The Teaching of Defined Concepts: A Test of Gagne and Briggs' Model of Instructional Design.

INSTRUCTIONAL systems design; CONCEPT learning

Gagné and Briggs (1978), in their model of instructional design, propose that defined concepts are best taught by verbal expository methods, while rules are more effectively taught by guided discovery procedures. Gagné and Briggs acknowledge, however, that defined concepts are a form of rule, and as such are learnt in much the same way as rules (p. 68). This ambiguity in the model was investigated using treatments which contrasted expository and guided discovery forms of presentation. The content for defined concept learning was Latin and Greek morphographs. Subjects were grade 6 level children. Dependent variables were immediate and delayed recall, and transfer. Regression analysis showed that the guided discovery method was as effective as the discovery method on all measures. The implications of this for the model are discussed, together with the wider implications for the discovery learning debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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