Kolb has described four basic learning styles: accommodative, assimilative, divergent, and convergent. Incorporated within each learning style is a combination of two of the four learning modes: Concrete experiences, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Kolb's experiential learning style theory is typically represented by a four stage learning cycle in which the learner 'touches all the bases'
- 1. Concrete Experience(Feeling) - a new experience of situation is encountered, or a reinterpretation of existing experience).
2. Reflective Observation(Watching)-of the new experience. Of particular importance are any inconsistencies between experience and understanding).
3. Abstract Conceptualization (Thinking)-Reflection gives rise to a new idea, or a modification of an existing abstract concept).
4. Active Experimentation(Doing)-the learner applies them to the world around them to see what results).
Kolb's learning theory (1974) sets out four distinct learning styles, which are based on a four-stage learning cycle above. Kolb explains that different people naturally prefer a certain single different learning style. Various factors influence a person's preferred style. For example, social environment, educational experiences, or the basic cognitive structure of the individual.Whatever influences the choice of style, the learning style preference itself is actually the product of two pairs of variables, or two separate 'choices' that we make, which Kolb presented as lines of axis, each with 'conflicting' modes at either end:A typical presentation of Kolb's two continuums is that the east-west axis is called the Processing Continuum (how we approach a task), and the north-south axis is called the Perception Continuum (our emotional response, or how we think or feel about it).
Effective learning is seen when a person progresses through a cycle of four stages:
- Having a concrete experience followed by
- Observation of and reflection on that experience which leads to
- The formation of abstract concepts (analysis) and generalizations
- (conclusions) which are then
- Used to test hypothesis in future situations, resulting in new experiences.