David A. Kolb
{{short description|American educational theorist (born 1939)}}
{{multiple issues|
{{external links|date=March 2017}}
{{BLP primary sources|date=March 2017}}
{{BLP sources|date=March 2017}}
}}
{{Infobox philosopher |
region = Western Philosophy |
era = 20th-century philosophy |
image =|
image_size = 150px |
caption = |
name = David Allen Kolb |
birth_date = December 12, 1939 |
school_tradition = |
main_interests = experiential learning |
influences = John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Kurt Lewin |
influenced = |
notable_ideas = Experiential Learning Model (ELM)
}}
David Allen Kolb (born December 12, 1939, in Moline, Illinois) is an American educational theorist whose interests and publications focus on experiential learning, the individual and social change, career development, and executive and professional education. He is the founder and chairman of Experience Based Learning Systems, LLC (EBLS),[http://learningfromexperience.com/about/ Experience Based Learning Systems, LLC. (EBLS)] and an Emeritus Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Kolb has collaborated with his daughter Alice on research related to experiential learning and has co-authored several works with him.{{fact|date=August 2024}}
Kolb earned his BA from Knox College in 1961 and his MA and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1964 and 1967 respectively, in social psychology.
Experiential learning
{{main|Experiential learning}}
In the early 1970s, Kolb and Ron Fry (now both at the Weatherhead School of Management) developed the Experiential Learning Model (ELM),Kolb. D. A. and Fry, R. (1975) Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. in C. Cooper (ed.), Theories of Group Process, London: John Wiley. composed of four elements:
- concrete experience,
- observation of and reflection on that experience,
- formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection,
- testing the new concepts,
- (repeat).
These four elements are the essence of a spiral of learning that can begin with any one of the four elements, but typically begins with a concrete experience.
While this model is used widely in fields such as management education, it has been criticised for its inflexibility and over-simplification.{{cite journal |last1=Ryder |first1=Mike |last2=Downs |first2=Carolyn |title=Rethinking reflective practice: John Boyd's OODA loop as an alternative to Kolb |url=https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/175551/1/OODA_loops_final_published_article_online_first.pdf |journal=The International Journal of Management Education |date=November 2022 |volume=20 |issue=3 |page=100703 |doi=10.1016/j.ijme.2022.100703 |s2cid=252152374 |access-date=2 November 2022|doi-access=free }}
Learning Style Inventory
Kolb is known in educational circles for his Learning Style Inventory (LSI). His model is built upon the idea that learning preferences can be described using two continuums:
- Active experimentation ↔ Reflective observation
- Abstract conceptualization ↔ Concrete experience.
The result is four types of learners: converger (Active experimentation - Abstract conceptualization), accommodator (Active experimentation - Concrete experience), assimilator (Reflective observation - Abstract conceptualization), and diverger (Reflective observation - Concrete experience). The LSI is designed to determine an individual's learning preference.[http://learningfromexperience.com/about/ Experience Based Learning Systems, LLC (EBLS)]
Bibliography
- Kolb, D.A., Rubin, I.M., McIntyre, J.M. (1974). [https://web.archive.org/web/20051025115503/http://www.learningfromexperience.com/research-library/ Organizational Psychology: A Book of Readings, 2nd edition.] Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
- Kolb, D.A., Fry, R.E. (1974). Toward an Applied Theory of Experiential Learning
- Kolb, D. A., Kolb, A.Y. (2011). [https://web.archive.org/web/20170516224452/http://learningfromexperience.com/media/2016/10/2013-KOLBS-KLSI-4.0-GUIDE.pdf The Kolb Learning Style Inventory 4.0]
- Peterson, K., & Kolb, D. A. (2017). How You Learn Is How You Live: Using Nine Ways of Learning to Transform Your Life. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Wikiquote}}
- [https://weatherhead.case.edu/executive-education/instructors/david-kolb Kolb's Faculty Profile at Case Western University]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolb, David A.}}
Category:21st-century American psychologists
Category:Knox College (Illinois) alumni
Category:Harvard University alumni