Kolb's four-stage experiential learning model and its four learning style categories¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 2 claims (2 against) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review describes Kolb's experiential learning model, in which "learning theoretically is undertaken on the basis of a four-stage cycle": Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization and Active Experimentation. Crossing two dimensions (concrete experience versus abstract conceptualization; active experimentation versus reflective observation) yields four learning style categories — Convergence, Divergence, Assimilation and Accommodation — each with two dominant abilities. Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory contained nine items of four words each, ranked by the subject.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Learners are assumed to need four different abilities corresponding to the four stages of the cycle

Constraints¶

• The review reports Kolb questioned whether learners develop all four abilities, finding most continually choose a set of learning abilities for specific situations

Target Learners¶

• college and professional students assessed in Kolb-based research

Target Learning Objectives¶

• characterizing individual preferences across the stages of the learning cycle

Claims¶

• Kolb's inventory showed no association with medical career choices, and its personality-type predictions were contradicted [-W]
• Learning styles measured by Kolb's inventory showed no significant change over one year of varied instruction [-W]

Related Theories¶

• Kolb's experiential learning theory: knowledge created through transformation of experience via a four-stage cycle
• Experiential Learning Theory
• Kolb's Learning Style Inventory and experiential learning theory
• Federation University model: a program-level case-based experiential learning framework linking thinking, doing and acting
• Kolb's experiential learning cycle as the pedagogical basis for an engineering learning module
• Kolb's experiential learning cycle and four learning styles

Examples¶

• Guide experiential curriculum design with Kolb-derived principles: connect to existing knowledge, honour each learner's experiential base, cycle through experience and reflection, and shift power to the learner

Key Sources¶

• Tamaoka, Katsuo. (1985). Historical Development of Learning Style Inventories from Dichotomous Cognitive Concepts of Field Dependence and Field Independence to Multi-Dimensional Assessment. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED339729