The Cone of Experience

“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.”

-         Edgar Dale

INTRODUCTION

     After a discussion on the systems’ approach to instruction, let us tackle Edgar Dales’s Cone of Experience to get acquainted with various instructional media which form part of the systems’ approach to instruction.

     If you remember the 8 M’s of instruction, one element is media. Another is material. These 2 M’s (media, material) are actually the elements of this Cone of Experience to be discussed in this Lesson.

ABTRACTION

    The Cone of Experience is a visual model, a pictorial device that presents bands of experience arranged according to degree of abstraction and not degree of difficulty. The farther you go from the bottom of the cone, the more abstract the experience becomes.

Dale (1969) asserts that:

The pattern of arranged of the bands of experience is not difficulty but degree of abstraction – the amount of immediate sensory participation that is involved. A still photograph of a tree is not more difficult to understand than a dramatization of Hamlet. It is simply in itself a less concrete teaching material than the dramatization (Dale, 1969)

     Dale further explains that “the individual bands of the Cone of Experience stand for experiences that are fluid, extensive, and continually interact” (Dale, 1969). It should not be taken literally in its simplified form. The different kinds of sensory aid often overlap and sometimes blend into one another. Motion pictures can be silent or they can combine sight and sound. Students, may merely view a demonstration or they may view it then participate in it.

    Does the Cone of Experience mean that all teaching and learning must move systematically from base to pinnacle, from direct purposeful experiences to verbal symbols? Dale (1969) categorically says:

      … No. We continually shuttle back and forth among various kinds of experiences. Every day each of us acquires new concrete experiences – through walking on the street, gardening, dramatics, and endless other means. Such learning by doing, such pleasurable return to the concrete is natural throughout our lives – and at every age level. On the other hand, both the older child and the young pupil make abstractions every day and may need help in doing this well.

      In our teaching, then, we do not always begin direct experience at the base of the Cone. Rather, we begin with the kind of experience that is most appropriate to the needs and abilities of particular learner in a particular learning situation. Then, of course, we vary this experience with many other types of learning activities (Dale 1969).

     One kind of sensory experience is not necessarily more educationally useful than another. Sensory experiences are mixed and interrelated. When students listen to you as you give your lecturette, they do not just have an auditory experience. They also have visual experience in the sense that they are “reading” your facial expressions and bodily gestures.

     We face some risk when we overemphasize the amount of direct experience to learn a concept. Too much reliance on concrete experience may actually obstruct the process of meaningful generalization. The best will be striking a balance between concrete and abstract, direct participation and symbolic expression for the learning that will continue throughout life.

     It is true that the older a person is, the more abstract his concepts are likely to be. This can be attributed to physical maturation, more vivid experiences and sometimes greater motivation for learning. But an older student does not live purely in his world of sensory experience. Both old and young shuttle in a world of the concrete and the abstract.

     What are these bands of experiences in Dale’s Cone of Experience? It is best to look back at the Cone itself. But let us expound on each of them starting with the most direct.

     Direct purposeful experiences – These are first hand experiences which serve as foundation of our learning. We build up our reservoir of meaningful information and ideas through seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling. In the context of the teaching-learning process, it is learning by doing. If I want my student to learn how to focus a compound light microscope, I will let him focus one, of course, after I showed him how.

     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 the real-life accessible to the students’ perceptions and understanding. For instance a mock up of Apollo, the capsule for the exploration of the moon, enabled the North American Aviation Co. to study the problem of lunar flight.

     Remember how you were taught to tell time? Your teacher may have used a mock up, a clock, whose hands you could turn to set the time you were instructed to set. Simulations such as playing “sari-sari” store to teach subtracting centavos from pesos is another example of contrived experience. Conducting national elections are conducted is one more example of contrived experience.

     Dramatized experience ­– by dramatization, we can participate in a reconstructed experience, even though the original event is far removed from us in time. We relive the outbreak of the Philippine revolution by acting out the role of characters in a drama.

     Demonstrations – it is a visualized explanation of an important fact, idea or process by the use of photographs, drawings, films, displays, or guided motions. It is showing how things are done. A teacher in Physical Education shows the class how to dance tango.

     Study trips – these are excursions, educational trips, and visits conducted to observe an event that is unavailable within the classroom.

     Exhibits – these are displays to be seen by spectators. They may consist of working models arranged meaningfully or photographs with models, charts, and posters. Sometimes exhibits are “for your eyes only”. There are some exhibits, however, that include sensory experiences where spectators are allowed to touch or manipulate models displayed.

     Television and motion pictures – television and motion pictures can reconstruct the reality of the past so effectively that we are made to feel we are there. The unique value of the messages communicated by film and television lies in their feeling of realism, their emphasis on persons and personality, their organized presentation, and their ability to select, dramatized, highlight, and clarify.

     Still pictures, recordings, radio – these are visual and auditory devices which may be used by an individual or a group. Still pictures lack the sound and motion of a sound film. The radio broadcast of an actual event may often be likened to a televised broadcast minus its visual dimension.

     Visual symbols – these are no longer realistic reproduction of physical things for these are highly abstract representations. Examples are charts, graphs, maps, and diagrams.

     Verbal symbols – they are not like the object or ideas for which they stand. They usually do not contain visual clues to their meaning. Written words fall under this category. It may be a word for a concrete object (book), an idea (freedom of speech), a scientific principle (the principle of balance), a formula (e=mc²)

      What are the implications of the Cone of Experience in the teaching-learning process?

1.      We do not use only one medium of communication in isolation. Rather we use many instructional materials to help the learner conceptualize his/her experience.
2.      We avoid teaching directly at the symbolic level of thought without adequate foundation of the concrete. Learners’ concepts will lack deep roots in direct experience. Dale cautions us when he said: “these rootless experiences will not have the generative power to produce additional concepts and will not enable the learner to deal with the new situations that he faces” (Dale, 1969)
3.      When teaching, we don’t get stuck in the concrete. Let us strive to bring our students to the symbolic or abstract level to develop their higher order thinking skills.

     Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience is a visual representation of learning resources arranged according to degree of abstractness. The father you move away from the base of the cone, the more abstract the learning resources becomes. Arranged from the least to the most abstract the learning resources presented in the Cone of Experience are:

·        Direct purposeful experiences

·        Contrived experiences

·        Dramatized experiences

·        Demonstrations

·        Study trips

·        Exhibits

·        Educational television

·        Motion pictures

·        Recordings, radio, still pictures

·        Visual symbols

·        Verbal symbols

     The lines that separate the learning experience should not be taken to mean that the learning experiences are strictly delineated. The Cone of Experience should not be taken literally. Come to think of it. Even from the base of the Cone, which is direct purposeful experiences, we already use words – verbal symbols – which are the most abstract. In fact, we use words which are verbal symbols, the pinnacle of the cone, across the cone from top to bottom. Or many times our verbal symbols are accompanied by visual symbols, still pictures.

     Three pitfalls that we teachers, should avoid with regard to the use of the Cone of Experience are:

·        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 the development of our students’ higher thinking skills.