Lesson 7

DIRECT PURPOSEFUL EXPERIENCES AND BEYOND

Introduction

-       After seeing instructional materials as a whole, let us single direct purposeful experiences as instructional materials, the most real in Dale’s Cone Experience Let’s learn how they can we  effectively use of instruction.

What are referred to as direct, purposeful experiences?

-       These are our concrete and firsthand experiences that make up the foundation of our learning. These are rich experiences that our senses bring from which we construct ideas, the concepts, the generalizations that give meaning and order to our lives (Dale, 1969). They are sensory experience.

 Example of Direct Activities

·         preparing meals

·         making a piece of furniture

·         doing power point presentation

·         performing a laboratory experiment

·         delivering a speech

·         taking a trip

Indirect Experiences are experiences of other people that we observed, read or hear about. They are not our own self-experience   but still experiences in the sense that use see, read and hear about them. They are not firsthand but rather vicarious experiences or indirect experiences.

Why are these direct experiences described to be purposeful?

-       Purposeful because the experiences are not purely mechanical, they are not a matter going through the motion. These are not “mere sensory excitation”.

·         They are experiences that are internalized in the sense that these experiences involved the asking of questions that have significance in the life of the person undergoing the experience.

·         These experiences are undergone in relation to a purpose, i.e. learning.

·         It is done in relation to a certain learning objective.

Where should these direct purposeful experiences lead as to?

-       Thesetitle of the lesson implies that these direct experiences must not be the period or the dead end we must be brought to higher plane.

What does imply to the teaching learning process?

·         First: Let us give our students opportunities to learn by doing let us immerse our students in the world of experience.

·         Second: Let us make use of real things as instructional materials for as long as we can.

·         Third: Let us help the students develop the five senses to the full, to heighten their sensitivity to the world.

·         Fourth: Let us guide our students so that they can draw meaning from their level of thinking.