A common assumption within the learning profession is that people who “do” remember/retain more knowledge than people who just “read” or “listen” or “see.” While this may be correct, we also assume that the following numbers associated with this are accurate:
- Reading – 10%
- Seeing – 20%
- Hearing – 30%
- Seeing & hearing – 50%
- Collaboration – 70%
- Doing – 80%
I recently read a blog by psychologist Will Thalheimer challenging these numbers. He has dug into the research behind these numbers and has had people who were cited for the research deny that they ever asserted this! In short, he claims these numbers are a fraud–that they have no legitimate research backing them up…none.
According to Thalheimer, the concept originated in the 1940s from work by Edgar Dale. Dale set up what he called a “Cone of Experience” to model the concreteness of various audio-visual media. However, he did not assign numbers to them. Somewhere along the way numbers were added and the cone was altered to reflect something that Dale did not claim.
I would encourage readers to look at the article. Thalheimer does not claim that the concept itself is invalid (although he does bring up interesting challenges to this approach). Rather, he claims that our profession has taken for granted something that is incorrect.
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