Kolb's Experiential Learning Model

My experience from the case study influenced my own belief system in line with Kolb’s (1978) experiential learning, where a learner is able to reflect on past experience to change practice or theories.

Learning is defined as a permanent change in attitude or behaviour that occurs as a result of repeated experience (Sims & Sims, 1995). Understanding one’s learning style has many advantages as it

According to him, the four experiential learning and its cycle provide educators fundamental ideas they need to help them understand how teachers themselves and their students process their experiential learning to obtain concrete knowledge and understanding. The Kolb’s four basic experiential learning is as follows: 1) The “Concrete Experience/doing and having an experience”; 2) The “Observation and Reflection/reflecting on the experience” on that experience; 3) The formation of “Abstract Concepts/learning from the experience” that is established upon the reflection; 4) The “Active Experimentation/planning and the execution of the approach of the new perceptions. This is followed by going through the cycle again and again until the students come to master their learning experience. So, that is the process of Kolb’s experiential learning. Distinctively, Kolb’s theory does not have any set point of beginning or ending. Anybody can start on either point in the cycle and there is no limit to the number of learning cycles, because learning is a continuous process; However, in order to understand how Kolb’s theory can process and transform an experience to knowledge, I will therefore begin by analyzing the “Concrete Experience.”Notice that the learner on this stage usually asks, “Could I possibly do this thing?” If you look closely, this stage, particularly demonstrates the initial desire of

Experiential learning theory provides a holistic model of the learning process and a multilinear model of the learning process and a multilinear model of adult development, both of which are consistent with what we know about how people grow ,learn and develop .The theory is called experiential learning to emphasize the central role that experience plays in the learning process.

In Kolb’s theory on the experiential learning cycle he states that “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb, 1984, p. 38). He shows that learning should obtain concepts that children can apply to different situations and lessons and that their creation of these new concepts is created through new experiences.

Having developed the model over many years prior, David Kolb published his model about learning styles model in 1984. This led to the related terms such as experiential learning theory of Kolb (ELT), and learning styles

Alice Y. Kolb Experience Based Learning Systems, Inc. David A. Kolb Case Western Reserve University May 15, 2005

David Kolb along with Rita and Kenneth Dunn are theorists that are widely regarded as premiere contributors to the field of learning style models. David Kolb believed that adult learning took place through four stages of development on two levels. Those first level stages are cyclical and include concrete experience, reflection, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. However, the second level stages are labeled as diverging, assimilating, converging, and accommodating. Rita and Kenneth Dunn focused on learning behaviors that ranged from school age children to adults. Dunn & Dunn believed that there were five influential external factors that contributed to learning. Those factors included environmental, emotional,

According to the researchers, the experiential learning is the best way to teach the students. They said that the knowledge process is made with the help of transformation and the series of experiences (Peter, 2010). Later on, the researchers showed that the learning styles is the collection of the characteristics, the ways of gathering information, organizing information and thinking about the information.

Kolb (1984) proposed a model of learning as a continuous cycle in which concrete experiences lead to their evaluation, conceptualization and the subsequent active experimentation. For example, a student’s experience of adjustment to a new social environment leads to the development of education goals and the subsequent participation in an organized learning activity. Learning as a psychological process happens in a multi-faceted interaction with the learner’s world. Set in a social context, adult learning is not an acquisition, or receptive process but also one of externalization. Jarvis (1987) and

As I attempt to discuss the learning styles of Kolb, I find that I learn from east to west, which is the learning style is one of Kolb's two continuums which is the east-west axis that is called the Processing Continuum “how we approach a task” (Kolb 1984). I will attempt to do research on the learning style that I’ve used basically all my life which is explained throughout this paper. The result of these two learning styles will show or prove my learning style which is displayed in the figures below.

Experiential learning is a unique form of learning that allows you to learn through first-hand experience outside of the classroom using skills, knowledge, and experience. It can happen through internships, studies abroad, field trips and research, and service learning projects. This type of learning is when a student can apply their own knowledge to real-world problems rather than a made-up problem by a teacher. David A. Kolb made this concept popular by stating that its base on learning which is a process where knowledge is created through transforming experiences. It has a cycle that does more than just learning it, it allows you to experience it, then reflect it, then conceptualize it, and then experiment.

David Kolb is an educational theorist that helped develop the Experiential Learning Model in the early 1970’s it was then published in 1984. The basic assumption for Kolb’s cycle is that this type of learning is built on the idea that a person’s preference of learning can be described with two different levels: a four stage cycle of learning and four types of learning styles. He defines that learners experience a cycle of experiences, these experiences then lead to reflections, and we then take these experiences and build upon them to create new experiences. In Kolb’s Cycle of Experiential Learning theory he states “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb, 1984, p. 38). What I enjoyed about Kolb’s Cycle of Experiential Learning method is that not only does it let one

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

David Kolb suggested that people follow four learning styles in learning which is based upon a learning-cycle composed of 4 stages. The four-stage learning cycle is as follows: