2. Experiential Learning Cycle
Besides his work on experiential
learning, Kolb is also known for his
contribution to thinking around
organizational behaviour.
He has an interest in the nature of
individual and social change,
experiential learning, career
development and executive and
professional education.
David Kolb
3. Experiential Learning Theory (ELT)
• Kolb’s work derives from the intellectual origins
in the experiential works of Lewin, Piaget,
Dewey, Freire and James during the 1900’s.
• Kolb’s work is viewed by academics, teachers
and trainers as a fundamental concept towards
the understanding and explanation of human
behaviour.
4. Can you remember the four stages?
• Forming abstract
concepts
• Concrete experience
• Testing in new
situations
• Observation and
reflection
Look at the diagram. Place the text in the correct
order and name the theorist?
5. Kolb’s theory works on two levels
First Level: A four stage cycle
• Concrete experience (CE)
• Reflective observation (RO)
• Abstract conceptualisation (AC)
• Active experimentation (AE)
6. a. Concrete experience: being involved
in a new experience
b. Reflective observation: watching
others or developing observations
about one’s own experience
c. Abstract conceptualization: creating
theories to explain observations
d. Active experimentation: using
theories to solve problems, make
decisions
7. And a four- type definition of
learning styles
1 2 3 4
8. Second Level: each representing a
combination of two preferred styles
• Diverging: to move apart (CE/RO)
• Assimilating: to absorb – take up mentally (AC/RO)
• Converging: to come together (AC/AE)
• Accommodating: adapt-make fit-change to suit
new purpose (CE/AE)
10. • Kolb also claimed that whatever influences the choice
of style, the learning style preference is the product
of two pairs of variables.
Concrete Experience -----V----- Abstract Conceptualization
(feeling) (thinking)
Active Experimentation -----V----- Reflective Observation
(doing) (watching)
11. • When presenting the
two continuums we
can see that the east
to west axis is called
the
• Processing Continuum
(how we approach a
task), and the north to
south axis is called the
• Perception
Continuum, (our
emotional response).
12. • The continuums show
that we cannot do both
at the same time
• To pursue this would
create conflict
• When involved in a new
learning situation we
make a choice
• to do or watch and at
the same time
• to think or feel
13. What experiential learning is, and what it is not:
Experience is used to test out ideas and assumptions
rather than to passively obtain practice. It is active
exploration.
Experiential learning is not the same as discovery
learning. Activities must be carefully designed by
teachers, and learners must reflect on their experience
in a critical way.
Adapted from Gibbs, G (1987). Learning by doing: A
guide to teaching and learning methods. Birmingham:
FEU Birmingham Polytechnic.
14. Critique of Kolb's theory
• Having described Kolb’s theory it is only fair to
also include a critique.
• Research in 1977 titled A Definitive Critique of
Experiential Learning Theory was carried out,
this was at the request of Kolb himself.
• It involved an analysis of the intellectual and
scientific roots of Experiential Learning Theory.
• Alongside this was also an analysis of the
foundational references, in order to address
three questions fundamental to the theory.
15. • What is learning?
• Are the Experiential Learning Model modes
separate and distinctive in their functions so
as to necessitate a four stage cycle for
learning taking place?
• Is dialectic tension the mechanism that
mediates the relationship between the
modes and between the person and the
environment?
16. • The research firstly addressed learning and the
definition derived by the ELT. It concluded on
this part that the ELT’s definition is a dramatic
distortion of the epistemological fundaments it
references.
• Secondly the research addressed ELT’S
foundational proposition, the learning modes,
their nature and place in relation to theory. It
concluded that all four modes were not
required for learning to take place. There were
also contradictions and inconsistencies within
the theory.
17. • Finally the researched addressed the
use of dialectic tension as the mediating
function of learning. It traced the
meaning of dialectic from Socrates up to
ELT and concluded that dialectic
tension was not a viable mechanism for
mediating modes of learning.
• The paper concluded that the
infrastructure of the theory its model
and learning style inventory to be faulty
at the core and recommended that the
operational evolution of learning styles
and modes of learning be re-evaluated.
