cone of experience by Edgar Dale

Dale’s Cone of Experience

Edgar Dale – served on the Ohio state University faculty from 1929 until 1920. He was an internationally renowned pioneer in utilization of audio- visual materials in instruction.

The Cone of Experience is a visual model meant to summarize Dale’s classification system for the varied types of mediated learning experiences.

In his book ‘Audio visual methods in teaching’ – 1957, he stated that the cone was not offered as a perfect or mechanically flawless picture to be taken absolutely literally. It was merely designed as a visual aid to help explain the interrelationships of the various types of audio-visual materials, as well as their individual ‘positions’ in the learning process.

He said “The cone device is a visual metaphor of learning experiences, in which the various types of audio-visual materials are arranged in the order of increasing abstractness as one proceeds from direct experiences”

BACKGROUND

Years ago an educator named Edgar Dale (Educational Media, 1960), often cited as the father of modern media in education, developed from his experience in teaching and his observations of learners the "cone of experience”. The cone's utility in selecting instructional resources and activities is as practical today as when Dale created it.

People generally remember:

• 10% of what they read

• 20% of what they hear

• 30% of what they see

• 50% of what they hear and see - video

• 70% of what they say or write

• 90% of what they say as they do something

Interpreting the cone:

• The cone is based on the relationships of various educational experiences to reality.

• The bottom level of the course, “direct purposeful experiences”, represents reality or the closest things to real, everyday life.

WHAT IS THE CONE OF EXPERIENCE?

•It was first introduced in Dale’s 1946 book, audio-Visual teaching

•It was designed to “show the progression of learning experiences” from the concrete to abstract.

CONCRETE vs. ABSTRACT

In concrete learning:

• First-hand experience

• Learner has some control over the outcome

• Incorporate the use of all five senses

In abstract learning:

• Difficulty when not enough previous experience exposure to a concept

• Every level of the Cone uses abstract thinking in some ways

Levels of the cone of experience:

• Enactive – direct experiences

• Direct , Purposeful – direct, firsthand experience; use of all our senses
• Contrived – models and mock-ups; “editing of reality”
• Dramatized – reconstructed experiences; can be used to simplify an event or idea to its most important parts

• Iconic – pictorial experiences – progressively moving toward greater use of imagination.

• Demonstrations – visualized explanation of an important fact, idea, or process.
• Study trips – watch people do things in real situations.
• Exhibits – something seen by a spectator.
• Educational television - bring immediate interaction with events from around the world.
• Motion pictures – can omit unnecessary or unimportant material.
• Recordings, radio, still pictures – can often be understand by those who cannot read; helpful to students who cannot deal with the motion or pace of a real event or television.

• Symbolic – highly abstract experiences – very little immediate physical action.

• Visual symbols – no longer reproducing real situations
• Verbal symbols – two types: written words – more abstract

Spoken words – less abstract