Learning Effectively: Dale's Cone of Experience (Pyramid of Learning)

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Learning Effectively: Dale's Cone of Experience (Pyramid of Learning)

🔥 Confucius (±550 BC, Chinese philosopher) taught mankind:

"I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand."

Perhaps this pearl of wisdom inspired Edgar Dale in 1947 to conceive his "Cone of Experience", later referred to as the "Pyramid of Learning".

The Cone of Experience (Dale)

The Cone is a visual model composed of 11 layers of experiences/ways of learning. It is starting with "Direct, Purposeful Experiences" at the bottom of the cone and becoming more and more abstract as it reaches "Verbal Symbols" at the peak of the cone. On the right is a good, early interpretation by Edward Counts, Jr. of the Dale's Cone of Experience that oddly shows only 10 layers instead of 11. For the original Cone, see further below.

The Cone reflects the average retention rate for various methods of teaching and learning. The further you progress down the cone, the greater the segment and the greater the learning and the more information is likely to be retained.
According to Dale, the arrangement in the Cone is not based on its difficulty, but rather on abstraction (or concreteness) and on the kind and number of senses that are involved.

The exact 11 original experiences as described by Dale in 1947 were:

• Verbal Symbols (words, text)(least effective)
• Visual Symbols (pictures)
• Recordings, Radio (audio), Still Pictures (photos)
• Motion Pictures (film)
• Educational Television
• Exhibits
• Study Trips
• Demonstrations
• Dramatic Experiences (acting, role playing)
• Contrived Experiences (cases, models, simulations)
• Direct Purposeful Experiences (action learning)(most effective)

According to Dale, the less abstraction and the more senses are involved, the more meaningful and deep the learning will be. Note that the experiences in each stage can be interrelated and mixed to foster even more meaningful learning.

The Pyramid of Learning

Over time, the ideas behind the Cone and the Learning Pyramid and their graphical representation were improved to reflect new thinking and technological developments. Here's a particularly good graphic.
Of course, the percentages in the picture are only indicative, definitely not exact, and not mentioned by Dale. Dale indeed stated that the Cone is not offered as a perfect or flawless picture and is not to be used literally.
Instead, the Cone was designed as a visual aid. The aim of the model was to help explain the interrelationships of the various types of audio-visual materials. The model also does show their individual 'positions' and relevance in learning processes.

Key Takeaways from the Learning Pyramid

There are at least 3 main lessons you can learn from the Learning Pyramid model:

1. There is a certain approximate order in the effectiveness/efficiency of learning (and teaching) methods:
   
   • Listening (to lectures) and Reading (text) are least effective.
   • Discussing with others, Practicing and Teaching others are a lot more effective.
2. Very effective is the combination of the various learning tools and audiovisual methods. Remember this whether you are a teacher or a manager communicating important things to your workforce.
3. Most effective is learning in a direct, (inter)active, purposeful way.

💡It's interesting to compare the above 3 things with What people think of 12manage.
💡Participate actively in our forum discussions. This will speed up your learning about management considerably.

Source:
Dale E. (1947) "Audio-Visual Methods in Teaching", The Dryden Press.

		Comments by date▼ Comments by rating Rating
		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	The Original 1946/1947 Picture of Dale's Cone of Experience By the way I'd like to include the exact original 1946/1947 picture of The Cone of Experience as per Dale. It is nowhere to be found on the internet. Can someone photograph/scan it from the article/book and email it to me? I'll be happy to include it here. Many thanks. Jaap. In the mean time the 1947 original cone was sent to me anonymously. Thanks.

		2 Anonymous
	Don't Focus All Learning on Direct Purposeful Experiences Must all teaching and learning move towards the base of the cone? According to Dale (1969) this is not recommended. For example, young children use many simple extractions-verbal symbols. Before entering school they have already mastered the meaning of at least 2500 words, or verbal symbols, each one of which is an abstraction. The fact that something is an abstraction does not necessarily make it difficult to understand. Actually there are wide variations in degree of difficulty. Too much reliance on concrete experience may actually obstruct the process of meaningful generalization. Certainly a mathematician could not develop a system of higher mathematics by counting on his fingers. Source: Dale E., "Audiovisual Methods in Teaching", p. 128-130

		2 Anonymous
	Individual Learning Styles and Preferences I'd like to add some info about individually preferred learning styles. Dale focused on explaining why some methods of learning are GENERALLY more effective than others. Another idea is that of INDIV...

		2 Melchiorre Calabrese Business Consultant, Italy
	The Cone of Dale and the Best Ways of Teaching I don't think we can be categorical on this subject. It all depends on two factors: 1. The object of learning; for example, it is one thing to learn an art or craft, such as sculpture or painting, an...

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	The How and Use of Learning A couple of factors strike me in this topic. The cone indicates methods and media but presumably their effectiveness will, at least in part, depend on the individual's preferred method of learning (w...

		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	How and When People Learn in the Best Way @Maurice Hogarth: Thank you for your valuable ideas. Indeed as per your example children are incredibly good at learning in their early years (mainly through copying what they see in their parents) bu...

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Remembering and Memorising @Jaap de Jonge: take your point re "remembering". I was thinking of the (paraphrased) point made (I think by Einstein) that "I don't need to memorise things; I need to remember where to find things w...

		2 Norman Dragt Netherlands
	Dale's Cone of Experience is an Instrument for Teachers As Maurice Hogarth correctly points out the cone only talks about instructional instruments, so you could say it is an instrument for teachers and trainers to use when structuring training or lessons....