Alexander Romiszowski

Robert M. Gagne

<<Differences>>

General process: learning and instruction

The hierarchical model of five stages to mastery is useful for planning instructional sequences and appropriate evaluation instruments in the development of psychomotor skills.

1.      Acquiring knowledge of what should be done, to what purpose, in what sequence, and by what means.

2.     Executing the actions in a step-by-step manner, for each of the steps of the operation.

3.     Transfer of control from the eyes to other senses or to kinesthetic control through muscular coordination.

4.     Automatization of the skill

5.     Generalization of the skill to a continually greater range of application situations.

Gagne also has a learning hierarchy, but it is very different from Romiszowski’s hierarchical model to mastery in psychomotor skills’ development.  Gagne contended learning tasks for intellectual skills can be organized in a hierarchy according to complexity in his Conditions of Learning Theory.

1. Stimulus recognition

2. Response generation

3. Procedure following

4. Use of terminology

5. Discriminations

6. Concept formation

7. Rule application

8. Problem Solving

<<Similarities>>

Instructional tactics for specific situations

Research-based principles of instruction that underline the basic model in development of psychomotor skills:

1.      Imparting the essential information to the trainee

2.     Providing opportunities for practice

3.      Feedback in psychomotor skills instruction

4.     Teaching for transfer:   Transfer and retention of motor skills could be improved by “overlearning.”

Gagne (1954) Training devices and simulators, American Psychologist.

Both practical observation and experimental evidences are the indicators which suggest that “the amount of transfer of learning is in proportion to the amount of initial practice.” i.e. Transfer increases with amount of initial training.

Integrating the performer and the task

The question of fidelity in training devices and simulators: 

The common practice of putting emphasis on high fidelity to the real task is not a very cost-effective approach to training.

Exact simulation of a task is often in conflict with effective training because it precludes the implementation of effective instructional design principles.  Part-task training devices often overcome this problem, allowing sound design to be incorporated into simulated practice exercises. 

Effectiveness for training as a guiding principle should replace the “identical elements” principle first suggested by Thorndike in the design of training devices and simulators.

The problem of effective training was not about making the tasks similar, but rather arranging the conditions of practice in a way that essential skills were most efficiently learned.  (One may generalize from this example: what makes a training device effective?  Not in identity of all task elements, but rather in viewing a training device as a means of making conditions most effective for learning.)

Gagne favored component practice over total simulation. He wondered whether any skills were ever effectively learned “all at once” exclusively through practice on the job or on fully realistic simulators.

For example, training in driving a car is very often conducted in sessions designed to give special emphasis, or additional practice, such as some difficult part-skills like shifting gears or the operation of parallel parking.  In this respect, practical skill-training methods have always departed more or less from the conditions of exact simulation. (Gagne, 1954, p9)