MODULE 5

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

Focus Questions:

 What is the Cone of Experience?

 What are the sensory aids in the Cone of Experience?
 What are its implications to teaching?

INTRODUCTION
After a discussion on the system’s 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.

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
 MODULE 5

ACTIVITY

A. Study the Cone of Experience given below. Analyze how the elements are arranged from
the bottom upward or from top down.

Figure 3. The Cone of Experience

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
 MODULE 5

ANALYSIS

Discussion Questions:

1. How are the experiences of reality arranged in the Cone of Experience?

2. Which way of is closest to the real world?
3. Which way is farthest from the real world, in this sense most abstract?
4. Is the basis of the arrangement of experiences difficulty of experience or degree
of abstraction (the amount of immediate sensory participation involved)?
5. Do the bands of experience (e.g. direct experiences, contrived experience, etc.)
follow a rigid, inflexible pattern? Or is it more correct to think that the bands of
experience in the Cone overlap and bend into one another?
6. Does the Cone of Experience device mean that all teaching and learning must
move systematically from base to pinnacle?
7. Is one kind of sensory experience more useful educationally than another?
8. Can we overemphasize the amount of direct experience that is required to learn a
new concept?
9. Are the upper levels of the Cone for the older student and the lower ones for the
child?
10. What is the Cone of Experience?
11. What is the learning aids found in the Cone of Experience?

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

Dale further explains that “the individual bands of the Cone of Experience 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

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
 MODULE 5

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 your 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 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 experience- These are first hand experiences which serve as the
foundation of our learning. We build up our reservoir of meaningful information and ideas
though seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling. In the context of the teaching-learning
process, it is learning 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.

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
 MODULE 5

Contrived experiences – In here, we make us 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 American 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.

Dramatized experience – 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.

Demonstration – 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 excursions and visits conducted to observe an event that is
unavailable within the classroom.

Exhibit – 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 spectator are allowed to touch and 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 may be used by
an individual or a group. Still pictures lack the sound and motion of a sound film. The radio
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 (freedom of
speech), a scientific principle (the principle (the principle of balance), a formula
(e=mc2)

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

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
 MODULE 5

1. We do not use only medium of communication in isolation. Rather we use many

instructional materials to help the student conceptualize his experience.
2. We avoid teaching directly at the symbolic level of thoughts without adequate foundation
of the concrete. Students’ 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.

APPLICATION

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 SYMBOLIC

SYMBOLS

Second THROUGH A SERIES OF ICONIC

ILLUSTRATIONS

First THROUGH A SEQUENCE OF ACTIONS ENACTIVE

SYMBOLIC

Hence . . . increasing difficulty

ICONIC
INCREASING
ABSTRACTION

ENACTIVE

Figure 4. Bruner’s Three- Tiered Model of Learning

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
 MODULE 5

Source: Philip T. Torres. Learning Excellence. (1994), Mandaluyong, MM: Training

Systems Associates, Inc.

It is highly recommended that a learner proceed 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.

Question: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?

Which learning aids in Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience correspond/s to each tier of
level in Bruner’s model? Write your answers on the spaces provided.

 SYMBOLIC

 ICONIC

 ENACTIVE

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
 MODULE 5

B. A Math professor asked a Math student specializing in Math why (a + b)2 = a2 + 2ab + b2

She proceeded with: ( a + b) ( a + b)

Is this a concrete explanation of the equation? If not, what is a concrete representation of

the equation?

C. Small Group Work

If you teach a lesson on the meaning of 1/2 , 1/3, and ¼, how will you proceed if
you follow the pattern in Dale’s Cone of Experience beginning with the concrete moving
toward the abstract.

SUMMING UP
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 cone, the more abstract the learning resource becomes. Arranged from the least to the
most abstract the learning resources presented in the one 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.

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
 MODULE 5

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.

MAKING THE CONNECTION

1. After a lesson on the Cone of Experience, can you now explain why our teachers in
Literature discourage us from reading only comics or illustrated comic version of novels
which can be read in pocketbooks?
2. How does the dictum in philosophy “there is nothing in the mind that was not first in the
senses” relate to what you learned from the Cone of Experience?
3. 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?
4. When Dale formulated the Cone of Experience, computers were not yet part educational
or home settings so they are not part of the original Cone. The 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?

PS Personal Postscript – The Cone of Experience: A Reminder

If we want out students to remember and master what was taught, we cannot ignore what the
Cone of Experience reminds us: to make use of combination of as many learning resources as we
to end in an abstract? Or should the abstract lead us again to the concrete and the concrete to the
abstract again? So learning is from the concrete to the abstract, from the abstract to the concrete
and from the concrete to the abstract again? It becomes a cycle.

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1