progress at their own pace.
Even so, questions remain.
What constitutes a small step?
In what order should things be taught?
Facing these questions, the person who organized instruction into a designable format was the American psychologist Robert M. Gagne.
Do not practice problems you cannot solve
In 1962, Gagne prepared a difficult task: identifying the rule in a sequence of numbers and creating a formula to find the sum.
Then, he conducted a somewhat unusual experiment. He did not have them repeatedly practice the final task itself.
Solving a difficult final task requires multiple skills.
Finding numbers in a table.
Filling in the blanks of a formula.
Finding the rule from a sequence of numbers.
Seven boys participated in the experiment.
First, he checked how much each person had mastered individually.
Then, he taught them in order, starting from where they were still struggling.
Instead of repeating the final task, he had them master the prerequisite skills one by one.
As a result, 6 out of 7 were able to create formulas from number sequences they had never seen before.[1]
The fact that you cannot solve the problem in front of you does not necessarily mean you lack the ability.
It may be that the staircase leading there is broken somewhere.
A staircase of small skills leading to complex skills.
Gagne called this the learning hierarchy.
Nine cards to support those climbing the stairs
What the learning hierarchy showed was how to build the stairs.
Work backward from what you want them to be able to do to find the necessary prerequisite skills.
Find the missing steps and make it possible to climb from there.
However, just building a staircase does not mean people can climb it.
How do you guide the hand of the person climbing the stairs?
Gagne organized the interventions for this as the "9 Events of Instruction" [2]
Before they start climbing, gain their attention, inform them of the objectives, and have them recall what they learned previously.
While they are climbing, present new content, provide cues for understanding, have them try it themselves, and provide feedback.
After they have climbed, verify if they have mastered the skill and have them apply it in other situations.
Learning hierarchies are how to build the staircase.
The 9 Events of Instruction are the tools to support the person climbing the stairs.
Where do you start teaching?
Where and how do you provide support?
Gagne organized education, which had previously relied on the intuition and experience of the teacher, into a form that could be designed according to the mechanisms of learning.
A 60-year-old blueprint that is still useful today
Gagne published "The Conditions of Learning" in 1965.
Work backward from the goal.
Verify what was taught previously.
Provide cues for understanding.
Have them try it themselves.
Provide immediate feedback.
Have them apply it in other situations.
The essential framework that leads to current teaching methods was already drawn out to this extent over half a century ago.
Of course, this blueprint cannot be used as-is for all learning. If the content being learned is different, the necessary staircase also changes. If the knowledge and experience already possessed are different, the starting point is also different for each person. The 9 Events of Instruction are not a checklist to be performed in the same order every time. [3]
When you find someone who cannot do something, check the staircase before doubting their ability or effort.
Is a necessary step missing?
Is the place where you are offering a hand misaligned?
Stumbles do not exist only within the person.
They also exist in the order of teaching and the way of providing support.
So, if there is a necessary staircase and a hand to support, can everyone climb it in the same amount of time?
John B. Carroll and Benjamin S. Bloom addressed this question.
[1] Psychologist Robert M. Gagne, then a professor at Princeton University, set the derivation of the formula for the sum of the first n terms of a sequence as the final task, and hierarchized the skills necessary to reach it. He examined seven ninth-grade boys in the United States one by one to see which stage they had mastered, and taught them the higher-level skills in order starting from the stage where they first stumbled. Six out of the seven reached the final task. However, this was a small-scale preliminary demonstration without a control group, and not an experiment that established the general effectiveness of learning hierarchies. Gagné, R. M. (1962). “The Acquisition of Knowledge.” Psychological Review, 69(4), 355–365.
[2] American psychologist Robert M. Gagne systematized the types of learning outcomes, the internal and external conditions necessary for each, and the instructional events that support learning. The 9 Events of Instruction were not derived by comparing nine effects in a single experiment. It is a theoretical framework that summarizes the learning research accumulated until then—such as behavior, attention, memory, practice, and feedback—as interventions prepared by the teaching side. Gagné, R. M. (1965). The Conditions of Learning. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. The Japanese translation is: Robert M. Gagne, translated by Satoshi Kaneko and Tomohisa Hirano, "The Conditions of Learning," 3rd Edition, Gakugei Tosho, 1982. This is a translation of the 3rd edition of the original work.
[3] Gagne believed that the necessary learning conditions differ depending on whether what is being acquired is verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills, or attitudes. The 9 Events of Instruction are also not a fixed procedure to execute nine items in the same order in every class, but a framework for designing specific interventions according to learning goals and the learner's state.
R. M. Gagné, W. W. Wager, K. C. Golas, & J. M. Keller (2005). Principles of Instructional Design (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
The Japanese translation is: R. M. Gagne, W. W. Wager, K. C. Golas, & J. M. Keller, supervised by Katsuaki Suzuki and Nobuhisa Iwasaki, "Principles of Instructional Design," Kitaohji Shobo, 2007.
[Book Introduction] The Art of Learning for Adults Revealed by Educational Technology
Turn "it's too late" into "starting now."
People who continue to change even after becoming adults are not those with special talents.
They are people who have the ability to accept what they are taught with an open mind, try it out for themselves, and connect it to the next step.
"The Art of Being Taught as an Adult, Revealed by Educational Technology" translates techniques for developing the "ability to be taught" into practical tools for the field, drawing on insights from educational psychology, learning science, cognitive psychology, and organizational psychology, with a focus on educational technology.
It is a book for adult relearning, systematized into 40 skills.