Module 7: Direct, Purposeful Experiences and Beyond

Overview

After seeing instructional materials as a whole, let us single out direct, purposeful experiences as
instructional materials. The most real in Dale's Cone of Experience. Let's learn how they can be
effectively used for instruction.

Objectives

1. Illustrate direct, and purposeful experiences

2. Identify what direct and purposeful experiences leads the learners to a meaningful
learning

Pretest
1. Read the following testimonies, and then answer the questions below.

"The meanings of negative discrimination index and positive discrimination index became crystal
clear to me only when we did an item analysis of our test items."- Grade VI teacher

My husband and children used to do computer job for me who made me totally dependent on
them, The problem was they were not always around to help me with my reports, lecture notes, etc. To
redeem myself from my helplessness, I forced myself to learn, first of all encoding, then sending e-mail
and surfing the Internet. What encouraged me was my seven- year old granddaughter could do what I was
not capable of doing. Now I feel liberated. I can encode and print my lectures, send emails, surf the
Internet, and do PowerPoint, lecture presentation, even when no one is around to help only after I had to
do these things myself. - Graduate School Professor

My boss assigned me to put the transparencies on the plate of the overhead projector while he
delivered his lecture on stage. It turned out that the-first transparency was not positioned upright for the
audience. I repositioned the transparency but it was still inverted. I felt nervous and the woman in the
audience who was seated nearby Came to my rescue. I have never forgotten that experience but having
been assigned the task repeatedly, I can say I am now expert at the OHP. - Secretary to the Dean

"It was only when I went to the Manila zoo that I learned that a giraffe is that tall and an elephant is
that big." -
Grade 4 pupil

Discussion Questions:

• Do you have a similar experience?

• Think of a skill you have. How did you acquire it?
• Think of a concept. How did you learn it?
• How did the four narrators learn their respective skills/ concept? Analyze.
Learning Focus

Whatever skills or concepts we have did not come out of the blue. We spent hours doing the activity
by ourselves in order to acquire the skill. The same thing is through with the four (4) narrators above.
They learned the skills by doing. The Graduate School professor had to do the computer task herself to
learn the skill. The Secretary learned from her mistake and repeatedly doing the task correctly enabled
her to master the skill. The Grade IV pupil got a clear concept of the size o the elephant and height of
giraffe after seeing with her eyes the real elephant and giraffe. For the Grade VI teacher, the statistical
concepts of positive and negative discrimination indices became fully understood only after the actual
experience of item analysis. All these experiences point- to the need to use, whenever we can, direct,
purposeful experiences in the teaching-learning process.

What are referred to as direct, purposeful experiences? These are our concrete and firsthand
experiences that make up the foundation of our learning. These are the rich experiences that our senses
bring from which we construct the ideas, the concepts, the generalizations that give meaning and order to
bur lives. (Dale,1969). They are sensory experiences.

These direct activities may be preparing meals, making a piece of furniture, doing powerpoint
presentation, performing a laboratory experiment, delivering a speech, taking a trip, or making a piece of
furniture.

In contrast, indirect experiences are experiences of other... people that we observe, read or hear
about. They are not our own self- experiences but still experiences in the sense that we see, read and hear
about them. They are not firsthand but rather vicarious experiences.

Climbing a mountain is firsthand, direct experience. Seeing it done in films or reading about it is a
vicarious, substitute experience. It is clear, therefore, that we can approach the world of reality directly
through the senses and indirectly with reduced sensory experience. For example we can make bake black
forest cake or see it done in the tv or read about it.

Why are these direct experiences described to be purposeful? Purposeful because the
experiences are not purely mechanical. They are not a matter of going through the motion. These are not
"mere sensory excitation'. They are experiences that are internalized in the sense that these experiences
involve the asking of questions that have significance in the life of the person undergoing the direct
experience.

They are also described as purposeful because these experiences are undergone in relation to a
purpose, i.e. learning. Why do we want our students to have a direct experience in conducting an
experiment in the laboratory? It is done in relation to a certain learning objective.

Where should these direct, purposeful experiences lead us to? The title of this Lesson "Direct,
Purposeful Experiences and Beyond" implies that these direct experiences must not be the period or the
end. We must be brought to a higher plane. The higher plane referred to here is the level of generalization
and abstraction.

The Grade IV pupil's zoo experience of the elephant and giraffe as given in the ACTIVITY phase
of the lesson enables him to understand clearly and visualize correctly an elephant and a giraffe upon
reading or hearing the words "elephant" and "giraffe". The Cone of Experience implies that we move
from the concrete to the abstract (and from the abstract to the concrete as well.) Direct experiences serve
as the foundation of concept formation, generalization and abstraction. John Dewey (1916) has made this
fundamental point succinctly:
 An ounce of experience is better than a ton of theory because it is only in experience that any
theory has vital and verifiable significance. An experience, a very humble experience, is capable of
generating and carrying any amount of theory (or intellectual content), but a theory apart from an
experience cannot be definitely grasped as a theory. It tends to become a mere verbal formula, a
set of catchwords used to render thinking, or genuine theorizing unnecessary and impossible.

If direct, purposeful experiences or firsthand sensory experiences make us learn concepts

and skills effectively, what does this imply to the teaching-learning process? First, let us give our
students opportunities to learn by doing. Let us immerse our students in the world of experience. Second,
let us make use of real things as instructional materials for as long as we can. Third, let us help the
students develop the five senses to the full to heighten their sensitivity to the world. Fourth, let us guide
our students so that they can draw meaning from their firsthand experiences and elevate their level of
thinking. As mentioned in Lesson 5, let us not be tempted to get stuck to the concrete and fail to bring up
our students' to the higher level of thinking process

Direct experiences are firsthand experiences that serve as the foundation of learning. The opposite
of direct experiences are indirect or vicarious experiences.

Direct experiences lead us to concept formation and abstraction. We should not end our lessons
knowing only the concrete. We go beyond the concrete by reaching the level of abstract concepts.

Learning Activities

Activity 1: Here is an approximation of how much persons learn through the five senses.

• Connect this graph to sensory experience for maximum learning. Take note of the number of
senses involved starting with the base of the Cone. Does this graph relate to what you learned about
direct purposeful experiences? Do you see any relation or connection?
• Any principle you learned from the Principles of Teaching that connects to learning by
direct experience?
• Our lack of understanding is often due to our lack of attention. Our lack of attention is
usually due to a failure in the use of our senses. Connect this to firsthand or sensory
experience.
Activity 2: Paragraph Interpretation

Emerson wrote:

Seven men went through a field, one after another. One was a farmer, he saw only the grass;
the next was an astronomer, he saw the horizon and the stars; the physician noticed the standing
water and suspected miasma; he was followed by a soldier, who glanced over the ground, found it
easy to hold, and saw in a moment how the troops could be disposed; then came the geologist, who
noticed the boulders and the sandy loam; after him came the real-estate broker, who bethought him
how the line of the house lots should run, where would be the driveway, and the stables. The poet
admired the shadows cast by some trees, and still more the music of some thrushes and a meadow
lark.
What does this paragraph imply about peoples' interpretation of the concrete? How can we
arrive at a more accurate interpretation of what we experience?

Posttest

1. Apply the concept of direct experiences to the college courses you have taken. Were
there missed opportunities for direct experiences? If yes, what are they?

2. Go over the Re-structured Basic Education Curriculum (RBEC). Find out which
competencies can be best taught through direct experience.