Gagne’s Hierarchy of Learning – Eight types of learning

1. Suresh Babu G
Gagne’s hierarchy of learning
Suresh Babu G
Assistant Professor
CTE CPAS Paippad, Kottayam

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Robert Mills Gagne
 Robert Mills Gagne (August 21, 1916 – April
28, 2002) was an American educational
psychologist best known for his "Conditions of
Learning".
 In 1965 Robert Gagne published his book
entitled The Conditions of Learning. In his book,
Gagne (1965) described the analysis of learning
objectives, and how these different classes of
learning objectives relate to the appropriate
instructional designs.

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Gagne’s Theory of Instruction

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Gagne’s hierarchy of
learning
Gagne defined learning as a change in human
disposition or capacity, which can be retained
and which is not simply ascribable to the
process of growth.
According to him, there are eight types of
learning arranged in a hierarchical order
beginning with simple from and ending with a
complex form.
In his view learning of a new capability requires
the prior learning of the subordinate capacities
that are involved in the new capability.

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1. Signal Learning
( Classical Conditioning )
Here the individual learns to make a diffuse
response to a signal or stimulus.
Eg, An infant smiles at the sight of its mother.
mam

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2. Stimulus Response Learning
( Operant Conditioning )
Involves the connection
between a stimulus and
a response. The leaner
is learning to make
precise movement of
muscle in response to
specific stimulus.
Eg, A child says papa at
the sight of his father.
papa

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3. Chain Learning.
This is a more advanced form of
learning in which the subject
develops the ability to connect
two or more previously-
learned stimulus-response
bonds into a linked sequence.
It is the process whereby most
complex psychomotor skills
(eg riding a bicycle or playing
the piano) are learned.

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4. Verbal Association
This is a sub-veriety of chaining that occurs
when the stimuli and responses in chain learning
consists of words
Example : A child learns the Malayalam
equivalent of English words
Malayalam to English

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5. Discrimination Learning
 Here the leaner acquires the ability to distinguish
two set of stimuli or situations so as to make the
response appropriate to each member of the
set.
 Example : The child learn to distinguish between
his mother and his aunt.
It’s my
Mother

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6. Concept Learning
 The learner acquires a capacity to
respond to stimuli that a class of
objects share in common. Here
generalization within classes and
discrimination between classes
are learned by identifying abstract
characteristics like colour, shape,
position etc.
 Example : The child learns the
concept bird. He distinguishes a
birds from a mammal.
Birds

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7. Principle Learning
It includes the acquiring of knowledge and
understanding of a relationship between
concepts.
Example : A child learns the principle – metals
expand on heating.
It’s
expanding

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8. Problem Solving
• It is the highest stage in the
hierarchy of learning process. It
involves the application of the
principles that have already learnt,
in order to achieve some goal.
• Example : A boy proves theorems
in geometry.

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Educational Implications
 The teaching-learning activities should be
arranged in accordance with mental abilities of the
learner at each level of the learning hierarchy.
 The formal education should be planned
hierarchically on the basis of the increasing
complexities of the different types of learning.
 Teachers can analyze any significant learning
based on the learning order acquired by leaner in
to a progression of subordinate learning.

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 The teacher should ensure that the
leaner has acquired the necessary initial
state of learning before he is introduced
to subsequent levels of learning.
 Due weightage should be given to the
learning hierarchy while framing
curriculum.
 According to Gagne, for each phase of
learning certain internal processes
occurs in the learner’s central nervous
system. The role of the teacher is to plan
and control these external events.
Gagne considers a teacher as a
designer and manager of instruction and
an evaluator of student learner
Educational Implications

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Gagne’s Five Verities
of Human Capacity
1. Intellectual skills that permit the
symbolic control of the learning process.
2. Cognitive strategies that allows the learner to
control his/her own learning process.
3. Verbal information – the cognitive/informational
basis for employment.
4. Attitudes which positively or negatively influence
the learner’s movement towards or away from
that which is to be learned.
5. Motor skill, which allows the physical
movement necessary to perform the act

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Gagne’s Principle Contributions
• Place emphasis on the psychology of learning in
instructional design.
• Saw learning as categorized in terms of learning
outcome or knowledge type.
• Saw the acquisition different internal and
instructional processes.
• Represented learning outcomes in terms of their
component parts arranged in a predictable
prerequisite relationship.
• Identified routine instructional steps that stimulate
the varieties stages of the learning process.

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Help learns to reach the higher level