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Kolb's Learning Styles

In the early 1980s, David Kolb developed a learning style inventory and identified that a complete learning cycle is one that includes a concrete experience (feeling), some reflective observation (watching), abstract conceptualization (thinking), and active experimentation (doing).  Learners tend to enter the learning cycle at their preferred point, and to achieve mastery in learning, through all four ways of learning.  Depending on a person’s preferred way of taking in and processing knowledge, his or her learning style can be determined. 

1. Accommodating learners prefer to take in knowledge through concrete experience (feeling) and process it through active experimentation (doing).  They tend to prefer discovery learning and approach problems in a trial and error manner.
2. Diverging learners also prefer to take in knowledge through concrete experience (feeling) but prefer to process it through reflective observation (watching).  They tend to prefer learning in groups and their interests tend to be divergent.
3. Assimilating learners prefer to take in knowledge through abstract conceptualization (thinking) and process it through reflective observation (watching).  They tend to learn most effectively by creating and applying conceptual models and often use inductive reasoning.
4. Converging learners also prefer to take in knowledge through abstract conceptualization (thinking) but prefer to process it through active experimentation (doing).  They tend to prefer learning by practical application and hypothetical-deductive reasoning and problem-solving.

While no one has a completely static learning style, it is useful to recognize the different learning styles that students prefer.  Further information on each type and how to incorporate these into your teaching can be found below.
See also Learning Approaches

Related Resources

 http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-explrn.htm This site offers a detailed explanation of Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory and information on Kolb himself and his theories of learning.

The University of Guelph’s Teaching Support Services website has a wide range of excellent resources from the definition of learning styles to online instruments to identify individual learning styles.
www.tss.uoguelph.ca/resources/idres/packagels.html

A brief description of each learning style can be found at changingminds.org.