CONE OF LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Cone of experience
• visual analogy to show the progression of learning
experiences from direct First hand participation to
pictorial representation and on the purely abstract
symbolic expression.
• The base of the cone represents the teaching methods
which have strongest long lasting impact on the
audience.
• It provides them with an opportunity to involve
maximum number of senses with a chance to do the
things themselves.
• As we move to the top, the learning experiences
becomes more indirect a abstract with lesser degree of
involvement of different senses.
• In the 1960’s the research of Edgar dale found
that levels of effectiveness in learning are directly
related to the participation of the student.
• He developed a cone shaped model that
represents the retention rates in students for
different methods of course representation. In
this he is explaining the inter relationships of the
various types of audio-visual materials, as well as
their individual “position” in the learning process.
 Purpose
• Audio-visual aids are used to improve
teaching, i.e., to increase the concreteness,
clarity and effectiveness of the ideas and skills
being transferred. They enable the audience
to Look, Listen and Learn (by doing); to learn
faster, to learn more, to learn thoroughly and
to remember longer.
• We learn:
• 1% through taste
• 1.5% through touch
• 3.5% through smell
• 11% through hearing
• 83% through sight
 Senses

Aspects Sight Hearing Touch Smell Taste

Learning 75% 13% 6% 3%

Perception 75% 15% 3.5% 3.5%

Attention 87% 7% 3.5% 1.0%

RetentionTelling Showing Telling+sh - -

alone alone 72% owing 85%
70%
Remember Read 10% Hear 20% See 30% Hear + Say+say do
see 50% 70% + 90%
Edgar dale has given a model of cone
of experience
• 10% of what they read
• 20% of what they hear
• 30% of what they see
• 50% of what they see & hear
• 70% of what they say & write
• 90% of what they say and do
• In this cone each division represents a stage
between the two extremes direct experience at
the base, and pure abstraction at the apex. (The
bands on the cone are not rigid divisions).
• The verbal symbol provides the lowest amount of
learning and so it is put as the smallest and on
the top.
• Direct purposeful experience provides better
learning and hence is indicated by the largest
band at the base.
• All the experiences that human beings derive
are mainly from 3 sources:
• Direct sensory contact that involves doing
• Pictures or some other forms of relation of
objects which involves observing
• Oral or printed words which are symbolic
 Verbal
symbols

Visual symbols

Radio, recordings

Educational TV, Motion, Still

pictures
Exhibition/museum

Field trips/study tours

Demonstrations

Dramatic experiences

Contrived experiences

Direct purposeful experiences

EDGAR DALES’ CONE OF LEARNING EXPERIENCES

 Direct purposeful experience

• It represents reality as it gives firsthand

experience . ‘An ounce of experience is better
than a tone of theory. It is the unabridged
version of the itself, with three elements
directness, purposefulness, and responsibility
for the outcome. eg: experiential course-
hands on experience, .g., making a piece of
furniture pouching, cultivating any crop
 Contrived experience

• It is an imitation of reality. It is like a working

model, which is replica of reality and differs from
the original in either size or in complexity. A
contrived experience in an “editing” or reality,
differing or not from the original in size, in
complexity or in both e.g., models of animals,
mock-ups of machinery, objects, specimens. E.g.:
watershed model, heart model, model of
machines.
 Dramatic representation
• it is a means by which certain real events are
represented. One can get as close to reality as
possible. participating in a reconstructed
experience E.g.: puppet show, plays, drams,
puppet shows, various forms of dramatization.

• Demonstration:
• in this form the student gets the experience by
seeing how certain things are performed by the
teacher.
• Field trips/Study tours:
• it is an on the spot study of the aspect by bringing the
students face-to-face with reality. It is a bridge
between the college /office/visitors and community.
Ex. Field visits

• Exhibition/ museums:
• a planned display of models, speciments, charts,
posters etc., presented to public view for instruction,
judging in a competition, advertising or entertainment.
outside world is brought in to the classroom in the
form of exhibits and concrete representation of things.
An exhibit consists of working models, charts, replicas,
specimens etc.-ATIC
 Educational television, motion & still
pictures
• TV brings the real event as it actually happens.
The motion pictures can dramatize events
effectively and make the experiences as close to
reality as possible. A motion picture omits
unnecessary details and presents only necessary
aspects. They provide the visual experience. Still
pictures may be Non-projected (for individual
use) e.g. photographs, illustrations. Or Projected
(for group use) e.g., Photographs and illustrations
(used in opaque projector), slides, filmstrips.
• Radio & recordings:
• are very cost effective means of information transmission
through the communication one way only. Recordings – on
disc, tape, or wire They provide only auditory experience.
•
• Visual symbols:
• communication is by means of visual symbols. They tend to
promote a keen interest and better understanding of
concepts. E.g.: charts, graphs, maps, photographs, pictures.
e.g. flat maps, chalkboards, sketches, cartoons, posters,
diagrams, charts, graphs, bulletin boards, flash cards,
flannel graphs They are abstract substitutes of reality.
 Verbal symbols
• it may be a word, an idea or a concept or a
scientific principle, a formula, verbal symbols
may be spoken & written. A person spends 10-
11 hours every day in verbal designations that
bear no physical resemblance to the objects or
ideas for which they stand. These are used
together with every other material on the
“cone of experience”. e.g.: conversation,
speeches, letters, newspapers, magazine, and
mail.