Theories of Experiential Learning - Essay Example

Learning Styles and/or ID # Teacher Human beings are as unique as are the fingerprints used to identify them. While there are certainly broad categories with which to group them, every individual will have their own unique learning style. These different styles have been found to develop very early on in childhood and continue throughout a lifetime. While initially studies into learning style had primarily focused on scholastic performance, this researched has proved invaluable in the job market when hiring and training employees who do not all fit a single mode of learning style. This paper will focus mainly upon the learning style research of David Kolb and associates who have theorised that people fall into four broad categories of styles and have developed a method with which to identify these different styles in order to promote their education and development for their lifetimes. Kolb advanced his theories of Experiential learning (Figure 1) in the decade of the seventies and has further refined and focused it over the years to be applied in a variety of uses. (Kolb & Kolb 2008) The theory was first intended to be used primarily in school settings (Sternberg and Grigorenko 2001: 16-17), but has since been adapted for use in the business world as well. (Kolb & Kolb) Kolb first began with two broad categories somewhat resembling the Jungian psychological theory and Meyers-Brigg typology of personality test. Kolb (1971) provided a heuristic model in which individuals differ along two bipolar dimensions: people prefer either active experimentation or reflective observation (the doing-watching continuum), and at the same time they like either concrete experience or abstract conceptualization (the feeling-thinking continuum). (Renzulli and Dai 2001:33) Generally speaking someone who is partial to active doing and concrete experiences will usually find education to be a particularly favourable and worthwhile experience. However, someone who prefers to watch and enjoys more abstract forms of thinking and experience will usually be more attracted to philosophy or natural science. By discovering what is the ‘optimal person-environment fit’ (Renzulli and Dai 2001:33) can often maximise and individual’s feeling of competence and enjoyment in a task as well as getting the right person in the right job for the right company. Kolb went on to further elucidate his concepts using the following four categories of learning styles as associated with combination of the above continuums: Diverging: Someone in this category will performs better in environments that call for the creative production of ideas and theories, such as in a brainstorming session. Assimilating: Those in this category are best at taking in large amounts of information and data and placing it into a smaller, more broadly understandable and usable form. They are more focused on abstract concepts and ideas. Converging: These are the practical people who find concrete uses for ideas and theories. They are problem solvers and decision makers. Accommodating: People in this category are hands-on and enjoy challenges. However, they will act more on instinct and gut feelings then on logical thought. This category relies more on people for information then on technical analysis. (Kolb and Boyatzis 2001:230-31) These different learning styles are measured in an individual using what Kolb designated the Learning Styles Inventory (LSI). (Kolb 1978: 22) It was originally developed as an experiential educational exercise designed to help learners understand the process of experiential learning and their unique individual style of learning from experience. The term ‘learning style’ was coined to describe these individual differences in how people learn. (Kolb & Kolb 2005: 9) The LSI is an assessment of six different variables in four primary combinations that measure the relative prominence an individual’s shows regarding the four learning orientations: Concrete Experience (CE), Reflective Observation (RO), Abstract Conceptualization (AC), and Active Experimentation (AE)—and two combination scores that measure an individual’s preference for abstractness over concreteness (AC-CE) and action over reflection (AE-RO). (Kolb & Kolb 2005: 12) The diverging styles dominant learning abilities are CE and RO. Individuals in this category are very interested in people, sociology and anthropology. They are usually imaginative and emotive and have divers and broad cultural interests. They usually are drawn to the arts. Furthermore, in more formal learning situations, persons exhibiting the diverging style prefer to work within groups and participate in interactions with an open mind. They also prefer to receive personalized feedback and not rote criticisms. (Kolb and Boyatzis 2001:230) ‘Kolbs Learning Style Inventory describes learning styles on a continuum running from concrete experience, through reflective observation, to abstract conceptualization, and finally active experimentation (Kolb, 1984).’ (Sun, Joy and Griffiths 2007) The assimilating styles learning capabilities are AC and RO. In general persons with this aptitude are usually focused on theories that have a logical soundness regardless of their practical value. This particular learning style is significant for individual’s performance in a career in the information and science venues. People with this particular style have a preference for readings, lectures, exploring analytical models, and having time to think things through. Practical applications are usually a secondary consideration. (Kolb and Boyatzis 2001:230) The learning abilities for the converging style are AC and AE. These Individuals prefer to deal with technical assignments and problems as opposed to social tasks and interpersonal issues. They are not people persons. People in this category as especially suited to being specialists I science and laboratory medicine and well as careers in technology and other research. Individuals with this learning style love to experiment with new ideas, simulations and laboratory assignments. However they also like to see practical applications put to their work and do not work entirely in a vacuum as do those with an assimilating style. (Kolb and Boyatzis 2001:230-31) Finally, those with the accommodating style posses the learning abilities CE and AE. These are the people persons. They enjoy the company and feedback of others. These individuals prefers careers that are very active and mentally as well as physically stimulating. They are geared towards the area of marketing and sales. As in the diverging style, assimilators prefer to work in groups in order to get assignments done. They enjoy setting and exceeding both personal and group goals. They love being out in the filed doing research and exploration and like to test and experiment with different ways to accomplish tasks. (Kolb and Boyatzis 2001:230-31) While the LSI and other tools help to fine tune individual instruction and learning practices they are not meant to set teachers the task of teaching each student differently. Totally tailoring teaching styles to fit the learning experiences and capacities of every college student is impossible, given the number of students and their different characteristics. On the other hand, a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching is equally unsuitable (Di Muro and Terry 2007) However, it is important for teachers to realize the effect they have on their students ability to learn through their lives. ‘Recent studies point out that the modeling effects of teachers have a considerable influence on students occupational stereotypes.‘(Chiou and Yang 2006) Many claim that the LSI results have a low reliability and questionable validity. ‘Honey and Mumford (1986) produced the related Learning Style Questionnaire (LSQ), renaming the styles activist, reflector, theorist and pragmatist.’ (Biggs 2001:77) Yet the original format tends to be more heuristic and perform across a wider variety of variables making it perhaps a little more fallible, but much more human in nature. List of References Biggs, John. 2001. ‘4 Enhancing Learning: a Matter of Style or Approach?.’ pp. 73-99 in Perspectives on Thinking, Learning, and Cognitive Styles, edited by Sternberg, Robert J. and Li-Fang Zhang. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Chiou, Wen-Bin, and Yang, Chao-Chin. 2006. ‘Teachers Modeling Advantage and Their Modeling Effects on College Students Learning Styles and Occupational Stereotypes: A Case of Collaborative Teaching in Technical Courses.’ Adolescence 41: pp.723-728. Di Muro, Paola, and Terry, Marion. 2007. ‘A Matter of Style: Applying Kolbs Learning Style Model to College Mathematics Teaching Practices.’ Journal of College Reading and Learning 38: pp. 53-59 Kolb, David. A. 1976. Management and learning process. California Management Review, 15(3): 20-31. Kolb, David A., and Boyatzis, Richard E.. 2001. ‘9 Experiential Learning Theory: Previous Research and New Directions.’ pp. 227-245 in Perspectives on Thinking, Learning, and Cognitive Styles, edited by Sternberg, Robert J. and Li-Fang Zhang. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Kolb, David and Kolb, Alice 2008. EBLSI. Experienced Based Learning systems, Inc. Retrieved on 28 July 2008 (http://www.learningfromexperience.com/ ) Kolb, David and Kolb, Alice 2005. ‘The Kolb Learning Style Inventory—Version 3.1 2005 Technical Specifications’ Case Western Reserve University. Experience Based Learning Systems, Inc. pp., 1-72 Sternberg, Robert J. and Zhang, Li-Fang eds. 2001. Perspectives on Thinking, Learning, and Cognitive Styles. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Renzulli, Joseph S., and Yun Dai, David. 2001. ‘2 Abilities, Interests, and Styles as Aptitudes for Learning: a Person-Situation Interaction Perspective.’ pp. 23-43 in Perspectives on Thinking, Learning, and Cognitive Styles, edited by Sternberg, Robert J. and Li-Fang Zhang. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Sternberg, Robert J., and Grigorenko, Elena L.. 2001. ‘1 A Capsule History of Theory and Research on Styles.’ pp. 1-18 in Perspectives on Thinking, Learning, and Cognitive Styles, edited by Sternberg, Robert J. and Li-Fang Zhang. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Sun, Shanghua, Joy,Mike and Griffiths, Nathan. 2007. ‘The Use of Learning Objects and Learning Styles in a Multi-Agent Education System.’ Journal of Interactive Learning Research 18: pp. 381-88 Read More