Gagne's 9 dull Commandments - why they cripple learning design...

50 year old theory
It is over 50 years since Gagne, a closet behaviourist, published The Conditions of Learning (1965). In 1968 we got his article Learning Hierarchies, then Domains of Learning in 1972. Gagne’s theory has five categories of learning; Intellectual Skills, Cognitive strategies, Verbal information, Motor skills and Attitudes. OK, I quite like these – better than the oft-quoted Bloom trilogy (1956). Then something horrible happened.

Nine Commandments
He claimed to have found the Nine Commandments of learning. A single method of instruction that applies to all five categories of learning, the secret code for divine instructional design. Follow the linear recipe and learning will surely follow.

1 Gaining attention
2 Stating the objective
3 Stimulating recall of prior learning
4 Presenting the stimulus
5 Providing learning guidance
6 Eliciting performance
7 Providing feedback
8 Assessing performance
9 Enhancing retention and transfer to other contexts

Instructional designers often quote Gagne, and these nine steps in proposals for e-learning and other training courses, but let me present an alternative version of this list:

1 Gaining attention
Normally an overlong animation, coporate intro or dull talking head, rarely an engaging interactive event. You need to grab attention not make the learner sit back in their chair and mind.
2 Stating the objective
Now bore the learner stupid with a list of learning objectives (really trainerspeak). Give the plot away and remind them of how really boring this course is going to be.
3 Stimulating recall of prior learning
Can you think of the last time you considered the details of the Data Protection Act?
4 Presenting the stimulus
Is this a behaviourist I see before me? Yip. Click on Mary, Abdul or Nigel to see wht they think of te data Protection Act - cue speech bubble... or worse some awful game where you collect coins or play the role of Sherlock Holmes....
5 Providing learning guidance
We’ve finally got to some content.
6 Eliciting performance
True/False or Multiple-choice questions each with at least one really stupid option (cheat list for MC here).
7 Providing feedback
Yes/no, right/wrong, correct/incorrect…try again.
8 Assessing performance
Use your short-term memory to choose options in the final multiple-choice quiz.
9 Enhancing retention and transfer to other contexts
Never happens! The course ends here, you’re on your own mate….

Banal and dull
First, much of this is banal – get their attention, elicit performance, give feedback, assess. It’s also an instructional ladder that leads straight to Dullsville, a straightjacket that strips away any sense of build and wonder, almost guaranteed to bore more than enlighten. What other form of presentation would give the game away at the start. Would you go to the cinema and expect to hear the objectives of the film before you start?
It’s time we moved on from this old and now dated theory using what we’ve learnt about the brain and the clever use of media. We have AI-driven approaches such as WildFire and CogBooks that personalise learning.....

And don’t get me started on Maslow, Mager or Kirkpatrick!