Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience

2. “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

3. What is the Cone of
Experience?
What are the sensory
aids in the Cone of
Experience?
What are its
implication in
teaching?

4.  First introduced in
Dale’s 1946 book,
Audio-Visual Methods
in Teaching.
 Designed to “show the
progression of learning
experiences” (Dale (1969)
p. 108) from the
concrete to the
abstract
The Cone of Experience

5. Concrete Abstract

6. Direct and Purposeful
Experience
 Direct, First hand Experience
 Have a direct participation in the outcome
 Use of all our senses

7. Contrived Experience
 Models and mock-
ups
 “editing of reality”
 Necessary when
real experience
cannot be used or
are too
complicated

8. Dramatized Experience
 Reconstructed
experiences
 Can be used to simplify
an event or idea to its
most important parts
 Divided into two
categories
 Acting – actual participation
(more concrete)
 Observing – watching a
dramatization take place
(more abstract)

9. Demonstration
 Visualized explanation
of an important fact,
idea, or process
 Shows how certain
things are done

10.  Watch people do
things in real
situations
 Observe an event
that is unavailable in
the classroom
Field Trips

11.  Something seen by a
spectator
Two types
 Ready made
 Home-made
Exhibits

12.  Bring immediate interaction
with events from around
the world
 Edit an event to create
clearer understanding than
if experienced actual
event first hand
 Can omit unnecessary or
unimportant material
 Used to slow down a fast
process
 Viewing, seeing and
hearing experience
 Can re-create events with
simplistic drama that even
slower students can grasp
Educational Television and Motion
Pictures
Television Motion Picture

13. Recordings, Radio and Still
Pictures
Can often be understood
by those who cannot read
Helpful to students who
cannot deal with the
motion or pace of a real
event or television

14. Visual Symbols
 No longer involves
reproducing real
situations
 Chalkboard and
overhead projector the
most widely used
media
 Help students see an
idea, event, or process

15. Verbal Symbol
Two types
 Written words –
more abstract
 Spoken words – less
abstract

16. 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.

17. People always think differently.
Some may think in concrete
terms and some in abstract
terms. Concrete thinking refers
to the thinking on the surface
whereas abstract thinking is
related to thinking in depth.
Read more: Difference Between Concrete and Abstract Thinking | Difference Between | Concrete vs
Abstract Thinking http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-concrete-and-
abstract-thinking/#ixzz3f5hiHSMx

18. Different kind of sensory aid often overlap
and sometime blend into one another.
One kind of sensory experience is not
necessarily more educationally useful than
another. Sensory experiences are mixed and
interrelated

19. 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 the life

20. Do not use only one medium of
communication in isolation.
Rather use many instructional
materials to help the learner
conceptualize his/her
experience

21. Avoid teaching directly at the
symbolic level of thought without
adequate foundation of the
concrete. Learners’ concept will
lack deep roots in direct
experience.

22. When teaching, don’t get stuck
in the concrete. Strive to bring
our students to the symbolic or
abstract level to develop their
higher order thinking skills.

23. “These rootless experience will not have
the generative power to produce
additional concepts and will not enable
the learner to deal with new situations
that he/she faces” (Dale 1969)