2021-10-20

Edgar Dale and the Cone of Experience

 


How can teachers use audiovisual materials to promote learning that persists? How can audiovisual materials enable students to enjoy learning through vicarious experience? These were two of the many important research and development questions addressed by an extraordinary educational technology pioneer, Edgar Dale. 

Although he is perhaps best remembered today for his often misinterpreted “Cone of Experience,” Dale made significant contributions in many areas as evidenced by just a few of the titles of the many books he wrote during his long lifespan (1900-1988), including: How to Appreciate Motion Pictures (1933), Teaching with Motion Pictures (1937), How to Read a Newspaper (1941), Audiovisual Methods in Teaching (1946, 1954, 1969), Techniques of Teaching Vocabulary (1971), Building a Learning Environment (1972), The Living Word Vocabulary: The Words We Know (1976), and The Educator’s Quotebook (1984).


Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience

In 1946, An American Edgar Dale introduced the Cone of Experience, also known as the Learning Pyramid .

The bottom of the Cone represented “purposeful experience that is seen, handled, tasted, touched, felt, and smelled” (Dale, 1954, p. 42) . In contrast, at the top of the Cone, verbal symbols (i.e., words) and messages are highly abstract. Dale (1969) pointed out that the broad base of the Cone illustrated more effective learning by direct experience .


Dale, E. (1933). How to appreciate motion pictures. New York: Macmillan Company.
Dale, E. (1935). The content of motion pictures. New York: Macmillan Company.
Dale, E. (1937). Teaching with motion pictures. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.
Dale, E. (1941). How to read a newspaper. Chicago: Scott Foresman & Company.
Dale, E. (1946). Audiovisual methods in teaching. New York: Dryden Press.
Dale, E. (1954). Audiovisual methods in teaching (Revised ed.). New York: Dryden Press.
Dale, E. (1967). Can you give the public what it wants? New York: World Book Encyclopedia and Cowles Education Corporation.
Dale, E. (1969). Audiovisual methods in teaching (3rd ed.). New York: Dryden Press.
Dale, E. (1972). Building a learning environment. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Foundation.
Dale, E. (1984). The educator’s quotebook. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa.
Dale, E., & O’Rourke, J. (1971). Techniques of teaching vocabulary. Elgin, IL: Dome.
Dale, E., & O’Rourke, J. (1976). The living word vocabulary: The words we know. Elgin, IL: Dome.
Dale, E., & O’Rourke, J. (1971). Techniques of teaching vocabulary. Elgin, IL: Dome.


Learning Pyramid

Learning Pyramid (Adapted from National Training Laboratories Bethel, Maine, USA)

Subsequently the followers modified Dale’s original cone of experience to Learning pyramids , which replaced levels of experience with learning activities, namely, lecture, reading etc. The chart above presented the average retention rate of seven learning activities.

Lecture, Reading, Audio/Visual, and Demonstration, with an average retention rate of 5%, 10%, 20%, and 30%, respectively, were regarded as passive learning. At the bottom of the pyramid, Discussion Group, Practice by Doing, and Teach Others increased the average retention rate from 5% to 50%, 75% and 90% respectively.

Although the learning pyramid was not based on evidence based study, many medical education literature cited it . Simulation training is the “direct experiences” in Dale’s Cone of Experience and “practice by doing” in the learning pyramid, so as to increase the retention rate of the participants.

Ken Master. Edgar Dale's Pyramid of Learning in medical education: Further expansion of the myth. Medical Education. 2020;54:22–32.
Lalley, J. P. & Miller, R.H. (2007): “The learning pyramid: Does it point teachers in the right direction?” Education 128(1):64-79.https://pressbooks.pub/lidtfoundations/chapter/edgar-dale-and-the-cone-of-experience/

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