Sometimes we put a lot of effort into learning in English, we read a lot of literature, attend lectures, watch films, listen to songs, and the information received refuses to be “remembered” to the extent that each of us counts on. This happens because the level of concentration on a particular type of activity gradually decreases, and sometimes it costs tremendous efforts to maintain it. Fatigue and abstraction are growing, and attention is falling. How to deal with it? How to choose the right technique in training?

In the late 60s of the last century, the world-famous professor Edgar Dale became famous for actively using various audio-visual tools and interactive practices in his teaching methods. He offered "cone of experience", which later formed the basis "pyramid of learning".

This discovery contains a chart of various ways of presenting information and the percentage of their effectiveness. It is worth saying that the numbers are approximate, and they were no longer identified by Professor Dale himself, but by his followers in the course of further study of the proposed concept. As in any theory, there are exceptions here, because the human psyche and capabilities always remain a purely individual trait.

Thus, the “cone of experience” designed by Dale looks like this:

So, the main provisions of the theory of Edgar Dale was the statement that listening to lectures and reading educational materials are least efficient way assimilation of information and dissolve in our memory in a fairly short time, or are perceived and assimilated with great difficulty.

The most efficient way in the study of materials on the subject is personal experience- that is, teaching, teaching others and actively using the learned material in life.

Most important tips, which can be distinguished based on the work of Edgar Dale, are listed as recommendations. You can practice them with friends and colleagues, as well as on your own.

1. One of the aphorisms attributed to Dale is the following statement:

"The professor knows no more than you, but his ignorance is better organized."

Write articles on websites and forums, make them into independent observations, join the discussion in the comments. You can extract from various works, putting them in one text, but try not just to copy sentence after sentence, but to build logically revised publications.

2. Give lectures, for example, in the circle of their friends who are also learning a foreign language. Agree on topics that everyone will prepare and create your own lecture hall. Discuss, join discussions. Give examples.

3. Vlog or create programs. This is one of the most difficult activities. It requires not only logical presentation, but also an interesting presentation. While preparing for such an “event”, you will be forced to study the material thoroughly.

4. And here is one of the most simple ways assimilation of information - discussion with friends. Offer, for example, to speak only in English on a regular walk, no matter what it takes. As for the theoretical side, expand the discussion, get a demonstration of practical examples, try to find out why this is so, draw analogies with other related or similar aspects in the language. For example, discuss the ending that appears on some words -s/ -es because it occurs in different parts speech. What do you know about ‘s?

5. Educate and be able to tell and practically demonstrate your abilities. As Dale himself believed, you need to be able to do what you are trying to explain to others, what you want to teach.

We wish you success in teaching and learning, active and interactive practice and high efficiency!

Victoria Tetkina

The Edgar Dale cone will allow employees to learn the maximum useful information– without lectures and reading textbooks

Do you want to train your employees in a bright and unconventional way to get the most out of the process? Analyze the cone of the famous American educator Edgar Dale! Details are in this article.

If you want a person to learn and develop, properly motivate him to do so. How exactly depends on the type of training.

If you need an employee to read a book, have a supervisor or an authoritative colleague recommend it. If you want to arouse interest in learning as such and develop a desire to constantly improve skills, show what it will give, how it will affect the success and efficiency of a specialist, how it will help him solve specific and increasingly ambitious business problems. Need to create a mentoring system? Look for experienced employees who enjoy teaching others. Raise the authority of these employees with the help of non-material motivation, competitions “for the best”. If there is a task to motivate an employee to “go into the unknown”, to take on a fundamentally new project, invite external experts and coaches.

You will come to this conclusion by studying the cone of Edgar DALE ( see picture below).

Now essentially

“Edgar Dale in 1969 identified the most effective ways of teaching. Edgar Dale concluded that:

• listening to lectures on a topic or reading materials on a subject is the least effective method learn something;
• teaching others and using what you learn in your own life is the most effective way to learn anything.

He presented the results of the research in the form of a "Cone of Learning" scheme. Edgar Dale taught his students the same educational material, but different ways. And then I analyzed their ability to recall the learned information after graduation. Although the cone is indeed based on the results of Dale's research, the percentages were calculated not by Dale, but by his followers as a result of their own research.

Have you come to the conclusion that teaching others and using the material you learn in your own life is the most effective way to learn something? That is, following this principle, we skip lectures and readings and immediately begin to teach others? I would not like to have such a teacher.

Answers to all questions could be found only in the English part of the Internet. And they were discouraging.

Let's start dancing from the stove

Back in 1946, Edgar Dale's book Audiovisual Methods in Teaching was published. It was in it that the author first introduced the Cone of Experience. Illustrations of the cone from the first, second and third editions of the book (1946, 1954, 1969):

Interestingly, it follows from the text of the book that the scheme created by the author has nothing to do with learning or memorization abilities. Essentially, the cone is a descriptive model, a classification system, not a prescription for how to properly plan learning.

The diagram shows successive levels of abstraction: words, the most abstract, at the top of the cone, and experience gained from real life, the most specific, is at the base.

Unfortunately, since the first edition theoretical model Dale took on a life of her own. The temptation to put it into practice was too great. Therefore, Dale specially supplemented the third edition of the book with the section "Some Possible Misconceptions" ("Some Possible Misconceptions"), in which, in particular, he warned against trying to believe that learning based on real experience is better than methods that are at a level with more abstraction.

By the way, we see that there are no figures in the figure, because the author did not conduct any practical research, and any statements to the contrary are false:

“Edgar Dale taught students the same learning material, but in different ways. And then I analyzed their ability to recall the learned information after graduation.”

Questions remain, how and where did the numbers associated with memorization come from?

Mystical figures were born earlier or simultaneously with the cone itself. And for some time they existed separately, lived their own lives. However, around 1970, someone had the "great" idea to combine the cone and the numerals. Dubious data overlaid on top of Dale's experience cone. Then the so-called pyramid of learning was born.

Denials and revelations of scientists have been undertaken since 1971. In 2002, a second wave of criticism arose, apparently related to the development of the Internet, when more and more people began to share false information.

Researchers, with admirable perseverance, have spent years trying to find the original source and understand who and how received experimental data on memorization. It turned out to be not so easy - all chains of links pointed to eight different sources:

• Edgar Dale
• Wiman & Meierhenry
• Bruce Nyland
• Various oil companies (Mobil, Standard Oil, Socony-Vacuum Oil)
• NTL Institute
• William Glasser
• British Audio-Visual Society
• Chi, Bassok, Lewis, Reimann, & Glaser (1989)

A detailed study of each of the sources did not allow them to be confirmed! As an example of an investigation, a small illustration from Keith E. Holbert and George G. Karady Removing an Unsupported Statement in Engineering Education Literature

The desire to develop and acquire new knowledge is not enough. It is very important to have an idea how to do this with maximum efficiency. The so-called schematic Edgar Dale's cone of learning gives an understanding of the effectiveness of various ways of obtaining knowledge. It demonstrates that the more we are involved in the process, the more successfully we absorb certain information. After reviewing the information below, you will be able to correctly prioritize the learning process.

The Edgar Dale cone clearly shows that theorists cannot learn something fast and succeed until they start putting what they know into practice. It is necessary to act even at the stage of obtaining some information.

An excerpt from the book of billionaire Donald Trump and the multimillionaire Roberta Kiyosaki says that in 1969 a study took place, the purpose of which was to evaluate the effectiveness of various methods of obtaining knowledge. As a result, the so-called "cone of learning" has been created, which clearly demonstrates that lectures and readings are the most inefficient way of learning information. In the same time practical work ranks first in efficiency. At the same time, methods that imitate real experience occupy an intermediate position. Unfortunately, the current education system still emphasizes lectures and reading. This is more than surprising, because the "cone of learning" has been known since 1969.

Edgar Dale provided educational material to his students different ways. After that, he conducted an analysis of their ability to restore the information received. As a result, he made the following conclusions:

• Listening to lectures and reading materials on a specific topic is the most inefficient way to absorb information;
• Teaching people and applying personal knowledge in practice is the most effective method learn something.

He concluded the results of the analysis in the form of a diagram that was called the learning cone of Edgar Dale. It was based on the results that Dale came up with, but the percentages were obtained by his followers, who did their own analysis.

Ignoring the fact that the Dale cone has insufficiently accurate data, it is actively used in the development of the most effective approaches to providing knowledge. This scheme gives an understanding of why some segments of the film are perceived and remembered by a person better than a book. Insofar as human brain perceives auditory and visual aspects more, it is better to deposit movie fragments in it.

Let's look at how you can effectively learn and fix certain information in memory.

1. First, there should be lectures. Although listening to them is one of the most ineffective teaching methods, lecturing as a teacher is a productive way to learn specific material.
2. Secondly, if you have a personal online blog, you can compile articles on your topic and create your own useful material.
3. Thirdly, you can start creating video programs. Without having your own website, you can publish your videos on portals such as Youtube.com. This method is quite effective, because you provide it not to a narrow circle of people, but to a huge multi-million audience.
4. Fourth, you have the opportunity to discuss the acquired knowledge with your acquaintances. At any time, you can bring up a specific topic for discussion and provide others with all your knowledge. If you discuss the material with a large number of interlocutors, the likelihood that you will restore it in your head after a while will increase significantly. Moreover, you can discuss online by visiting thematic forums, chat rooms or social networks.

In addition, whatever you teach others, you must practice in your own life. Only in this way will your knowledge be of use.

Do not take the cone of learning as a dogma. Each person is prone to a certain way of assimilation of information. What proves to be ineffective for most people may be a very productive way of learning for you.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

How many people remember after the training they have completed? The student on average remembers 10% of what he read, 20% of what he heard, 30% of what he saw ... 90% of what he did himself. Many people have come across these figures. They are given separately or often combined with the so-called pyramid of learning or cone of experience. And everything would be fine and wonderful if the entire Internet was not filled with these figures, and they themselves were not a deception and hoax.

The cone of experience, the cone of learning, or the pyramid of learning are very popular. They are often referred to in various articles, books, scientific papers and presentations. On the Internet, it is easy to find many pictures depicting a triangle, in which teaching methods are sequentially inscribed. It is stated that less effective ways of learning are indicated at the top of the triangle, and more effective ones at the bottom. The effectiveness of each method is confirmed by numbers showing what percentage of the data the student is able to remember.

Quote from Why We Want You to Be Rich by Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump:

“In 1969, a study was conducted within the framework of the educational system, which demonstrated the effectiveness various types learning. On the basis of the research materials, the "Cone of Learning" was created. It shows that the least productive means of learning is reading and lectures, and the most effective is practical work. Between them are methods that imitate real experience. Doesn't it seem paradoxical to you that our education system still uses mainly reading and lectures in the learning process? And this despite the fact that the “cone of learning” has been known since 1969!”

The problem is that the foundation of their reasoning is built on quicksand and can collapse at any moment. Actually, now we will arrange this catastrophe.

I'm tormented by vague doubts

Bitter truth

The search for the truth about pyramids and cones in the Russian-speaking Internet did not give positive results. Everywhere, as in a mantra, approximately the same thing is repeated:

“Edgar Dale in 1969 identified the most effective ways of teaching. Edgar Dale concluded that:
- listening to lectures on a topic or reading materials on a subject is the least effective way to learn something;
Teaching others and using what you learn in your own life is the most effective way to learn anything.
He presented the results of the research in the form of a "Cone of Learning" scheme. Edgar Dale taught students the same educational material, but in different ways. And then I analyzed their ability to recall the learned information after graduation. Although the cone is indeed based on the results of Dale's research, the percentages were calculated not by Dale, but by his followers as a result of their own research.

Have you come to the conclusion that teaching others and using the material you learn in your own life is the most effective way to learn something? That is, following this principle, we skip lectures and readings and immediately begin to teach others? I would not like to have such a teacher.

Answers to all questions could be found only in the English part of the Internet. And they were discouraging.

Let's start dancing from the stove.

Back in 1946, Edgar Dale's book Audiovisual Methods in Teaching was published. It was in it that the author first introduced the Cone of Experience. Illustrations of the cone from the first, second and third editions of the book (1946, 1954, 1969):

P.S

To be honest, the article is not at all about the pyramid of learning and not even about the Dale cone. This is a small illustration of a big problem. It is significant how people en masse believe in information of a dubious nature. In information in which there are experts with the results of their supposedly conducted research. Although, of course, it is too difficult to resist the flow of false data. Especially when they pile on you from everywhere: from books, reports, articles by respected people or even scientists.

I hope that the article will make you think at least for a second and take a slightly more critical look at the world around us.

The desire to develop and acquire new knowledge is not enough. It is very important to have an idea how to do this with maximum efficiency. The so-called schematic Edgar Dale's cone of learning gives an understanding of the effectiveness of various ways of obtaining knowledge. He demonstrates that the more we are involved in the process, the more successfully we assimilate certain information. After reviewing the information below, you will be able to correctly prioritize the learning process.

The cone of Edgar Dale clearly shows that theorists will not be able to quickly learn something and succeed until they begin to apply the knowledge they have in practice. Need to act at the stage of obtaining some information.

An excerpt from the book of billionaire Donald Trump and the multimillionaire Roberta Kiyosaki says that in 1969 a study took place, the purpose of which was to evaluate the effectiveness of various methods of obtaining knowledge. As a result, the so-called learning cone”, which clearly demonstrates that lectures and readings are the most inefficient way of assimilating information. At the same time, practical work ranks first in terms of efficiency. At the same time, methods that imitate real experience occupy an intermediate position. Unfortunately, the current education system still emphasizes lectures and reading. This is more than surprising, because the "cone of learning" has been known since 1969.

Edgar Dale provided his students with educational material in a variety of ways. After that, he conducted an analysis of their ability to restore the information received. In the end he did following conclusions:

• Listening to lectures and reading materials on a specific topic is the most inefficient way to absorb information;
• Teaching people and putting personal knowledge into practice is the most effective way to learn something.

He concluded the results of the analysis in the form of a diagram that was called the learning cone of Edgar Dale. It was based on the results that Dale came up with, but the percentages were obtained by his followers, who did their own analysis.

Ignoring the fact that the Dale cone has insufficiently accurate data, it is actively used in the development of the most effective approaches to providing knowledge. This scheme gives an understanding of why some segments of the film are perceived and remembered by a person better than a book. Since the human brain perceives more auditory and visual aspects, it is the movie fragments that are better deposited in it.

Let's look at how can effectively study and fix certain information in memory.

1. Firstly should be lectured. Although listening to them is one of the most ineffective teaching methods, lecturing as a teacher is a productive way to learn specific material.
2. Secondly, if you have a personal online blog, you can compile articles on your topic and create your own useful material.
3. Thirdly, you can start making video programs. Without having your own website, you can publish your videos on portals such as Youtube.com. This method is quite effective, because you provide it not to a narrow circle of people, but to a huge multi-million audience.
4. Fourth, you have the opportunity to discuss the acquired knowledge with your friends. At any time, you can bring up a specific topic for discussion and provide others with all your knowledge. If you discuss the material with a large number of interlocutors, the likelihood that you will restore it in your head after a while will increase significantly. Moreover, you can discuss online by visiting thematic forums, chat rooms or social networks.

In addition, whatever you teach others, you must practice in your own life. Only in this way will your knowledge be of use.

Do not take the cone of learning as a dogma. Each person is prone to a certain way of assimilation of information. What proves to be ineffective for most people may be a very productive way of learning for you.