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Although Robert M. Gagne's work is often thought of as learning theory, his contributions can most appropriately be considered as an "instructional theory." This denotes an integrated set of principles based upon learning theory, other relevant theories, and sound replicable research, that permits one to predict the effects of specific instructional conditions on a learner's cognitive processing and the resulting learned capabilities. This paper discusses: (1) the status of instructional theory before Gagne, specifically, curriculum theory and applied learning theory; (2) precursors to instructional theory; (3) instructional theory contributions, including the development of the types of learning, the learning hierarchies concept, events of instruction, and conditions of learning; (4) the relationship of Gagne's work to learning theory; (5) the influences of Gagne's theory on instructional design models; and (6) the influences of Gagne's theory on curriculum design. Gagne's process of developing, refining, and extending his theory over time based upon new research and theory distinguishes him among scholars in the fields of educational psychology and instructional theory. (Contains 93 references.) (SWC)

A conditions-based approach to the development of microlevel organizational strategies for instruction is explored. The conditions model reflects the idea that differences in learning tasks, primarily qualitative differences in the cognitive processing required of different learning tasks, can suggest different ways by which instruction can either supply the processing needed or assist learners to generate the needed processing. A perceived limitation has been the idea that conditions-based models prescribe only supplantive instruction or that the models are inherently biased toward supplantation. This limitation is overcome in a recent work (Smith and Ragan, 1993), which presents a revision of the events of instruction in which both generative and supplantive interpretations are suggested by the wording of each event. Strategy recommendations using the expanded events of learning are presented in summary sheets for (1) declarative knowledge; (2) concept learning; (3) procedural rule learning; (4) relational rule learning; (5) problem solving; (6) attitude learning; and (7) learning psychomotor skills. (Contains 70 references.) (SLD)

Traditionally, illustrations used in instruction have been concrete in nature with the learning outcome not always considered in the design of the illustrations. This study investigated whether concrete or abstract illustrations were more effective for supporting acquisition of abstract concepts in print media when evaluated by immediate and delayed testing. The 52 subjects, who were junior and senior teacher education students enrolled in an instructional design and development course, were randomly assigned to one of three study groups: no illustrations, concrete illustrations, and abstract illustrations. The researcher-developed materials used were three versions of a print-based lesson teaching the four categories within the intellectual skills domain of Gagne's domains of learning outcomes. Subjects were given descriptions of learning tasks and asked to identify which of the intellectual skills each task represented, i.e., discrimination, concept, rule, or problem solving. Materials for the abstract illustration group contained abstract representations of these four classifications, while materials for the concrete illustration group contained representations of "the best example" of the concept. The best example was also explained verbally in the text used by all three groups. The lesson design followed Gagne's nine events of instruction. The instruments for both the immediate posttest and the delayed posttest, which covered only the textual materials, consisted of parallel forms of questions assessing the classification of examples of each of the four learning tasks. Although no significant differences were found between the three groups, the gain from the immediate posttest to the delayed posttest showed that the abstract visuals tended to increase retention to a greater degree than the concrete visuals. (14 references) (Author/BBM)