Description. 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”.
The cone is diagramed and explained in the next sections.