Dale’s Cone of Experience is a model that incorporates several theories related to instructional design and learning processes. During the 1960s, Edgar Dale theorized that learners retain more information by what they“do” as opposed to what is “heard”, “read” or “observed”. His research led to the development of the Cone of Experience. Today, this “learning by doing” has become known as “experiential learning” or “action learning”
According to Dale’s research, the least effective method at the top, involves learning from information
presented through verbal symbols, i.e., listening to spoken words. The most effective methods at the bottom,
involves direct, purposeful learning experiences, such as hands-on or field experience. Direct purposeful
experiences represents reality or the closet things to real, everyday life.
