1. ) Reflection on Dale's Cone of Experience.

Dale's cone of experience is a tool to help instructors make decisions about

resources and activities. This is a cone shaped tool designed from the lowest to
highest level of learning activity and their outcomes. Dale stated that the farther
you go from the bottom the more abstract the learning experience become.
Learning comes in a variety of tools, strategies, guidelines and
considerations. But the foremost consideration is the learner itself. Learners are
as varied as the teaching learning strategies, and they have certain learning
needs that suit to one of these activities. In considering learning tools, the
teacher must evaluate if he/she has achieved his/her learning objective.
Questions also arise in evaluation, like "Where will the students' experience with
this instruction fit on the cone?"; "How far it is from the real life experiences?";
"How does the learning experience further explained the texts or information on
the book?"; "What and how many senses of the learners was used?"; and "Does
the learning tool used enhance their learning?". These are just some of the
questions after using learning tools in the teaching and learning process.
Dale's cone of experience differentiates the learning skills from most concrete
to abstract. Reading and hearing gives only 10-20% of knowledge, and could
result into defining, listing, describing and explaining of terms. Seeing and
hearing- like viewing images, watching videos, attending exhibits and sites give
30-50% knowledge retention that results in application, demonstration and
practice of knowledge gained. Learning activities involved uses more of audio
visual experiences. Saying and writing gives 70% knowledge. Activities like
participating in hands-on workshop and designing collaborative lessons are some
of the activities under this learning strategy. This results in being able to analyze,
design, create and evaluate application of knowledge to real life experience. The
most concrete of the learning tools of Dale's cone is "learning by doing", and this
gives 90% knowledge. This is stimulating or modeling a real life experience, and
performing a presentation. In this portion of the learning cone, one has been
truly understood what the knowledge he has gained is, and enables to apply the
knowledge in real life.
Included in Dale's Cone of Experience is the definition of other learning
experience- direct purposeful, contrived, dramatized experience, demonstrations,
study trips, exhibits, television, still pictures, recording, radio, visual symbols and
verbal symbols. These experiences have been defined with given outcomes in his
cone of experience. Direct purposeful experience, is the learning by doing. It is
letting your student do the real stuff, after equipping them of the knowledge
needed to do the thing. Contrived experience, is using mock ups or replicas in
teaching. This enables students to be accessible to real life, and further deepens
their perception and understanding. Dramatized learning, is reconstructing the
past event and acting it out to somehow experience what it is in the original
event. Demonstration, is acting out the knowledge in photograph, drawing,
displays or films. Example, in a PE class, a teacher will execute the basic in ballet
dancing. Study trip and exhibits consists of experiencing and seeing the event.
These experiences mostly requires outside classroom activities. Television, still
pictures, recording and radio could be used in individual learning and in
classroom learning. This offers a highlight, clarity and organized presentation of
the knowledge. Visual symbols are still of use but no longer realistic when
consideration is experiencing the real life. Lastly is the verbal symbols, which do
not contain visual clues but it is a concrete word for the concrete object.
Dale's cone of experience can be a good tool in evaluating your teaching
strategies and the learner's learning outcomes. It could also help you in deciding
the more appropriate tool to use.