David A Kolb (1939 – ) Experiential learning and development theory 

combines experience, perception, cognition, and behaviour” (Kolb 1984: 21). It is a process- oriented approach which explains how “knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience” (Kolb 2005: 194). Experiential learning theory (ELT) has its origins in the work of Kurt Lewin, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget. It is different from “Rational cognitive learning theories that tend to give primary emphasis to acquisition, manipulation, and recall of abstract symbols” and “behavioural learning theories that deny any role for consciousness and subjective experience in the learning process” (Kolb 1984: 20). “Ideas are not fixed, and immutable elements of thought but are formed and reformed through experience” (Kolb 1984: 26).

The following brief overviews of Lewin, Dewey, and Piaget provide insight into how they influenced Kolb’s thinking; their theories are provided in the ensuing sections as context.

2.4.2.1. Kurt Lewin (1890 – 1947) Action Research and Laboratory training

According to Kolb (1984: 21), Lewin believed that learning, change, and growth develops out of ‘here and now’ experiences, which are followed by the collection of data and observations about their concrete experience. An analysis of that data takes place as a next step, and any conclusions which come out of the analysis are fed back to the actors in that experience. The process can either lead to modification of behaviour or to a choice of new experiences, which can be used to test the implications of new insights or concepts in a new situation.

‘Here and now,’ concrete experience is used to validate and test abstract concepts. It is a personal process of learning through experience which is shared with others; both on concrete and an abstract level of understanding that lead to new insights. Kolb (1984: 22) states that action research makes use of feedback processes which “provides the basis for a continuous process of goal-directed action and consequences of that action.” The aim of the process is to do research which is balanced towards both information gathering practices and at the same time gives attention to the decision making and action step processes which ensue out of the research.

Figure 2.1 The Lewinian Experiential Learning Model (Kolb 1984:21)

2.4.2.2. John Dewey (1859 – 1952) Experiential education

Dewey (1938) was in favour of a developmental approach to learning that transforms the impulses, feelings and desires of concrete experience into higher-order purposeful action. This is achieved through

1. observation of surrounding conditions;

2. knowledge of what has happened in similar situations in the past through recollection, and by means of the experience of other people; and

3. the judgment that is woven in through joining together of observed and recalled information to see what they indicate.

The purpose has in it a plan and method of action based upon foresight and the consequences of action under given observed conditions in a certain way; foresight is not enough; accurate prediction is the aim. “The intellectual anticipation, the idea of consequences, must blend with

Observations and reflections Formation of abstract concepts and generalisations Testing implications of concepts in new situations Concrete experiences

desire and impulse to acquire moving forces. It then gives direction to what otherwise is blind, while desire gives ideas, impetus and momentum” (Dewey 1938: 69 in Kolb 1984: 22). As Kolb (1984: 22) explains, the focus is on learning as a

dialectic process of integrating experience and concepts, observations, and action. The impulse of experience gives ideas their moving force and ideas give direction to impulse. Postponement of immediate action is essential for observation and judgement to intervene, and action is essential for the achievement of purpose.

This process leads to mature purpose developing out of blind impulse.

2.4.2.3. Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) Genetic epistemology

A key thinker of the past century on how children learn and develop was Jean Piaget. He believed that even though children are quick to learn a wide variety of things, there are certain concepts that they need to mature for first. It is when they reach the right developmental stage that children are ready to learn those concepts. “Piaget argued that all organisms have a need to organize and adapt to the demands of the physical environment to find equilibrium. In the case of humans, maturation, activity, and social experiences” must “interact to help children develop their changes in thinking” (Piaget 1970 in Kolb 1984: 23).

The development of a person, from infancy to adulthood, moves from a concrete phenomenal view of the world to an abstract constructionist view, and from an active egocentric view to a reflexive internalised mode of knowing. Learning and development take place in a cycle of interaction between the individual and the environment. Sometimes people accommodate new concepts or schemas from their experience in the world, and on other occasions, they assimilate events and experiences from the world into existing concepts and schemas. Kolb (1984: 23) emphasises that “Intelligent adaptation results from a balanced tension between these two processes” as when accommodation processes are stronger than those of assimilation, this leads to imitation and when the opposite occurs, it leads to playing. The process of learning tends to move through a cyclical pattern from concrete to abstract, from active to reflective; only to begin again at a higher level of understanding and cognitive functioning.

2.4.2.4. Piaget’s four stages of cognitive growth in children

a) Sensorimotor (age 0-2) - Cognitive characteristics of this stage are:

 Dependent thinking processes and understanding of sensory and motor processing through activities such as tasting, touching, handling;

 Limited to only a few schemas into which to assimilate events so at this stage mostly accommodative learning processes;

 The environment has a significant role in shaping ideas and intentions;  Learning-based mostly on stimulus-response associations;

 Object permanence arises at the end of this stage. “Object permanence is the understanding that objects remain in the environment even when they cannot be seen or perceived by the other senses” (Moreno 2010: 81).

b) Representational stage/Preoperational (age 2-7) - Cognitive characteristics are:

 Still in concrete orientation stage but begins to develop a reflective orientation  Reliance on thinking processes on perception more than logic

 Learning becomes iconic in nature, through play manipulates images of the world and can view the world from different perspectives.

 Begins to use symbols such as learning of, i.e. language, numbers, and images  Imaginary play

 Animism  Egocentrism  Divergent stance

At this stage of their development when asked which is bigger, a lump of clay versus three small balls of clay which actually are the same in weight; or when needing to compare a tall glass and short glass with same content, or a group of chips which are more spread out and the same amount lying closer together, children perceive the group of balls, the taller glass and more spread out chips to be a larger quantity. This is because children focus on the most obvious visual aspect or feature of an object; they cannot yet understand reversibility or transformation.

c. Concrete operational (age 7-11) - Cognitive characteristics of this stage are:

 Development of abstract symbolic powers

 The logic of classes and relations governs their learning process

 Use of mental operations to solve concrete problems through the development of inductive powers

 Learning style has become more assimilative

 Uses concepts and theories to give shape to their experiences  Can show conservation, transformation and reversibility

 Use classification, seriation, and transitivity to test if a child fits into this stage of development.

d) Formal operations stage (age 11+) - Cognitive characteristics of this stage are:  Occurs at the onset of adolescence

 A child moves from symbolic processes based on concrete operations to a symbolic level of processing based on representational logic

 Returns to a more active orientation modified by the reflective and abstract ability that they have gained in the previous stage

 Propositional logic

 Can engage in hypothetical-deductive reasoning – usually develops after puberty or even adulthood

 Analogical reasoning  Combinatorial reasoning

 Probability and proportional reasoning

 Develops possible implications of their own theories and begins to test through an experiment which of them are true, and

 Convergent learning style

Concrete phenomenalism

Figure 2.2 Piaget’s Model of Learning and Cognitive Development (Kolb 1984:25) The basic cognitive-developmental theory developed by Piaget shows us the foundations of the learning process that adults build their further learning processes on. David Kolb has researched how that takes place and his ideas captured in the Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) he developed. It builds on the foundations provided by Lewin, Dewey and Piaget and is briefly outlined in the next section of this chapter.

1 Sensory motor stage 2  Represen- tational stage  3  Concrete operations stage 4. Formal operations stage

Enactive learning  Iconic learning 

Abstract constructivism Active egocentricism  Inductive learning  Hypothetical deductive learning Internalised reflection

2.4.2.5. Experiential learning and development process

The experiential learning process is “an idealised learning cycle or spiral where the learner ‘touches all the bases’ – experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting – in a recursive process that is responsive to the learning situation and what is being learned.” (Kolb 2005: 194). Kolb mentions in his article on learning styles and spaces that the biologist, James Zull, suggests that this process is like the functioning of the brain and states:

concrete experiences come through the sensory cortex, reflective 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).

a) Three stages in human development in his ELT developmental model

1. “Acquisition: from birth to adolescence when basic abilities and cognitive structures develop

2. Specialisation: from formal schooling through the early work and personal experiences of adulthood, where social, educational, and organizational socialisation forces shape the development of a specialised learning style, and 3. Integration: in midcareer and later life, where non-dominant modes of learning

are expressed in work and personal life” [...]

“Development is conceived as multilinear, based on an individual’s particular learning style and life path – development of CE (concrete experience) increases affective complexity, [development] of RO (reflective observation) increases perceptual complexity, [development] of AC (abstract conceptualisation) increases symbolic complexity, and [development] of AE (active experimentation) increases behavioural complexity” (Kolb 2005: 195).

b) Six characteristics of experiential learning, which Kolb states are:

1. Learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes 2. Learning is a continuous process grounded in experience

3. The process of learning requires the resolution of conflicts between dialectically opposed modes of adaptation to the world.

4. Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world

5. Learning involves transactions between the person and the environment 6. Learning is the process of creating knowledge (Kolb and Kolb 2005:193-194). He (2005) further concluded that effective learners need to embrace four different and opposing abilities to grasp their reality adequately. These abilities are:

 Concrete experience abilities (CE) and reflective observation abilities (RO) which are on either end of one continuum and

 Abstract conceptualisation abilities (AC) and active experimentation abilities (AE), which are opposites on another continuum.

All the models on learning convey that learning is a process full of tension and conflict as new knowledge, skills and attitudes come about through contrasting abilities. All learners need to apply and incorporate all the above abilities; so that on one continuum, they can experience events at a concrete level and can think in terms of abstract concepts while on the other continuum they can engage in active experimentation as well as do reflective observation (Kolb 2005).

The learning process of different people with preferences for different learning styles such as accommodating, diverging, assimilating and converging, are part of a system that sees learning happening along a (N-S) feeling – thinking dialectic and a (W-E) acting – reflecting dialectic. Concrete Experience Active Experimentation  NW feeling-acting Accommodating  N acting-reflecting Northerner  NE feeling-reflecting Diverging  Reflective Observation  W acting, feeling-thinking Westerner  C feeling, acting + reflecting, thinking Balancing  E reflecting, feeling- thinking Easterner  SW thinking-acting Converging  S thinking acting-reflecting Southerner  SE thinking-reflecting Assimilating  Abstract Conceptualisation

Figure 2.3 Kolb’s Nine-Region Learning Style Type Grid (Kolb and Kolb 2005:198) The different styles are explained in a little more detail below:

 Diverging style: Persons with this style are best at viewing concrete situations from many points of view;

 Assimilating style: Best at understanding a wide range of information and putting it into a concise, logical form;

 Accommodating style: Best able to learn from primary “hands-on” experience;  Northerner: Capacity for deep involvement while being comfortable in the outer

world of action and the inner world of reflection;

 Easterner: Capacity for deep reflection informed by the ability to be both feeling oriented and conceptual;

 Southerner: Highly developed conceptual and analytical capabilities informed by both reflection and action;

 Westerner: Highly developed action skills that are informed by both conceptual analysis and intuitive experience; and

 Balancing: Integrates all the styles, more adaptively flexible learners (Kolb 2005: 196-198).

People seldom are purely dominant in the one or the other style, so one should not treat this as an approach where people are categorised or put in a box of being either this or that style but rather should be somewhere along the continuum between on the two dialectic orientations. This is good as “[c]omplexity, and the integration of dialectic conflicts among the adaptive modes are the hallmarks of true creativity and growth” (Kolb 1984: 31).

“To learn is not the special province of a single specialised realm of human functioning such as cognition or perception. It involves the integrated functioning of the total organism – thinking, feeling, perceiving, and behaving” (Kolb 1984: 31).

Learning is the major process of human adaptation [...] It encompasses all life stages, from childhood to adolescence, to middle and old age. Therefore, it encompasses other, more limited adaptive concepts such as creativity, problem-solving, decision making, and attitude change that focus heavily on one or another of the basic aspects of adaptation. Thus, creativity research has tended to focus on the divergent (concrete and reflective) factors in adaptation such as tolerance for ambiguity, metaphorical thinking, and flexibility, whereas research on decision making has emphasized more convergent (abstract and active) adaptive factors such as the rational evaluation of solution alternatives (Kolb 1984: 32).

Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb 1984: 38). Experiential learning processes focus on:

 “the process of adaptation and learning as opposed to content or outcomes.  knowledge is a transformation process being continuously created and recreated,

not as an independent entity to be acquired or transmitted.

 to understand learning, we must understand the nature of learning, and visa versa (Kolb 1984: 38).

2.4.2.6. Implications of Kolb’s experiential process of life skills acquisition

The main contribution brought about by the experiential learning theory of Kolb is the introduction of a multi-linear approach beyond that acquiring knowledge and learning lie purely in rational thinking but rather are a process rooted in experience. According to him the process of learning and acquiring knowledge moves through three stages; that of acquisition which typically happens from birth through to adolescence, which is followed by a period of specialisation that takes place during the period of formal schooling and progresses from there to early work and events in adulthood. Integration is the last stage which occurs during a mid- career and later life stage. The process of learning is multi-linear, is impacted on through an individual’s learning style and through their life path. It also takes place through the development of concrete experience, on which people will reflect and observe. This leads to the development of abstract concepts after which active experimentation happens, and this, in turn, leads to new experiences. Learning then is a process and does not happen easily as new knowledge, skills, and attitudes grow out of abilities that often lie opposite each other on two continuums; that of “concrete experience abilities (CE) and reflective observation abilities (RO)” which lie on one range and “abstract conceptualisation (AC) and active experimentation (AE) that are on another”. Learning also takes place in the tension created between our “feelings and our thinking as well as that between our acting (behaving) and reflecting (perceiving) abilities” (Kolb 1984). People have different natural learning styles, and thus, we tend to be better at some of these stages than others. For teachers, this means that they need to be aware that learners in a class are naturally gifted with different learning approaches and that they need to bring in a mix of concrete and active activities together with opportunities for reflection and theorising.

To conclude, Kolb’s experiential learning theory teaches that the process of learning involves the integrated functioning of the total person, with their thinking, feeling, perceiving and behaving faculties all playing a part in the process. An artist will approach a problem more from a divergent perspective, while a business executive will use convergent thinking when trying to make decisions. Kolb has developed nine ability “regions” to indicate different human learning styles which lie on a continuum between concrete experience and abstract conceptualisation on one dialectic and active experimentation and reflective observation on the other dialectic. Learning requires people to give attention to a mix of these activities on an on-going basis. New knowledge, skills, and attributes come about through contrasting abilities being applied. In the first years of life, people are more focused on acquisition processes of learning, later this is followed by specialisation activities, and in the last life stages integration

of prior learning and experience takes place. When working with young learners, the area of emphasis of this study, the focus will be mostly on the acquisition stage of acquiring life skills.