Continue to Cone Dale of Experience

Today I would like to continue the discussion about Cone Dale of Experience. Last post, I talked about how learning could be more effective if we used more series of senses. 

However, another point of cone is that there are abstraction degrees in the cone. What does it mean?

Well, if we take from the bottom to the top, the way we learn is in abstraction pattern, that is from the concrete to the abstract. If learner learn in the bottom one level, they learn in concrete way, in direct way. They directly experience the thing they learn, do a real thing in order to learn, such as doing a presentation, do a simulation, etc. In other side, if the learners learn from the top level, they learn in abstract way or indirect way, such read, hear, and see. They only learn from the verbal symbols such as words, audio, and visual, they do not do a real thing in this case.

However, it does not mean that learn in the bottom level is quite effective than the top. It depends on who the learners are, and what level they are. Young learners will effectively learn in direct way, because it is hard for ages of them to learn in such an abstract way. That's why Dale said that they will only get 10 % from the information. However, for advance learners, they have been able to learn in abstract way, such as only read or hear. However, the best way to acquire more information is by combining both concrete and abstract way. 

-be continued- 

DALE'S CONE OF EXPERIENCE

DALE’S CONE OF EXPERIENCE

Dale cone of experience is a cone that describes and explains by Edgar Dale about the levels of what people generally remember and acquiring from their modals of learning. Dale explains us through the cone that the more we involve our series of senses (see, hear, do) the more we will remember and learn something. It means that if we learn only involve one sense in learning such as reading, seeing, hearing, the percentage of what we are acquiring is more less than if we combined those senses such as seeing and hearing, saying and writing, or even doing. That’s way the cone moves from the top toward the bottom, there is an increase in learning because moving to the bottom we engaged series of senses.

Dale believes that learners retain more information of what they do as opposed as what they heard, read, or observed. These then lead us to the theory that say “learning by experience”, which we call it as “experiential learning” or “action learning. According to Dale, instructors should design instructional activities that build upon more real-life experiences.

Dales’ cone of experience is a tool to help instructors make decisions about resources and activities. The instructor can ask the following:

• Where will the student’s experience with this instructional resource fit on the cone? How far is it removed from real-life
• What kind of learning experience do you want to provide in the classroom? 
• How does this instructional resource augment the information supplied by the textbook? 
•  What and how many senses can students use to learn this instructional material? 
•  Does the instructional material enhance learning?

The utility of the cone in teaching learning process is that even the teacher and the students can create an effective activity in the classroom to achieve the maximum outcome of learning. As what have been explained before, that the more we engaged or combined the series of senses, the more we will achieve the outcome of learning. 

However, it depends to the learners in using these modals of learning. If the learners are young learners, it would be better if we use the activities from the bottom of the cone, where learning is directly done by the learners which involve their series of senses, because its hard for them to learn in singular sense. However, if the learners are old or advance learners, the use of the modals from the top is good too, because they have been able to learn in that way. 

References:

·         Anderson, H. Milia, P.Hd. Dale’s Cone of Experience. Assistant Dean for Education Innovation, University of Kentucky. University of Kentucky.