Cone of Experience by Edgar Dale

1. CONE OF EXPERIENCE
EDGAR DALE

2. Dale theorized that learners retain
more information by what they “do” as
opposed to what is heard, read, and
observed.
Today, this learning by doing has
become known as “experiential
learning” or “action learning”.

3. Dale’s argument was not that concrete
experiences are better than more
abstract ones. He believed that any
and/or all the approaches could and
should be used depending on the needs
of the learner.

4. The Cone of Experience is a
visual model, a pictorial device
that presents bands of
experience arranged according
to degree of abstraction.

5. DEGREE OF ABSTRACTION
- Amount of immediate sensory
participation. From the more complex
all the way to the least that requires the
use of senses.

6. Sensory Participation or Perceptual Learning Styles:
• Print( seeing printed/written words)
• Aural(listening)
• Haptic(touch/grasp)
• Interactive(verbalization/communication)
• Kinesthetic(body movements)
• Olfactory(smell and taste)
• Visual(seeing visual depictions such as pictures and
graphs)

8. The cone of experience does not mean that all
teaching and learning must move
systematically from base to pinnacle

9. LEVELS OF CONE OF
EXPERIENCE

10. • involves practicing
with objects.
Enactive experience
involves concrete,
immediate action
and use of the
senses and body.

11. Action-learning techniques
result in up to 90% retention.
People learn best when they use
perceptual learning stylesꟷ
sensory based.

12. • involves
interpreting images
and drawings.
Iconic experience is
once removed from
the physical realm
and limited to two
or three senses.

13. • involves reading or
hearing symbols. In
symbolic experience,
action is removed
nearly altogether,
and the experience is
limited to thoughts
and ideas.

14. IMPLICATIONS OF CONE
OF EXPERIENCE

15. 1. We do not use only one medium of communication in
isolation. Rather we use many instructional materials to
help the student conceptualize his experience.

16. 2. We avoid teaching directly at the symbolic level of
thought without adequate foundation of the concrete.
“The 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)

17. 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.

18. “TEACHERS ARE SUBSIDIARY TO
THE PROCESS OF LEARNING FOR
IN THAT PROCESS THERE ARE 2
FACTORSꟷ A CHILD IN THE ONE
HAND AND HIS WORLD IN THE
OTHER HAND.’’