Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction

To sum things up for the simplicity of understanding, Gagne's nine events of instruction provide the framework for the development of a particular lesson. From the introduction of expectations to the end assessments that measure the learning of the lesson provided, each step is broken down.

The obvious beauty of using this particular method of designing instruction is that it helps the educator ensure that every element of instruction has been touched on through the lesson. The question then becomes one of the weakness of the design in that there is no instruction as to how to develop each individual portion of the lesson. For instance, are the assessments based on student experience and understanding or are they cookie cutter assessments that assume the same level of experience and understanding.

For example, when offering instruction as to how one might write articles online, can you assume that the learners have in-depth experience using Word? If you create lessons that make this assumption, what happens when you instruct an older generation who knows nothing of embedding links or changing the indents or line breaks? Online writing demands a complete lack of indents, but those who do not have experience with writing online or using Word will have to adapt to this, while the younger generation that is very familiar and comfortable with Word may have very little experience ever using indents to begin with. Therefore, experience has to be accounted for.

By all means, the nine events of instruction are the perfect tool for making sure that you use every step of the instructional process, but you still need to incorporate other elements into the lesson, including Wiggin's theory of backwards design which allows you to set the goal before you create the lesson and the elements of teaching for understanding which allows you to use the learners' experience to further develop a concept.
Comparing Learning Theories