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

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1. CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION—EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING THEORY AND INDIVIDUAL LEARNING STYLES The Kolb Learning Style Inventory differs from other tests of learning style and personality used in education by being based on a comprehensive theory of learning and development. Experiential learning theory (ELT) draws on the work of prominent twentieth century scholars who gave experience a central role in their theories of human learning and development-notably John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, William James, Carl Jung, Paulo Freire, Carl Rogers, and others-to develop a holistic model of the experiential learning process and a multi-linear model of adult development. The theory, described in detail in Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Kolb 1984), is built on six propositions that are shared by these scholars. 1. Learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes. To improve learning in higher education, the primary focus should be on engaging students in a process that best enhances their learning —a process that includes feedback on the effectiveness of their learning efforts. “...education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience: ... the process and goal of education are one and the same thing.” (Dewey 1897: 79) 2. All learning is relearning. Learning is best facilitated by a process that draws out the students’ beliefs and ideas about a topic so that they can be examined, tested, and integrated with new, more refi ned ideas. 3. Learning requires the resolution of confl icts between dialectically opposed modes of adaptation to the world. Confl ict, differences, and disagreement are what drive the learning process. In the process of learning, one is called upon to move back and forth between opposing modes of refl ection and action and feeling and thinking. 4. Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world. It is not just the result of cognition but involves the integrated functioning of the total person—thinking, feeling, perceiving, and behaving. 5. Learning results from synergetic transactions between the person and the environment. In Piaget’s terms, learning occurs through equilibration of the dialectic processes of assimilating new experiences into existing concepts and accommodating existing concepts to new experience. 6. Learning is the process of creating knowledge. ELT proposes a constructivist theory of learning whereby social knowledge is created and recreated in the personal knowledge of the learner. This stands in contrast to the “transmission” model on which much current educational practice is based, where pre-existing fi xed ideas are transmitted to the learner. ELT defi nes learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience” (Kolb 1984: 41). The ELT model portrays two dialectically related modes of grasping experience-Concrete Experience (CE) and Abstract Conceptualization (AC)-and two dialectically related modes of transforming experience-Refl ective Observation (RO) and Active Experimentation (AE). Experiential learning is a process of constructing knowledge that involves a creative tension among the four learning modes that is responsive to contextual demands. This process is portrayed as an idealized learning cycle or spiral where the learner “touches all the bases”—experiencing, refl ecting, thinking, and acting-in a recursive process that is responsive to the learning situation and what is being learned. Immediate or concrete experiences are the basis for observations and refl ections. These refl ections are assimilated and distilled into abstract concepts from which new implications for action can be drawn. These implications can be actively tested and serve as guides in creating new experiences (Figure 1). ELT proposes that this idealized learning cycle will vary by individuals’ learning style and learning context. 2 LSI Technical Manual
Testing Implications of Concepts in New Situations Concrete Experience Formation of Abstract Concepts and Generalization Observation and Reflections Figure 1. The experiential learning cycle In The art of changing the brain: Enriching teaching by exploring the biology of learning, James Zull, a biologist and founding director of CWRU’s University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE), sees a link between ELT and neuroscience research, suggesting that this process of experiential learning is related to the process of brain functioning as shown in Figure 2. “Put into words, the fi gure illustrates that concrete experiences come through the sensory cortex, refl ective observation involves the integrative cortex at the back, creating new abstract concepts occurs in the frontal integrative cortex, and active testing involves the motor brain. In other words, the learning cycle arises from the structure of the brain.” (Zull 2002: 18-19) 3
Page 1: Abstract The Kolb Learning Style In
Page 5 and 6: An individual with diverging style
Page 7 and 8: in more abstract and applied areas
Page 9 and 10: HISTORY Five versions of the Learni
Page 11 and 12: environment. The way we process the
Page 13 and 14: 3. NORMS FOR THE LSI VERSION 3.1 Ne
Page 15 and 16: Recent theoretical and empirical wo
Page 17 and 18: 5. VALIDITY This section begins wit
Page 19 and 20: Computer and Information Science Th
Page 21 and 22: Most of the debate and critique in
Page 23 and 24: and AE as the other in factor one.
Page 25 and 26: Mean Educational Level 9 8 7 6 5 4
Page 27 and 28: The distinct value systems and educ
Page 29 and 30: The Adaptive Style Inventory The Ad
Page 31 and 32: simulation intended to measure clin
Page 33 and 34: Gardner and Korth used ELT, learnin
Page 35 and 36: To help students deal with diffi cu
Page 37 and 38: Specht (1991) examined the effect o
Page 39 and 40: Nursing. Stiernborg, Zaldivar, and
Page 41 and 42: Stice argues that the low knowledge
Page 43 and 44: History. Sprau and Keig, contend th
Page 45 and 46: Boyatzis, R. E., Cowen, S. S., and
Page 47 and 48: Furnham, A., Jackson, C. J., and Mi
Page 49 and 50: Katz, N. (1990). Problem-solving an
Page 51 and 52: Loo, R. (2002a). A meta-analytic ex
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Rosenthal, C. S. (1999). One experi
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White, J., and Manolis, C. (1997).
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Refl ective Observation Valid Cumul
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Active Experimentation Cumulative R
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Cumulative Raw Score 6 Frequency 24
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Valid Cumulative Raw Score 7 Freque
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Active 55 398 32.01 6.482 .325 31.3
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Descriptives Gender N Mean APPENDIX
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APPENDIX 4. Learning Style and Educ
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APPENDIX 5. Learning Style Type and
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