Module #5

Prof Ed 7/8Page 1 of 7

WEST COAST COLLEGE,INC.

PIO DURAN, ALBAY

TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING

AND LEARNING 1

The Cone of Experience

The cone is a visual analogy, and like all analogies, it does not bear an
exact and detailed relationship to the complex elements it represents.
-Edgar Dale

Property of:_________________________
Course, Year & Class: __________________

Instructor: Delmea L. Tolosa

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INTRODUCTION
After a discussion on the systems’ approach to instruction, let us tackle
Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience to get acquainted with various instructional media
which form part of the system’s approach to instruction.
If you remember the 8 M’s of instruction, one element is media. Another is
material. These 2 M’s (media, material) are actually the elements of this Cone of
Experience to be discussed in this Lesson.

LESSON PROPER

Verbal
Symbols
Visual
Symbols

Recordings, Radio,
Still Pictures

Motion Pictures

Educational Television

Exhibits

Study Trips

Demonstrations

Dramatized Experiences

Contrived Experiences

Direct Purposeful Experiences

The Cone of Experience is a visual model, a pictorial device that presents

bahds of experience arranged according to degree of abstraction and not degree
of difficulty. The farther you go from the bottom of the cone, the more abstract
the experience becomes.

Dale (1969) asserts that:

the pattern of arrangement of the bands of experience is not difficulty but
degree of abstraction the amount of immediate sensory participation that is
involved. A still photograph of a tree is not more difficult to understand than a
dramatization of Hamlet. It is simply in itself a less concrete teaching material
than the dramatization (Dale, 1969).
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Dale further explains that “the individual bands of the Cone of Experiehce
stand for experiences that are fluid, extensive, and continually interact” (Dale,
1969). It should not be taken literally in its simplified form. The different kinds of
sensory aid often overlap and sometimes blend into one another. Motion pictures
can be silent or they can combine sight and sound. Students may merely view a
demonstration or they may view it then participate in it.

Does the Cone of Experience mean that all teaching and learning must move
systematically from base to pinnacle, from direct purposeful experiences to verbal
symbols? Dale (1969) categorically says:

…No. We continually shuttle back and forth among various kinds of

experiences. Every day each of us acquires new concrete experiences -through
walking on the street, gardening, dramatics, and endless other means. Such
learning by doing, such pleasurable return to the concrete is natural throughout
our lives -and at every age level. On the other hand, both the older child and the
young pupil make abstractions every day and may need help in doing this well.
In our teaching, then, we do not always begin with direct experience at the
base of the Cone. Rather, we begin with the kind of experience that is most
appropriate to the needs, and abilities of particular learner in a particular learning
situation. Then, of course, we vary this experience with many other types of
learning activities (Dale, 1969).

One kind of sensory experience is not necessarily more educationally useful

than another. Sensory experiences are mixed and interrelated. When students
listen to you as you give your lecturette, they do not just have an auditory
experience. They also have visual experience in the sense that they are “reading”
your facial expressions and bodily gestures.

We face some risk when we overemphasize the amount of direct experience

to learn a concept. Too much reliance on concrete experience may actually obstruct
the process of meaningful generalization. The best will be striking a balance
between concrete and abstract, direct participation and symbolic expression for
the learning that will continue throughout life.

It is true that the older a person is, the more abstract his concepts are
likely to be. This can be attributed to physical maturation, more vivid experiences
and sometimes greater motivation for learning. But an older student does not live
purely in his world of abstract ideas just as a child does not live only in the world
of sensory experience. Both old and young shuttle in a world of the concrete and
the abstract.

 What are these bands of experience in Dale’s Cone of Experience? It is best to

look back at the Cone itself. But let us expound on each of them starting with the
most direct.

 Direct purposeful experiences-These are first hand experiences which

serve as the foundation of our learning. We build up our reservoir of
meaningful information and ideas through seeing, hearing, touching, tasting
and smelling. In the context of the teaching-learning process, it is learning
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by doing. If I want my student to learn how to focus a compound light

microscope, I will let him focus one, of course, after I showed him how.
 Contrived experiences- In here, we make use of a representative models or
mock ups of reality for practical reasons and so that we can make the real-
life accessible to the students’ perceptions and understanding. For instance
a mock up of Apollo, the capsule for the exploration of the moon, enabled
the North Americarn Aviation Co. to study the problem of lunar flight.

 Remember how you were taught to tell time? Your teacher may have used a
mock up, a clock, whose hands you could turn to set the time you were
instructed to set. Simulations such as playing “sari-sari” store to teach
subtracting centavos from pesos is another example of contrived
experience. Conducting election of class and school officers by simulating
how local and national elections are conducted is one more example of
contrived experience.

 Dramatized experiences- By dramatization, we can participate in a

reconstructed experience, even though the original event is far removed
from us in time. We relive the outbreak of the Philippine revolution by acting
out the role of characters in a drama.

 Demonstrations- It is a visualized explanation of an important fact, idea or

process by the use of photographs, drawings, films, displays, or guided
motions. It is showing how things are done. A teacher in Physical Education
shows the class how to dance tango.

 Study trips- These are excursioris, educational trips, and visits conducted
to observe an event that is unavailable within the classroom.

 Exhibits- These are displays to be seen by spectators. They may consist of

working models arranged meaningfully or photographs with models, charts,
and posters. Sometimes exhibits are “for your eyes only”. There are some
exhibits, however, that include sensory experiences where spectators are
allowed to touch or manipulate models displayed.

 Television and motion pictures- Television and motion pictures can

reconstruct the reality of the past so effectively that we are made to feel
we are there. The unique value of the messages communicated by film and
television lies in their feeling of realism, their emphasis on persons and
personality; their organized presentation, and their ability to select,
dramatize, highlight, and clarify.

 Still pictures, Recordings, Radio These are visual and auditory devices
which may be used by an individual or a group. Still pictures lack the sound
and motion of a sound film. The radio broadcast of an actual event may often
be likened to a televised broadcast minus its visual dimension.

 Visual symbols- These are no longer realistic reproduction of physical things

for these are highly abstract representations. Examples are charts, graphs,
maps, and diagrams.

 Verbal symbols- They are not like the objects or ideas for which they stand.
They usually do not contain visual clues to their meaning. Written words fall
under this category. It may be a word for a concrete object (book), an idea
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(freedom of speech), a scientific principle (the principle of balance), a

formula (e=mc2)

What are the implications of the Cone of Experience in the teaching-learning

process?
1. We do not use only one medium of communication in isolation. Rather we
use many instructional materials to help the learner conceptualize his/her
experience.
2. We avoid teaching directly at the symbolic level of thought without
adequate foundation of the concrete. Learners’ concepts will lack deep roots
in direct experience. Dale cautions us when he said: “These rootless
experiences will not have the generative power to produce additional
concepts and will not enable the learner to deal with the new situations that
he faces” (Dale, 1969)
3. When teaching, we don’t get stuck in the concrete. Let us strive to bring
our students to the symbolic or abstract level to develop their higher order
thinking skills.

Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience is a visual representation of learning

resources arranged according to degree of abstractness. The farther you move
away from the base of the cone, the more abstract the learning resource becomes.
Arranged from the least to the most abstract the learning resources presented in
the Cone of Experience are: direct purposeful experiences contrived experiences
dramatized experiences demonstrations study trips exhibits educational television
motion pictures recordings, radio, still pictures visual symbols verbal symbols
The lines that separate the learning experience should not be taken to mean
that the learning experiences are strictly delineated. The Cone of Experience
should not be taken literally. Come to think of it. Even from the base of the Cone,
which is direct purposeful experiences, we already use words verbal symbols which
are the most abstract. In fact, we use words which are verbal symbols, the
pinnacle of the cone, across the cone from top to bottom. Or many times our verbal
symbols are accompanied by visual symbols, still pictures.

Three pitfalls that we, teachers, should avoid with regard to the use of the Cone
of Experience are:
 using one medium in isolation.
 moving to the abstract without an adequate foundation of concrete
experience. .
 getting stuck in the concrete without moving to the abstract hampering the
development of our students’ higher thinking skills.
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YOUR TURN!
Write/Encode your answers on a separate long bond paper.
A. Harvard psychologist, Jerome S. Bruner, presents a three-tiered model of
learning where he points out that every area of knowledge can be presented and
learned in three distinct steps. Study his model of learning given below:

Third THROUGH A SERIES OF SYMBOLS SYMBOLIC

Second THROUGH A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS ICONIC

First THROUGH A SEQUENCE OF ACTIONS ENACTIVE

Hence…increasing difficulty
INCREASING
SYMBOLIC
ABSTRACTION
ICONI C

ENACTIVE

It is highly recommended that a learner proceeds from the ENACTIVE to

the ICONIC and only after to the SYMBOLIC. The mind is often shocked into
immediate abstraction at the highest level without the benefit of a gradual
unfolding.

Questions:
1. Are the implications of the Cone of Experience in the teaching-learning process
the same things that are recommended by Bruner’s three-tiered model of learning?
2. Which learning aids in Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience correspond/s to each
tier or level in Bruner’s model?

B. How does the dictum in philosophy “there is nothing in the mind that was not
first in some way through the senses” relate to what you learned from the Cone of
Experience?

C. Alfred North Whitehead said: “In the Garden of Eden, Adam saw the animals
before he named them. In the traditional system, children name the animals before
they see them. ” How would you relate this remark to the Cone of Experience?

D. When Dale formulated the Cone of Experience, computers were not yet a part
educational or home settings so they are not part of the original Cone. The
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computer technology actively engages the learner, who uses seeing, hearing and
physical activity at the keyboard as well as range of mental skills. Where will the
computer be on the Cone?