The Kolb Inventory of Learning Styles

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A learning model that is more complex than the VARK Inventory is the widely used and referenced Kolb Inventory of Learning Styles. While the VARK Inventory investigates how learners prefer to use their senses in learning, the Kolb Inventory focuses on abilities we need to develop so as to learn. This inventory, developed in the 1980s by David Kolb, is based on a four-stage cycle of learning (see Figure 4.1).

YOUR TURN

Discuss

Think of all your classes this term and list your most favorite and least favorite ones. Then add the instructor’s teaching style for each class on your list. Do you think your preferences have anything to do with the way the class is taught? Why or why not? Share your reflections with a small group. You can use Figure 4.2 to compare your instructors’ teaching styles to your learning style.

According to Kolb, effective learners need four kinds of abilities:

  1. Concrete experience abilities, which allow them to be receptive to others and open to other people’s feelings and specific experiences. An example of this type of ability is learning from and empathizing with others.
  2. Reflective observation abilities, which help learners reflect on their experiences from many perspectives. An example of this type of ability is remaining impartial while considering a situation from a number of different points of view.
  3. Abstract conceptualization abilities, which help learners integrate observations into logically sound theories. An example of this type of ability is analyzing ideas intellectually and systematically.
  4. Active experimentation abilities, which enable learners to make decisions, solve problems, and test what they have learned in new situations. An example of this type of ability is being ready to move quickly from thinking to action.

Kolb’s Inventory of Learning Styles measures differences along two basic dimensions that represent opposite styles of learning. The first dimension is abstract-concrete, and the second is active-reflective. See Figure 4.1 to visualize how these polar-opposite characteristics link together to create four discrete groups of learners: divergers, assimilators, convergers, and accommodators.

Doing well in college will require you to adopt some behaviors that are characteristic of each of these four learning styles. Some of them might be uncomfortable for you, but that discomfort will indicate that you’re growing, stretching, and not relying on the learning style that might be easiest or most natural.

If you are a diverger, you are adept at reflecting on situations from many viewpoints. You excel at brainstorming, and you’re imaginative, people oriented, and sometimes emotional. On the downside, you sometimes have difficulty making decisions. Divergers tend to major in the humanities or social sciences.

If you are an assimilator, you like to think about abstract concepts. You are comfortable in classes where the instructor lectures about theoretical ideas without relating the lectures to real-world situations. Assimilators often major in math, physics, or chemistry.

FIGURE 4.1 Kolb’s Four-Stage Cycle of Learning "The Experiential Learning Model," from The Modern American College: Responding to the New Realities of Diverse Students and a Changing Society/Chickering. Copyright © 1981. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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If you are a converger, you like the world of ideas and theories, but you also are good at thinking about how to apply those theories to real-world, practical situations. You differ from divergers in your preference for tasks and problems rather than social and interpersonal issues. Convergers tend to choose health-related and engineering majors.

YOUR TURN

Write and Reflect

On the basis of the descriptions we have provided here, where do you see yourself in the Kolb Inventory? Are you more like a diverger, assimilator, converger, or accommodator? How can you use this knowledge in your courses?

If you are an accommodator, you prefer hands-on learning. You are skilled at making things happen, and you rely on your intuition. You like people, but you can be pushy and impatient at times, and you might use trial and error, rather than logic, to solve problems. Accommodators often major in business, especially in marketing or sales.1

In all your classes, but especially in liberal arts and social science courses, you will need to develop the strengths of divergers: imagination, brainstorming, and listening with an open mind. The abilities that are characteristic of assimilators, developing theories and concepts, are valuable for all students, especially those in the sciences. If you major in the health sciences or in engineering, you will routinely practice the skills of convergers: experimenting with new ideas and choosing the best solution. Finally, whatever your major and ultimate career, you’ll need to get things done, take some risks, and become a leader, all skills that are characteristic of accommodators.