EDGAR DALE’S

CONE OF
EXPERIENCE
Schacter and Fagnano (1999) claims that
technology increases students’ learning
understanding and achievement but also
augments motivation to learn,
encourages collaborative learning an
supports the development of critical
thinking and problem-solving skills.
 The Cone of Experience

• Edgar Dale:
– 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.
 The Cone of Experience

• What is the cone of experience?

• What are the sensory aids in the cone
of experience?
• What are its implications to teaching?
 Verbal
Symbols
Visual
Symbols
Recordings, Radio,
Still Pictures

Motion Pictures

Educational TV

Exhibits

Study Trips

Demonstrations

Dramatized Experiences

Contrived Experiences

Direct Purposeful Experiences

 Arrangement
• Not difficulty but DEGREE OF ABSTRACTION
• Amount of immediate sensory participation

• Does the cone of experience mean that all

teaching and learning must move
systematically from base to pinnacle?
• “…No. We continually shuttle back and
forth among various kinds of
experiences. Every day, each of us
acquires new concrete experiences…
We begin with the kind of experience
that is most appropriate to the needs
and abilities…”
Direct Purposeful Experiences
Direct Purposeful Experiences
• These are first-hand experiences which
serve as a foundation of our learning. It is
learning-by-doing.

• Example: In Mathematics, first-hand

puzzles are given to the students specially
designed for geometry classes.
 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 real-life accessible to the
students.
 Model

Games Mock Up

CE
Simulation Specimen

Object
 Dramatized Experiences
• By dramatization, we can participate in a
reconstructed experience, even though the
original event is far removed from us in
time.

• Example: We relive the outbreak of the

Philippine Revolution by acting out the role
of a character in a drama
 Demonstrations
• It is a visualized explanation of an important
fact, idea or process by the use of photographs,
drawings, films, displays and guided motions. It
is showing how things are done.

• Example: The teacher can demonstrate to his

students how the different measuring
instruments are used with accuracy.
 Study Trips
• These are excursions and visits conducted
to observe an event that is unavailable
within the classroom.

• Example: Students are accompanied to go

outside the classroom and visit places
where mathematical concepts can be
applied like the Air Force.
 Exhibits

• These are displays to be seen by

spectators. They may consist of working
models, arranged meaningfully.
Sometimes, they are for your eyes only.
Television and Motion Pictures
• These can reconstruct the reality of the
past so effectively that we are made to
feel we are there.

• What are examples of films that you can

use to teach in your subject area?
Television and Motion Pictures
Pre-viewing
Preparation
Activities

Post-viewing
Viewing
Activities
Social psychologist Craig A. Anderson gave this
testimony to the US senate on March 21, 2000:

“The Media violence effect on aggression is bigger than

the effect of exposure to lead on IQ scores in the
children, the effect of calcium intake on bone mass,
the effect of homework 0on academic achievement, or
the effect of asbestos exposure on cancer… high
exposure to media violence is a major contributing
cause of the high rate of violence in modern US
Society.”

Let us use the TV appropriately and moderately so that

we can take advantage of its advantage and mitigate its
disadvantages.
Still Pictures, Recordings, Radio
• These are visual and auditory devices
which may be used by an individual or a
group. Still pictures lack sound and
motion, and recordings and radio lack the
visual dimension.

• Example: Sounds can be of great use in

the study of rhythms and tempos.
 Visual Symbols
• These are no longer realistic
reproduction of physical things for these
are highly abstract representations.

• Example: Maps for geography and some

graphic organizers of thought.
 Verbal Symbols
• They are not like the objects or ideas for
which they stand. Written words fall
under this category.

• Example: Presenting the different

formulae used in getting the area of
different plane figures.
 Application
• Harvard psychologist, Jerome Bruner,
presents a three-tiered model of learning.
Third Through a series of symbols SYMBOLIC

Second Through a series of illustrations ICONIC

First Through a series of actions ENACTIVE

• If you teach a lesson on the meaning of
1/2, 1/3 and 1/4, how will you proceed
if you follow the pattern in Dale’s cone
of experience beginning with the
concrete moving towards abstract?
 Pitfalls of a Teacher
• 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
HOTS.
 Reading Assignment
• Visit the website:
http://dctedtech1sy1617.blogspot.com/2016/
07/lesson-5-cone-of-experience-cone-is.html
• Read the rest of the lessons for each part of the
cone of experience. Make sure you do your best
to understand the contents. For questions,
raise them on Thursday. No question means
everything is clear.