"How learning operates in everyday school situations is a most valuable kind of understanding. Such knowledge can make possible the successful accomplishment of activities of the following sorts:

1. Planning for learning. One important implication of the identification of learning conditions is that these conditions must be carefully planned before the learning situation is entered into by the student....
2. Managing learning. How can students be motivated to begin and to continue learning? How should the direction of interest and effort be guided? What can be done to assess the outcomes of learning?...
3. Instructing. The function of instructing derives in a specific sense from a description of the required conditions of learning. Instructing means arranging the conditions of learning that are external to the learner. (Gagne, 1985, pg. 19-20)

Nine Events of Instruction (Gagne, 1985, pg. 246-255)

1. Gaining Attention.
"The attention of students, in the sense of alertness for reception of stimuli, is gained by introducing rapid stimulus change." (pg. 246)

2. Informing learners of the objective
"When learners comprehend the objective of instruction, they will acquire an expectancy that normally persists throughout the time learning is taking place and that will be confirmed by the feedback given when learning is complete." (pg. 246-247)

3. Stimulating recall of prior learning
"The learner is next asked to recall some things previously learned. The best kind of recall is somehow related naturally to what has been chosen as a task to be newly learned." (pg. 248)

4. Presenting the stimulus
"A fourth event of instruction calls for the presentation of the essential stimulus to the learner." (pg. 251)

5. Providing "learning guidance"
"This event of instruction supports the internal process usually called semantic encoding." In familiar language, the instructional technique may be described as follows: Make the stimulus as meaningful as possible." (pg. 252)

6. Eliciting performance
"The instructional events so far described are designed to assure that learning "takes hold." The new capability reflected in the objective, whether verbal information, intellectual skill, cognitive strategy, attitude, or motor skill, has been encoded into a form for storage in long-term memory. It is then time for the learner to demonstrate the newly learned capability." (pg. 254)

7. Providing feedback
"Following the performance which shows that learning has occurred, there must be a communication to the learner about the correctness and the degree of correctness of the performance." (pg. 254)

8. Assessing performance
"The performance that accompanies the learning of a new capability is simply a verification that learning has occurred." (pg. 255)

9. Enhancing retention and transfer
"What kind of event will increase the probability that what has been learned will (1) be retained over long periods of time, and (2) be capable of being employed as a performance in new situations, with new problems? It may be hoped that much more knowledge will be forthcoming about this question than is currently known. (pg. 255)