I've done a lot of this of late: reading hefty tomes on education. It makes the pragmatism and evidence based practices of Dylan Wiliam all the more important. Here goes for Kolb. There are a few quotes worth citing and no doubt some theories I might, with your asssitance, get my head around.
Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development
David A. Kolb (1984)
New Jersey, USA
Prentice Hall PTR
Eight Chapters
Intro
Towards competence
Working knowledge
Pertinent jobs
C1. Adaptation and learning - this is the unique human skill
And why something like Covid-19 is a catastrophe and a catalyst for change
‘Learning is no longer ‘for the kids’ but a central lifelong task essential for personal development and career success.
Experiential learning:
Internships
Field placements
Work/Study Assignments
Structured exercises
Role Play
Gaming simulations (Kolb, 1984)
Apprenticeships
T Levels
Learning Model Cos
Online selling (2021)
E.G. Digital literacy reflection ‘adults’ learning interests are embedded in their personal histories, in their visions of who they are in the world and what they can do and want to do.’ Rita Weathersby (1978, p.19)
NOTE : > For these adults learning methods that combine work and study, theory and practice provide a more productive arena for learning. (Kolb, 1984, p.6)
Tension/Controversy conflict - brings about discussion and learning (p.10)
In and off the moment i.e. living it.
Being detached enough to see this process and context for what it is.
Open atmosphere
Formal models
Vitality and creativity
C2 The Process of Experiential Learning
The central role of that experience plays in the learning process (p.20)
Here-and-now concrete experience - observations and reflection - formation of abstract concepts and generalisations > testing implications
The Lewinian Model (p.21)
Dewey’s Model more detailed
Knowledge obtained partly by recollection and partly from the information, advice, and warming of those who observed.
2-6 years - beginning to reflective orientation internalising actions and converting them to images.
7-11 years - logic of classes and relations. The child increases his independence.
12-15 years
Jerome Bruner ‘Toward a Theory of Instruction’ - makes the point that the purpose of education is to stimulate inquiry and skill in the process of knowledge getting, not to memorise a body of knowledge.
Implant new ideas (p.28)
Dispose of or modify old ones
Resistance to new ideas
Bring out examine and test the learner’s belief and themes
Integration and substitution
Wallas (1926)
Four stages:
Incorporation
Incubation
Insight
Verification
Fig.2.4
See this for elements to include in a lesson/sessions
C3 Structural Foundation of the Learning Process
A four-stage cycle: (p.40)
Concrete experience
Reflective observation
Abstract conceptualisation
Active experimentation
How people do things regardless of it being the best approach.
Overtime, individuals develop unique possibilities - processing structures that the dialectic tensions between the pretension and transformation dimension and consistently resolved in a characteristic fashion. (p.76)
As a result of our heredity equipment, our particular past life experience, and the demands of our present environment, most people develop learning styles that emphasize some learning abilities over others. (p.76)
Jungian Types
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
A job choice/success
A major function of education is to shape students’ attitudes and orientations toward learning.
Positive attitude
Thirst for knowledge
Not ‘learning styles’ so much as ‘lifestyle’ choice and approaches.
NOTE :> Learning styles are conceived not as fixed personality traits but as possibility-processing structures from unique individual programming of the basic but flexible structure of human learning
Orientations
Transactions with the world (pp 95-96)
C5 The Structure of Knowledge
Knowledge does not exist solely in books, mathematical formulas or philosophical systems, it requires active learners to interact with, interpret, and elaborate these symbols. (p.121)
Learning style is shaped by what is being taught, the faculty where it is taught and those teaching. Learners adapt to fit what is deemed necessary for the task with engineering, for example adapting compared to social science or the humanities.
Concrete - abstract
Archive - reflective
In his 1955 Lithograph entitled ‘lberations’ M.C. Esher captures the essence of the three stages of experiential learning:
Acquisition
Specialisation
Integrate Development (p.160)
Learning and Development in HE
Acquisition
Preparation
Basic skills
Utilise the tools of social knowledge
Specialisation
Selection
Meet social needs
Integration
Unique capabilities of the whole person toward creativity, wisdom and integrity.
Different learning environments required for different subjects and outcomes - the learner adopts. (p.198)
Affectively complex
Simulate/mirror
Current
Schedules adjust to the learners needs
Perceptually complex
Understanding something
Identify relationships
Define problems for investigation
Collect relevant info
Research a question
Systematically complex
Solved problem with a right or best solution
Teacher as taskmaster
Behaviorally complex
A practical problem with not right or best answer
Students need to adopt the best learning approach required by a specific task - it is the successful learning of the task that dictates the learning approach or ‘style’ required NOT the students. (p.200)
Concrete experience
Best suited to:
Personalised feedback
Sharing feelings
TEachers as friendly helpers
Activities orientated toward applying skills to real-life problems
Peer feedback
Self-directed
Autonomous vs theoretical reading
Reflective Observation
Teachers provide expert explanations
Guide discussions
Lecturing
Not task-orientated situations
Abstract Conceptualisation
Case studies
Thinking alone
Theory readings
Not group exercises
Personalised feedback
Active-experimentations tendencies
Small group discussions
Projects, peer feedback
Homework problems
Applying skills to particular problems vs lectures, task masters evaluations right/wrong
Approaches that individualise the learning process to meet the students’ goals, learning style, pace, and life situation, will pay off handsomely in increased learning (p.202)
Teachers as coaches or managers of the learning process are not dispensers of information.
Curricula design
Content objectives
Learning style
Growth and creativity objectives
With experiential learning and once in work students take on the full range of learning approaches based on the environment and needs of what has to be learnt (p.207)
Lifelong Learning and Integrative Development
‘We seek to grow and develop because we must do so to survive - as individuals and as a world community. If there is a touch of aggressive selfishness in our search for integrity, it can perhaps be understood as a response to the sometimes overwhelming pressures on us to conform, submit, and comply, to be the object rather than the subject of our life history’. (p.209)
We are a ‘teaching species’ as well as a ‘learning species’. (p.211)
ME > Opportunities for creativity/role innovation (Schein, 1972) - the extent to which a career offers continuing challenges and opportunities for changing roles and job functions.
Experiential Learning David Kolb
I've done a lot of this of late: reading hefty tomes on education. It makes the pragmatism and evidence based practices of Dylan Wiliam all the more important. Here goes for Kolb. There are a few quotes worth citing and no doubt some theories I might, with your asssitance, get my head around.
Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development
Eight Chapters
C1. Adaptation and learning - this is the unique human skill
And why something like Covid-19 is a catastrophe and a catalyst for change
‘Learning is no longer ‘for the kids’ but a central lifelong task essential for personal development and career success.
Experiential learning:
Gaming simulations (Kolb, 1984)
Online selling (2021)
E.G. Digital literacy reflection ‘adults’ learning interests are embedded in their personal histories, in their visions of who they are in the world and what they can do and want to do.’ Rita Weathersby (1978, p.19)
NOTE : > For these adults learning methods that combine work and study, theory and practice provide a more productive arena for learning. (Kolb, 1984, p.6)
Tension/Controversy conflict - brings about discussion and learning (p.10)
In and off the moment i.e. living it.
Being detached enough to see this process and context for what it is.
Open atmosphere
Formal models
Vitality and creativity
C2 The Process of Experiential Learning
The central role of that experience plays in the learning process (p.20)
Here-and-now concrete experience - observations and reflection - formation of abstract concepts and generalisations > testing implications
The Lewinian Model (p.21)
Dewey’s Model more detailed
Knowledge obtained partly by recollection and partly from the information, advice, and warming of those who observed.
Piaget’s model and stages (p.23)
0-2 years concrete/active sensory-motor stage
Feeling, touching, handling, goal-orientated behaviour.
2-6 years - beginning to reflective orientation internalising actions and converting them to images.
7-11 years - logic of classes and relations. The child increases his independence.
12-15 years
Jerome Bruner ‘Toward a Theory of Instruction’ - makes the point that the purpose of education is to stimulate inquiry and skill in the process of knowledge getting, not to memorise a body of knowledge.
Implant new ideas (p.28)
Dispose of or modify old ones
Resistance to new ideas
Bring out examine and test the learner’s belief and themes
Integration and substitution
Wallas (1926)
Four stages:
Fig.2.4
See this for elements to include in a lesson/sessions
C3 Structural Foundation of the Learning Process
A four-stage cycle: (p.40)
How people do things regardless of it being the best approach.
Overtime, individuals develop unique possibilities - processing structures that the dialectic tensions between the pretension and transformation dimension and consistently resolved in a characteristic fashion. (p.76)
As a result of our heredity equipment, our particular past life experience, and the demands of our present environment, most people develop learning styles that emphasize some learning abilities over others. (p.76)
Jungian Types
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
A job choice/success
A major function of education is to shape students’ attitudes and orientations toward learning.
Positive attitude
Thirst for knowledge
Not ‘learning styles’ so much as ‘lifestyle’ choice and approaches.
NOTE :> Learning styles are conceived not as fixed personality traits but as possibility-processing structures from unique individual programming of the basic but flexible structure of human learning
Orientations
Transactions with the world (pp 95-96)
C5 The Structure of Knowledge
Knowledge does not exist solely in books, mathematical formulas or philosophical systems, it requires active learners to interact with, interpret, and elaborate these symbols. (p.121)
Learning style is shaped by what is being taught, the faculty where it is taught and those teaching. Learners adapt to fit what is deemed necessary for the task with engineering, for example adapting compared to social science or the humanities.
Concrete - abstract
Archive - reflective
In his 1955 Lithograph entitled ‘lberations’ M.C. Esher captures the essence of the three stages of experiential learning:
Acquisition
Specialisation
Integrate Development (p.160)
Learning and Development in HE
Acquisition
Preparation
Basic skills
Utilise the tools of social knowledge
Specialisation
Selection
Meet social needs
Integration
Unique capabilities of the whole person toward creativity, wisdom and integrity.
Different learning environments required for different subjects and outcomes - the learner adopts. (p.198)
Affectively complex
Simulate/mirror
Current
Schedules adjust to the learners needs
Perceptually complex
Understanding something
Identify relationships
Define problems for investigation
Collect relevant info
Research a question
Systematically complex
Solved problem with a right or best solution
Teacher as taskmaster
Behaviorally complex
A practical problem with not right or best answer
Students need to adopt the best learning approach required by a specific task - it is the successful learning of the task that dictates the learning approach or ‘style’ required NOT the students. (p.200)
Concrete experience
Best suited to:
Personalised feedback
Sharing feelings
TEachers as friendly helpers
Activities orientated toward applying skills to real-life problems
Peer feedback
Self-directed
Autonomous vs theoretical reading
Reflective Observation
Teachers provide expert explanations
Guide discussions
Lecturing
Not task-orientated situations
Abstract Conceptualisation
Case studies
Thinking alone
Theory readings
Not group exercises
Personalised feedback
Active-experimentations tendencies
Small group discussions
Projects, peer feedback
Homework problems
Applying skills to particular problems vs lectures, task masters evaluations right/wrong
Approaches that individualise the learning process to meet the students’ goals, learning style, pace, and life situation, will pay off handsomely in increased learning (p.202)
Teachers as coaches or managers of the learning process are not dispensers of information.
Curricula design
Content objectives
Learning style
Growth and creativity objectives
With experiential learning and once in work students take on the full range of learning approaches based on the environment and needs of what has to be learnt (p.207)
Lifelong Learning and Integrative Development
‘We seek to grow and develop because we must do so to survive - as individuals and as a world community. If there is a touch of aggressive selfishness in our search for integrity, it can perhaps be understood as a response to the sometimes overwhelming pressures on us to conform, submit, and comply, to be the object rather than the subject of our life history’. (p.209)
We are a ‘teaching species’ as well as a ‘learning species’. (p.211)
ME > Opportunities for creativity/role innovation (Schein, 1972) - the extent to which a career offers continuing challenges and opportunities for changing roles and job functions.
(p.228) Fig.8.2
Fact > Value
Relevance > Meaning
Courage, justice, love, wisdom