The Cone of Experience

Dale’s Cone of Experience is a visual model that is composed of eleven (11) stages starting from concrete experiences at the bottom of the cone then it becomes more and more abstract as it reach the peak of the cone. Also, according to Dale, the arrangement in the cone is not based on its difficulty but rather based on abstraction and on the number of senses involved. The experiences in each stages can be mixed and are interrelated that fosters more meaningful learning.

According to one of the principles in the selection and use of teaching strategies, the more senses that are involved in learning, the more and the better the learning will be but it does not mean that concrete experience is the only effective experience that educators should use in transferring knowledge to the learner. Like what was mentioned above, the experiences in each stages can be mixed and are interrelated thus, a balance must be achieved between concrete and abstract experiences in order to cater the and address all the need of the learner in all the domains of development and in order to help each learner in their holistic development.

Moreover, the generalization about the Cone of Experience that was presented above is not enough. Actually, we should try to go deeper in each of the component of the cone since Educational Technology basically revolves around the Cone of Experience. By going one-by-one, starting from concrete to abstract, we will understand more the different components of the cone that will help us in grasping the real meaning of educational technology.

 In this lesson, I have learned that in teaching learning process, there are many ways or steps to be followed. That when teaching, the teacher should not get stuck in the concrete experience but he should also strives to bring the students to the symbolic or abstract level to develop their higher thinking skills. That the teacher must use many instructional materials to help the students  conceptualize his experiences. That the  cone of experience proposed by EDGAR Dale is very useful in the teaching learning process. That aside from Dale,Jerome Burner's three-tiered model of learning is  also important. That according to him  students will likely learn best through a sequence of action, (enactive), followed by a series of illustrations, (iconic) and finally, through a series of symbols (symbolic).

In my real life, I can apply my learning through organizing my experiences and activities accordingly.