LESSON 5 – The Cone Of Experience
“The cone is a visual analogy, and like all analogies, it
does not bear an exact an detailed relationship to the complex elements it
represents.” – Edgar Dale
ABSTRACTION:
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 arrangement 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 of 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 with 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.
Is it 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 abstract ideas just a child does
not live only in the world of sensory experience. Both old and young shuttle in
a world of the concrete and the abstract.
What are these bands of experience 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 the foundation of our learning. We build up our reservoir of
meaningful information and ideas though seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and
smelling. In the context of the teaching-learning process, it is leaning by
doing. If I want my student to learn how to focus a compound light microscope,
I will let him focus one, 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 of Apollo, the capsule for the exploration
of the moon, enabled the North America 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.
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 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,
dramatize, highlight, and clarify.
Still pictures, Recordings, Radio – These are visual and
auditory devices 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 objects 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)
