Gagne’s Instructional Design in Vocational Training: Insights from A Bibliometric Analysis

Gagne’s instructional design framework has formed a cornerstone in educational research, with the systematic movement of learners from theoretical understanding to practical skill application. Through its Nine Events of Instruction, the framework provides a structured pathway that meets demands for diversity in educational contexts, especially in vocational training where competency-based learning and real-world application are paramount. The paper provides a bibliometric review of Gagne-related research into publication trends, geographic contributions, and thematic clusters. The findings show remarkable peaks in scholarly activity during the years 2023 and 2024, reflecting an increasing relevance of Gagne’s principles when it comes to tackling the complexities of hybrid and digital learning environments. Geographical disparities in the contribution of research works point to the dominance of high-income nations, headed by the USA, while developing contributors like Malaysia and Turkey show growth in influence toward the positive movement of global inclusiveness. Structured learning, skill development, and interdisciplinary innovation are major themes emerging through keyword co-occurrence mapping, while peripheral clusters represent developing areas such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence in instructional design. These findings point out the flexibility of Gagne and his potential to renew vocational education by embedding state-of-the-art technologies and collaboration of different disciplines. This study concludes by calling for a fair distribution of resources and the exploration of underrepresented themes to keep Gagne’s framework relevant to the changing needs of modern education. This research synthesizes bibliometric insights that indicate the Gagne instructional design model has remained very relevant in preparing learners for success in a rapidly changing global landscape.