ADDIE vs Gagne

Both methods require a clear objective, but ADDIE is more concerned with the overall design of the material presented rather than the method in which it is presented. It looks like using the ADDIE method could lead someone to using the Gagne method through trial and error. Both systems provide feedback and evaluate the students’ performance. The difference is that ADDIE is also evaluating the performance of the chosen teaching process while Gagne is only assessing the students’ performance. While the teaching method is important the students’ performance is even more important. The same teaching method might not work for every student and that is why I feel the Gagne approach is more suitable for young learners because we are teaching them how to learn and are focusing more on the individual rather than percentages of understanding. Individual feedback is incredibly important and once the students’ know how they learn best any material can be adapted to fit their learning needs.

ADDIE seems to be what is used in most K-12 school systems today while Gagne seems to be used more at the college level. I’ve heard many teachers complain that they cannot take the time necessary to ensure each student’s understanding of the material because they are required to cover too much material too quickly and then test the students on that large amount of material. They complain that the students are remembering the material long enough to be tested on it but are not retaining much of it at all afterward. This is my own experience with standardized testing as well when not used in conjunction with the Gagne method. Standardized testing is useful but it is not the most important part of a successful teaching process. I like the ADDIE model for training sessions for employees that only need supplemental information. The constant reviewing and feedback is very useful when trying to make the most effective training method for a specific lesson. It is not as effective when using it for an entire grade level’s curriculum because it affects too many students for an entire year or more. When providing additional training to employees any overlooked information or incorrect information can be easily corrected in a memo, but when an entire year of students have not been effectively taught the necessary tools, it is quite difficult to correct and can have a domino effect on the remaining years of their K-12 education.

Currently, I am not a classroom teacher but teach mostly one-on-one through tutoring. My best subject to teach is math because I have a strong understanding of the material and can provide many different examples to try to connect the information being learned to other information and situations the student has already experienced. While researching different methods for this assignment I realized that I use Gagne’s system to teach my students. When I begin with a student I start by getting their attention in a simple way and ask questions like: “what’s new?”…”how was your test?”…”what are we working on today?”…and “do you have any questions since I saw you last? Struggling with anything in particular?” Once the student has answered my questions I look at the day’s material and give my own opinion of it citing whether or not I have found it useful or if I found it fun/interesting for some particular reason. I can always come up with some personal opinion of the material covered because lower level math does not change and I’ve taken and mastered it all the way up to Calculus 3. I chose my method of teaching because it was what worked best for me as I learned material over the years. After getting the student’s attention and making the material a little less scary I explain what the day’s material is hoping to teach/express and I tell the student what we should be able to do with it including connecting it to everyday life, the material covered previously, and the material coming up. I then walk the student through the material and guide him/her through a couple of problems. I then ask the student to work through several problems on their own and I critique the work and explain what information I looked for and how I checked their work. By guiding the student through my analysis process I help them learn to check their own work and what they should be paying attention to when working through the problem initially. I always provide immediate feedback and encourage the student to practice and provide different examples so that I am assured of his/her understanding.

I generally work with teenagers between the ages 14-16 and occasionally I help a 20+ year old friend obtain his/her GED. Sometimes I am lucky and get the easy task of tutoring a strong student that is eager to learn and just needs a little extra time, attention, explanation, and practice, but usually I am teaching disadvantaged students that believe they are stupid or are not worthy of my attention. This is always a difficult thing to change but can be done through consistency and patience. Often, I must help a student catch up on the basics so that I CAN teach them the material they are supposed to be learning. Once students understand the basics they seem much less frustrated with the current material because it is less daunting. Instead of having to sort through the problem and struggle with multiplication, use of negatives, exponents, and variables to figure out the answer to a problem using the quadratic formula the student is able to simply struggle with the quadratic formula because they feel confident manipulating the numbers within it.