Embedded Files
The Cone of Experience
The Cone of Experience
In his first edition of Audiovisual Methods in Teaching (1946), Dale introduced the ‘Cone of Experience’. The Cone placed different educational media and methods in a continuum from the most concrete experiences at the bottom to the most abstract at the top.
When a learner moves from direct and purposeful experiences to verbal symbols, the degree of abstraction gradually grows. And as a result, learners become spectators rather than participants.
Learners can see, handle, taste, touch, feel and smell the most purposeful experiences. By contrast, verbal symbols, such as use of words, speech or auditory language, at the peak of the Cone are highly abstract. This means they do not have a physical resemblance to the objects or ideas in question.
As such, the Cone of Experience explains the interrelationships of the various types of media and their individual ‘positions’ in the learning process. This makes it a valuable tool that helps instructional designers and L&D professionals incorporate the right audiovisual materials into their classroom or online training interventions.
Edgar Dale was born in 1900, and he grew up on a family farm in North Dakota, United States. He earned both his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of North Dakota and made his way as a teacher in a small rural school.
Dale completed his PhD at the University of Chicago and joined the Eastman Kodak Company. Nowadays simply known as Kodak, the company remains a dominant player in the photography industry.
This can be seen as the start of his research career. After all, Dale completed some of the earliest studies on learning from film while at Eastman Kodak Company.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse