The Kolb Learning Style Inventory—Version 3.1 2005 - Whitewater ...

Kolb Learning Style Inventory-Version 3 (Kolb 1999)
In 1999 the randomized format was adopted in a revised self-scoring and interpretation booklet (LSI 3) that included
a color-coded scoring sheet to simplify scoring. The new booklet was organized to follow the learning cycle, emphasizing
the LSI as an “experience in learning how you learn.” New application information on teamwork, managing confl
ict, personal and professional communication, and career choice and development were added. The LSI 3 continued
to use the LSI 2 normative reference group until norms for the randomized version could be created.
Kolb Learning Style Inventory-Version 3.1 (Kolb 2005)
The new LSI 3.1 described here modifi ed the LSI 3 to include new normative data described below. This revision
includes new norms that are based on a larger, more diverse and representative sample of 6977 LSI users. The format,
items, scoring, and interpretative booklet remain identical to KLSI 3. The only change in KLSI 3.1 is in the norm
charts used to convert raw LSI scores.
FORMAT
The Learning Style Inventory is designed to measure the degree to which individuals display the different learning
styles derived from experiential learning theory. The form of the inventory is determined by three design parameters.
First, the test is brief and straightforward, making it useful both for research and for discussing the learning process
with individuals and providing feedback. Second, the test is constructed in such a way that individuals respond to it
as they would respond to a learning situation: it requires them to resolve the tensions between the abstract-concrete
and active-refl ective orientations. For this reason, the LSI format requires them to rank order their preferences for the
abstract, concrete, active, and refl ective orientations. Third, and most obviously, it was hoped that the measures of
learning styles would predict behavior in a way consistent with the theory of experiential learning.
All versions of the LSI have had the same format—a short questionnaire (9 items for LSI 1 and 12 items for subsequent
versions) that asks respondents to rank four sentence endings that correspond to the four learning modes—
Concrete Experience (e.g., experiencing), Refl ective Observation (refl ecting), Abstract Conceptualization (thinking),
and Active Experimentation (doing). Items in the LSI are geared to a seventh grade reading level. The inventory is
intended for use by teens and adults. It is not intended for use by younger children. The LSI has been translated into
many languages, including, Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Thai, and
there have been many cross-cultural studies using it (Yamazaki 2002).
The Forced-Choice Format of the LSI
The format of the LSI is a forced-choice format that ranks an individual’s relative choice preferences among the four
modes of the learning cycle. This is in contrast to the more common normative, or free-choice, format, such as the
widely used Likert scale, which rates absolute preferences on independent dimensions. The forced-choice format of
the LSI was dictated by the theory of experiential learning and by the primary purpose of the instrument.
ELT is a holistic, dynamic, and dialectic theory of learning. Because it is holistic, the four modes that make up the
experiential learning cycle-CE, RO, AC, and AE- are conceived as interdependent. Learning involves resolving the
creative tension among these learning modes in response to the specifi c learning situation. Since the two learning
dimensions, AC-CE and AE-RO, are related dialectically, the choice of one pole involves not choosing the opposite
pole. Therefore, because ELT postulates that learning in life situations requires the resolution of confl icts among
interdependent learning modes, to be ecologically valid, the learning style assessment process should require a similar
process of confl ict resolution in the choice of one’s preferred learning approach.
ELT defi nes learning style not as a fi xed trait, but as a dynamic state arising from an individual’s preferential resolution
of the dual dialectics of experiencing/conceptualizing and acting/refl ecting. “The stability and endurance of
these states in individuals comes not solely from fi xed genetic qualities or characteristics of human beings: nor, for
that matter, does it come from the stable fi xed demands of environmental circumstances. Rather, stable and enduring
patterns of human individuality arise from consistent patterns of transaction between the individual and his or her
10 LSI Technical Manual