In the later period of his academic career, he absorbed the thoughts of information processing psychology and constructivist cognitive learning psychology, and formed a learning theory that pays equal attention to both theory and technical operation. This theory explains most classroom learning and puts forward practical teaching steps.
Gagne believes that learning is extremely important for human beings. Human development is the result of growth and learning and their interaction. However, there is an important difference between them: "The factors that affect growth are largely determined by heredity, while the factors that affect learning are mainly determined by the events of personal living environment."
Gagne also believes that human learning activities are restricted by internal and external conditions. Internal conditions refer to previously acquired knowledge and skills, motivation and learning ability. External conditions refer to the structure and form of input stimuli, and different learning abilities and learning contents require different external conditions.
Gagne believes that education is the external condition of learning, and its success depends on whether it effectively adapts to and uses the internal conditions. Each learning stage has its own internal psychological process and external events that affect it.
Teaching is to follow these characteristics of learners' learning process and arrange appropriate external learning conditions. Teachers are the designers and managers of teaching and the evaluators of students' learning. They undertake the teaching task of initiating, encouraging, maintaining and improving students' learning activities. Gagne's theory of learning conditions reminds teachers to pay attention to the external conditions of learners, create good teaching environment and conditions, and improve teaching quality.