David Kolb's Theory Of Learning Theory Analysis

Learning, as defined by Slavin (2012), is “a change in an individual caused by experience” (p. 116). Learning can occur intentionally or unintentionally. All learning, however, is stimulated by something that is the learner (student) has encountered. As an instructor, your goal every day is to use the right stimuli to capture the student’s attention so they can absorb the knowledge you are trying to share.

David Kolb’s theory of learning styles is one of the best known and widely applied and it suggest that learning is a cyclic process which involves an individual proceeding through each of the following four stages and will eventually prefer and rely upon one style more than the others. The four styles are: Divergers, Convergers, Accommodators and Assimilators.

David Kolb developed a learning theory that involves concrete concepts which learners process experience. Kolb’s theory is based on intentions that learning takes place through four linear cycles based on experience and the personal changes that occur throughout that experience. As Kolb (1984) states, “learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (p. 38). Similar to other scholarly theories of learning, Kolb has many critics. I will discuss Kolb’s theory and summarize some of the critics to this theory. Also I will use Kolb’s theory and the critic’s comments to improve my approach to teaching.

Learning is the process of gaining knowledge or skills through study, experience or teaching. It is a process that depends on experience and leads to long-term changes in the possible behaviour of an individual in a given situation, in order to achieve a goal.

Learning is explained numerous ways by multiple individuals at various times in life. This is the purpose of the educational system, my field of study, continuously evolving. Christine A. Johnston, author of Intentional Learning for College Success, defines learning as, “whether in a classroom, the real world, or online, involves you taking in the world around you and connecting to what you are experiencing.” This definition is as accurate of one imaginable. Learning is, in fact, making sense of the continuous evolving world around you and processing the information for communication and growth.

Learning is a multifaceted perception unique to each individual. In looking to address the intricacies of learning, there have been a multitude of learning theories established over the centuries. To this day new theories are developed and traditional theories continue to be developed and expanded upon. (Swinburne Online, 2016)

This paper will identify which of the Kolb learning styles best suits me and why I think so. It will also give some examples from my past and present to support these findings. After determining, the learning styles that best fit me and completing an inventory exercise, I have concluded that I learn best using audio and visual techniques in the learning process. I agree with everything this exercise has brought to light. I never knew that these styles were the meaning by which I learned. I have also included examples as to how I see the use and benefits of these learning styles in my career.

As an adult learner, it is important to learn about some of the academic concepts in learning styles to help with life situations possibly or to learn the best way to handle other people. In this paper, there will be three academic concepts discussed for adult learners that might be useful for everyday life. The first concept that will be discussed is the Kolb learning style. There is diverging style, assimilating style, and converging style in the Kolb learning style. This will be further discussed in details later on in the paper. This learning style is useful for adults to learn their own way of learning.

Kolb’s experiential learning cycle is a theory that argues that we learn from our experiences of life on a daily basis. Cognitive ability is the way people learn and Kolb believed from an early age we begin to develop a sort of instinctive preference as to the way we process information and use it. Kolb (1984) believes that the process of learning follows a pattern or cycle. Kolb’s cycle is made up of 4 stages; the first stage is concrete experience and Kolb believes that life is full of loads of different experiences that everyone can learn from and whether you are at home, work, school or even out shopping that there was experiences everywhere within those sectors and that it was a way for us to start the learning cycle. The concrete experience is the doing stage, the stage where you have the experience. We then have stage two which is reflective observation, this stage involved looking back at our experiences and reflecting on them. Stage three is the abstract conceptualisation which is

What is learning? Reece, Walker (1999) state learning is about change, whether it is purposeful or accidental it means understanding something new or developing a new skill, maintaining learning is a relatively permanent change. Many would argue the primary purpose of the teacher is to ensure learning occurs. It therefore seems important that teachers have an understanding how the

This essay will compare and contrast three key theories of learning; Behaviourism, Cognitive Learning Theory and Constructivism.

In the reading Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development by David Kolb (1984), he proposed that learning is a cycle process in which individuals learn through their own experiences in life. This notion of the learning cycle in which he was influenced by the ideas of three other theorists (Piaget, Dewey, and Lewinian) called it Experiential Learning Theory. Kolb’s theory was based on how people learned by imputing information and processing the information. Within this two abilities, there are four steps in which Kolb’s believe the learning process occurs. The first one he calls “concrete experience”, in which one actually does the learning right then and now. The second one is “reflective observation” when the learner thinks about what they did as a reflection of the experience. The next step is the “abstract conceptualization”, where the learner makes a generalization of the experience. The last step is “active experimentation”, where the learner puts to practice his/her understanding and adapts to it. The learner does this by taking all the first three steps of the learning cycle and seeing the results (pg. 30). Learning is a process in which individuals learn through trial and error. This process can then be reused with our prior experience to strengthen the outcome of our first experience. It is shaped as a cycle in the way we process information cognitively. This is how I understood of the reading on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory.

Kolb's experiential learning theory works on two levels. Level one consists of the four stage cycle of learning, and level two consists of four separate learning styles. Most of Kolb’s theory is concerned with the learner’s internal cognitive processes.

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” said David A. Kolb (1984, p.38).

Meyer states that: “The concept of ‘independent learning’ is associated with, or part of, a number of other educational concepts and wider policy agenda of contemporary relevance such as ‘personalization’, ‘student-centered learning’ and ‘ownership’ of learning”. In order to get the “ownership of learning”, Kolb has studied a learning style for individuals, which is divided in four steps: “concrete experience” (emphasize personal involvement with people in everyday life), reflective observation (people understand ideas and situations from different point of view), abstract conceptualization (learning involves using theories rather than feelings), active experimentation (experimenting with changing situations), (Mobbs, R, undated).