Applying Dale's Cone of Experience to increase learning and retention: A study of student learning in a foundational leadership course

Abstract

The goal of this study will be to examine how Edger Dale's Cone of Experience is employed to positively impact student learning in a foundational leadership course. To accomplish this we will examine student projects in a foundational leadership course at Purdue in which students interactively evaluate leadership by creating surveys, summarizing the results and developing a leadership guidebook with practical recommendations. In addition, the authors will survey students who have completed this project and measure student achievement of learning outcomes as defined as what the student should know and realistically be able to do by the end of the course. This approach will focus on a self-assessment survey to gather in-depth understanding of learning and the reasons that student learning occurred as a result application of Edger Dale's Cone of Experience. The results will be the why and how of learning and retention, not just what. This method will produce information only on this particular course but general conclusions about the application of student projects in any course or discipline will be inferred. Our study will show that in the foundational leadership course effective learning was achieved by applying strategies at the bottom of the pyramid using direct, purposeful learning experiences that simulates “doing the real thing,” and represents reality or the closest things to real, every-day life.