According to Gagne, to what highest level of learning should a teacher strive to take students?

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 2:
Robert Gagné, an influential educational psychologist, developed a "Hierarchy of Learning" which suggests that there are eight types of learning, arranged in increasing order of complexity. The goal of instruction, particularly for complex cognitive skills, should be to guide students through these levels to the highest point possible. The peak of this hierarchy is **Problem Solving Learning**. This level is considered the most sophisticated form of cognitive learning because it requires students to utilize all the preceding levels—including signal learning, stimulus-response learning, chaining, verbal association, discrimination, concept learning, and rule learning—to invent a new intellectual structure or rule for solving a unique, novel problem. When a student engages in problem-solving, they are demonstrating a mastery of foundational knowledge (concepts and rules) and applying it creatively in an unstructured situation, which is the ultimate demonstration of higher-order thinking and is what teachers should ultimately strive for.

The incorrect option is 1 (Concept learning):
Concept learning, while a critical step in Gagné’s hierarchy (Level 6), involves classifying stimuli into categories based on shared properties. It precedes the application of those concepts through rules and problem-solving, meaning it is not the highest level.

The incorrect option is 3 (Rule learning):
Rule learning (Level 7) involves understanding relationships between two or more concepts, often expressed as "if-then" statements or principles. While necessary for problem-solving, it only prepares students with the tools; it does not involve the spontaneous generation of solutions to entirely new challenges, which is the defining feature of the highest level.

The incorrect option is 4 (Discrimination learning):
Discrimination learning (Level 4) is a fundamental cognitive skill that precedes concept and rule learning. It simply involves differentiating between different stimuli or classes of stimuli. It is a lower-level requirement that must be achieved before engaging in more complex cognitive tasks like problem-solving.