We all learn in different ways, influenced by the combination of our past educational experiences, study practices and personal approach to specific tasks. This can be described as our learning style, defined as ‘particular ways of gathering, processing and storing information and experiences’ (Cuthbert, P.F., 2005).
I have always believed that we learn by our own experiences. I think that this belief that I have lived by is why I was so intrigued by this particular learning theory. I will be discussing Kolb’s Cycle of Experiential Learning. I will explain the definition of this particular type of learning style and how it explains how as an individual one learns. I will be describing the four different stages of Kolb’s learning cycle and Kolb’s four different learning styles. I will also discuss how this learning style will essentially help me with lifelong learning beyond my BAAS degree in a personal and professional manner.
People with theses learning styles can watch the things from various perspectives, gather information and use imaginations to solve problems.
Kolb states that learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes but rather all learning is actually re-learning requiring the resolution of conflicts along with a holistic process of adaptation to the world. Learning results from synergetic transactions between the person and the environment, this is the process of creating knowledge (Kozak
Education benefits individual mentally, emotionally and physically by placing them in better place than they were previously before. Everybody would agree that learning something new would take place throughout the life. Learning style defined as "A term that describes the variations among learners in using one or more senses to understand, organize, and retain experience" (Reid, 1987, p. 89). Furthermore, Felder and Henriques (1995, p. 21) explained learning styles as "the ways in which an individual characteristically acquires, retains and retrieves information". However, different learners possess different characteristics and different preferred learning styles to perceive, process, take in and understand information.
Learning styles and barriers to learning can be by the VARK to give a profile of learning preferences of how a person takes in and gives out information or Tidwell and Rodgers Practical learning styles Questionnaire. The VARK learning styles determines if the person learns by being a theorist, reflector, activist and/or pragmatist. The practical learning styles questionnaire looks at how people learn by their orientation, whether they are a realistic or creative, by their interaction, are they a doer or a thinker, by how they represent things, either by words or pictures, and how they process information, whether they are a surface or deep processor. There are many other
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.
The world is composed of more than seven billion individuals. With the large number of inhabitants that are on Earth, people are bound to have differences between them. One area where differences can be seen among individuals is their ability to learn information efficiently and effectively. A publication from North Carolina State University called Learning Styles and Strategies written by Richard Felder and Barbra Soloman, discusses the various learning styles and strategies that people use in order to understand material, and how those styles vary depending upon the individual.
I learned about the different learning styles from Kolb. There is the Converger, Diverger, Assimilator, and Accommodator. Convergers learn by thinking and doing. They learn by taking their ideas and put it into practice. Divergers learn by feeling and watching. They will take experiences and think deeply about them and start with the “why”. Assimilators learn by thinking and watching, and will use the cognitive approach rather than thinking. Accommodators learn by feeling and doing, accommodators take the cognitive approach versus simply thinking.
David Kolb’s inventory is a great tool to help people begin to understand Learning styles that other perfectly rational people can see things differently or pay attention to different aspects of the problem.
Reflecting deeply on the learning journey since the beginning of the session until the end of the session has revealed personal insights such as areas in personal development which has improved and other areas which can be improved further by developing a plan for change. By using the Kolb Learning Cycle (Kolb & Fry, 1974), observations can be made as to what stage of the learning cycle the learning experience was in and if this learning experience has progressed through the learning cycle. Reflections were made in a number of areas such as emotional intelligence (EQ) and its successful use to improve both work and personal relationships, group work where firsthand experience in managing group relationships and group tasks was tested, and
Kolb’s theory (1984) is based on a four-stage learning cycle in which the learner contacts all the stages. These stages include first, concrete experience (how an individual encounters a situation), second, reflective observation (what an individual thinks about the situation), third, abstract conceptualization (how the individual analyzes the situation), and fourth, active experimentation (how the individual’s use of the conclusions in a situation change or prepare for another situation) (p. 21). Kolb also understood that individuals have different learning styles. Some individuals learn by observing while others learn by hands-on experience. Therefore, Kolb created side cycles to explain where in the learning cycles an individual’s learning style would fall. Although Kolb’s theory is a
This assignment came to life because of the two theorists P. Honey and A. Mumford. They researched on how to put together a project in order to identify the learning styles. The starting point of this scheme was supported by the Kolb learning style inventory (LSI). Finally, they came up with the idea of a questionnaire. They gathered eighty questions together, containing four different learning styles along with characteristics of the person/s that might fit in. The image below represents the theory along with the learning styles produced.
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
The method by which the learner perceives knowledge, accepts it and absorbs depends vary from person to person. Many studies have been conducted to understand the psychological aspects of this matter. Dimensions of learning style include many factors that can be studied for getting relevance into this matter. One