In watching the video of Prof Molenda, an iteresting thought came to mind. I hadn’t come across Dale’s Cone of Experience before in my career and so naturally, I wanted to see what it was all about. As I’m currently writing this, I showed it to two of my colleagues, both whom already hold a Ph. D. in Educational Leadership from Indiana State University, and neither of them had come across this particular model either.
Upon looking at it, my mind, and their minds as well immediately migrated towards Bloom’s Taxonomy. It seemed like a natural connection for one to make as Bloom’s has long been talked about in education circles as most teacher prep programs begin pushing Bloom early in their programming. I’m not sure why, but the next place my mind went was to wonder about their year of conception. Bloom’s was developed originally in 1956 and subsequently revisited in 2001 (Krathwhohl, 2002). It’s important to note the visuals included above are examples of the models and therefore also important to recognize that over the course of time, the advent of online material development has led to individuals taking liberties and changing the orginal look and feel of the models themselves.
Now, I was absolutely shocked when I discovered that Dale’s Cone of Experience has been in existence since 1946 (elearning Industry). From this information, the following questions arose in my head. What occured leading to the prominence of Bloom’s Taxonomy? Is Bloom’s model actually better? Could educators, designers, and learners benefit from a better understanding of Dale’s Cone of Experience?
Trust me, I understand the two models are not the say, nor are they saying exactly the same thing. However, at their heart, there is some great overlap between the two and I truly feel as though a conversation needs to take place at least highlighting the connection. While Dale’s Cone is specifically focused on remembering, one would easily be able to connect this with the retention of knowledge. Bloom’s tells us that to demonstrate the knowledge retention at the highest of levels is to be able to create something new, similar to Dale’s claim of that designing, performing, or doing something that is authentic has the same outcome.
References:
David R. Krathwohl (2002) A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview, Theory Into Practice, 41:4, 212-218,DOI: 10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2
eLearning Industry. (n.d.). Cone of Experience: What Really Is It? https://elearningindustry.com/cone-of-experience-what-really-is. (Accessed March 12, 2023).
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