A.

Varieties of Learning: Information Verbal, Attitude, Motor Skills

This chapter has been concerned with a description of three different kinds
of learning: Verbal information, attitudes, and motor skills. Although they have
some features in common, they are in fact very different. First, they differ in the
kinds of outcome performances, which they make possible.
1. Verbal Information: Verbally state facts, generalizations, and organized
knowledge.
2. Attitude: Choose a course of personal action
3. Motor Skills: Execute a performance of bodly movement.
Second, as our analysis of the conditions of learning has shown, these three
kinds of learning differ from each other in the conditions necessary for their
effective achievement. For verbal information, the key condition is the provision
of external cues that relate the new information to a network of organized
knowledge. from prior learning. For attitude, one must either unsure direct
reinforcement of personal action choices pr depend upon human modeling to
bring about vicarious reinforcement of the leaner. And for motor skills, besides
the early learning of the executive subroutine and provision for the integration
of separate skills, the important condition is practice wtih frequent feedback to
the learner.
While the kinds of performances associated with these capabilities and the
conditions for their learning are different from those pertaining to intellectual
skills and cognitive strategies, they are not less important. The storage and
accessibility of verbal information, particularly in the from of organized
knowledge, is a legitimate and desirable objective of instruction in both formal
adn informal education and training setting.
The establishment of attitude is widely acknowledged to be a highly
significant objective in many fields, the military in particular. Motor skills,
although they often appear to contrast with the cognitive orientation of school
learning, individually have their own justification as fundamental components
of basic skills, of art and music, of sciense and of sports.
 Third, the features of these learned capabilities, as compared with
intellectual skills, differ with respect to the internal conditions that must be
assumed and the external conditions that must be arranged for instruction to be
effective. Included in these differences are the enabling prerequisite
relationships that intellectual skills have with each other, as compared to the
supportive effects of prior learning on verbal information, attitudes, and motor
skills. (R.M. Gagne, 1985, pp. 286-272). This characterictic has particular
implications for sequencing instruction, as will be seen in a later chapter.
The system of instructional design being developed in this book is one that
suggest that first priority be given to intellectual skills as central planning
components. That is, the fundamental structures of instruction are design in
terms of what thee student will be able to do when learning has occured, and this
capability in turn is related to what has previously been learned. This strategy of
instructional design typically leads to the identification of intellectual skills as a
first srtep, followed by analysis and identification of their prerequisites. Added
at appropriate points to this basic sequence are the cognitive strategies that the
basic skills make body of verbal information, the changing of an attitude, or the
mastery of a motor skills. These cases also require analysus to reveal the
supportive effects of prior learning and the typical instances where multiple
objective must be learned.
Several of the following chapters directly address procedurs for designing
instruction. In large part, the techniques we describe are derived from the
knowledge of varieties of learning outcome that we have detailed, and represent
direct applications of this knowledge.

B. The Learner :
Learner characteristics that affect the learning of new instructional
material assume several kinds of organization in human memory. The learned
capabilities of intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, verbal information,
attitudes, and motor skills have direct effects on the learning of new instances
of these same kinds of capabilities. Another kind of memory organization is
represented by the notion of abilities, which are measured by psychological tests
(such as those of Reasoning and Number Facility)- These are measures of
human qualities that predict how well certain general types of performances will
be accomplished by different individuals. Still, other characteristics of human
learners fall in the domain of traits (such as anxiety, locus of control). Abilities
and traits affect new learning in indirect ways.
Relations between characteristics of the learner and the ease and
effectiveness of learning have a number of implications for the practical task of
instructional design. The designer needs to take account of the outcomes of
learning, as described in the preceding kchapter, and be cognizant of how these
different outcomes may be brought about in different learners. After all, various
types of learners may be addressed by instruction. They may be children or
adults and may, therefore, differ in the amount of prior learning they have
experienced. They may have different learned capabilities, different schemas,
and different abilities and traits.
Intellectual skills and cognitive strategies are usually of help to new
learning, and their retrieval needs to be provided for in design. Stimulating the
recall of verbal information makes provision for cue retrieval and the activation
of a meaningful context within which new information can be subsumed.
Previously acquired positive attitudes contribute to motivation for learning.
Motor skills that are part skills need to be retrieved as components of the
learning of new skills.
Many of these previously learned capabilities are incorporated into
meaningful complexes called schemas. These networks of meaningful
propositions and concepts are of considerable importance to new learning.
Instructional design procedures include provisions for detecting the presence of
relevant schemas and activating them by means of cuestions, advance
organizers, or other devices.
Instruction for new learning can be adapted for learner differences in
abilities and traits to the extent that feasibility considerations permit. When
instructions are verbal in nature, ease of verbal comprehension is of particular
importance in the instructional design.