Dale’s Cone of Experience

Description. Dale’s Cone of Experience is a model that incorporates several theories

related to instructional design and learning processes. During the 1960s, Edgar Dale
theorized that learners retain more information by what they “do” as opposed to what is
“heard”, “read” or “observed”. His research led to the development of the Cone of
Experience. Today, this “learning by doing” has become known as “experiential learning” or
“action learning”. The cone is diagramed and explained in the next sections.

HOW CAN INSTRUCTORS USE THE

https://obsidianlearning.com/bl

CONE OF EXPERIENCE? og/2017/07/what-is-the-cone-

of-experience.html

According to Dale’s research, the least effective method at the top, involves learning
from information presented through verbal symbols, i.e., listening to spoken words.
The most effective methods at the bottom, involves direct, purposeful learning
experiences, such as hands-on or field experience. Direct purposeful experiences
represents reality or the closet things to real, everyday life.

the cone charts the average retention rate for various methods of teaching. The
further you progress down the cone, the greater the learning and the more
information is likely to be retained. It also suggests that when choosing an
instructional method it is important to remember that involving students in the
process strengthens knowledge retention.

It reveals that “action-learning” techniques result in up to 90% retention. People learn

best when they use perceptual learning styles. Perceptual learning styles are sensory
based. The more sensory channels possible in interacting with a resource, the better
chance that many students can learn from it. According to Dale, instructors should
design instructional activities that build upon more real-life experiences.

THE REAL CONE OF

1. Verbal Symbols (TEXT)
Absolute abstraction. We can't get much
further away from reality than reading
about it on paper or screen. Verbal
symbols bear no resemblance to the
objects or ideas they stand for. However,
they readily convey an endless range of
subject matter terminology, concepts,
principles, formulas, and other
knowledge.
-It prevents symptoms of irritation –
burning, redness, or flaking
4.Motion Pictures (VIDEOS,
ANIMATIONS)
The art or process of making
movies with drawings, computer
graphics, or photographs of static
objects, including all techniques
other than the continuous filming of
live-action images.
EXPERIENCE
PRACTICE: Read this word: jablko
Fun word, huh? It means apple in 3. Still Pictures, Radio,
Slovak, my mother tongue. The Recordings (PHOTOS,
letters J-A-B-L-K-O and A-P-P-L-E
PODCASTS, AUDIO)
don't look, sound, smell, taste, or
feel anything like actual fruit. What A feast for the eyes OR ears.
they do share is a common Level 3 represents unisensory
meaning that native Slovak/English
speakers learn at a very young
media that we can experience in
age. no fixed order—photographs
2. Visual Symbols: Charts, Graphs, Maps, etc. (+ DIAGRAMS, INFOGRAPHICS) and audio recordings.
Graphic substitutes for literal reality.
-If everyone could examine numbers like Ben Affleck in The Accountant, charts
and graphs would serve little purpose. To recognize patterns and relationships
PRACTICE: Click the stock photo of a jablko to open
in numeric data, most of our brains prefer the visual interpretability of bars, its Wiktionary page. Then play the audio clip of its
lines, and scatterplots. pronunciation.
-Of course, visual symbolism isn't just for money and statistics. Flowcharts Did combining textual,
convert stages of operation into basic shapes and arrows—org charts do the visual, and auditory inputs
same for what people do and who they report to.
-Diagrams and schematics reduce the assembly, operation, and repair of strengthen the connection
concrete objects into simple illustrations free of irrelevant detail. Parts of the
between abstraction and
earth? Maps. Events from the past? Timelines. Just about any reality we need to
explain clearly can be easier to understand with visual symbolism. meaning? If not, repetition,
repetition, repetition!
5. Exhibits
Meaningful displays with limited
handling. Levels 5 through 7 open
the door for—but don't necessarily
let in—an expanded range of
sensory and participatory
experiences. While some exhibits are
specifically designed for
interactivity, others restrict learners
to look but don't touch.
1. 6. Field Trips
Sights and sounds of real-world settings.
Aside from the occasional opportunity to
hop in a fire truck or milk a cow, the main
activity for field trippers is observing
from the sidelines.

PRACTICE: Either individually or with a partner, roleplay the following

7. Demonstrations 8. Dramatic Participation (ROLEPLAY
scenario in which a non-Slovak speaker desperately needs a specific piece of
This is how it works and/or how you fruit: EXERCISES)
do it. Like the two previous levels, Your Slovak friend has abandoned you at his parents' new country cottage, Reconstructing situations for
where you have just awoken from an extended, absinthe-and-jetlag-induced
demonstrations may or may not slumber. You would kill to bite into a crisp juicy apple.You wander into the
instructional purposes.
include an element of participation. kitchen only to discover that the brand-new residence has yet to be stocked In general terms, a role play exercise is
In some learning situations, seeing with anything edible. While wobbling back to your cave, you plow torso-first used to assess your “fit” to the job at
into your Slovak friend's mother. Of course, she speaks not a word of
how to do something is of little value English.After an agonizing exchange of gibberish and hand gestures, you hand, by simulating real life situations,
without trying it oneself. In others, figure out that she is going to the market and asking if you have any requests. in which either the assessors at the
Luckily enough, the one thing your craving is the only word you know in
either the demonstration alone is assessment centre or hired actors take
Slovak...On a notepad or sheet of paper, write the word apple in Slovak. Then
enough or hands-on activity is hold it up and show it to your friend's mother as you enunciate the word and part in the simulation. There are many
logistically unfeasible. slowly nod. different types of role play exercises
and these are tailored to specific jobs.
9. Direct Purposeful Experiences (HANDS-ON PRACTICE)
Concrete reality. At last we hit the base of the cone—
PRACTICE: State the Slovak word for apple. Then go grab the
activities in which learners "do the real thing." nearest apple and repeat the word as you touch, smell, and taste
On a sensory level, I think Dale himself (1946) summed it up the apple. (Mentally repeat it while you chew the apple.)
So you learned something, right? At a minimum, how to say
best: “jablko”, and you’ve retained its meaning. And hopefully you’ve
It is the rich, full-bodied experience that is the bed-rock [sic] also learned (if you didn’t know it already), that while
of all education. It is the purposeful experience that is seen, microlearning, mobile learning, attractive design, artificial
intelligence, and virtual or augmented reality can be useful
handled, tasted, felt, touched, smelled. It is the unabridged tools….the single most important aspect of the learning
version of life itself—tangible experience, which we commonly experience should always be…the learner and the experiences we
as learning professionals craft for them.
refer to as "something you can get your fingers on,"
"something you can sink your teeth into,