Kolb's Learning Styles: Kolb's Learning Styles

David Kolb, a leading theorist on Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (1984) was the one who developed the Kolb’s Learning Styles. According to him, different people naturally prefer a certain single different of learning style or process. Therefore, he proposed a learning style that represents how individual choices made during the learning process will affect what information is selected and ways to processed it. His idea appears when he observing how people learn to play a pool.

He sets out four types of learning styles:

Convergent

· combination of abstract conceptualization (AC) & active experimentation (AE) focus on problem solving, decision making and the practical application of ideas– thinking & doing

· prefer technical tasks

· enables specialist & technology abilities.

Assimilation

· combination of abstract conceptualization (AC) & reflective observation (RO) - thinking &watching

· concise & logical approach

· require good &clear explanation

· less focused on people but more interested in ideas & abstract concepts

· more effectiveness in information &science careers.

Divergent

· combination of concrete experience (CE) & reflective observation (RO) -feeling & watching

· look at things from different perspectives &will perform better in situations that require idea generation

· imaginative, emotional &strong in arts

· rather work in groups, listen with an open mind & receive personal feedback

Accommodative

· combination between concrete experience (CE) & active experimentation (AE) -feeling & doing

· rely on others for information & prefer to work in teams to complete tasks

· carrying out plans & experiments other than involving themselves in new experiences

· risk-takers & good in a situation where require quick decisions or adaption

· prefer action-oriented jobs like nursing, teaching or marketing

Diagram 1: Four-Stage Cycle of Learning

Based on Diagram 1, Kolb expressed Four-stage cycle of learning in which “immediate or concrete experiences” provide a basis for “observations and reflections”. These “observations and reflections” are assimilated and distilled into “abstract concepts” producing new implications for action which can be “actively tested” in turn to creating new experiences. Diagram 2 below are the explanation for each of the stage.

Diagram 2: Explanation of each stage in learning

Diagram 3: Kolb’s Learning Styles in Matrix View

The diagram above highlights Kolb's terminology for the four learning styles; diverging, assimilating, converging, and accommodating. It is the construction of Kolb’s Learning Styles in term of a two-by-two matrix.

Diagram 4: Relationship between Learning Styles and Five Levels of Behavior