David A. Kolb is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 educational theorist whose interests and publications focus on experiential learning

Experiential learning

Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience. Simply put, Experiential Learning is learning from experience. The experience can be staged or left open. Aristotle once said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." David A...

, the individual and social change, career development, and executive and professional education. He is the founder and chairman of Experience Based Learning Systems, Inc. (EBLS), and a Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Weatherhead School of Management

Weatherhead School of Management

The Weatherhead School of Management is a private business school of Case Western Reserve University located in Cleveland, Ohio. Weatherhead is considered a top-tier business school, with its strongest programs concentrated in organizational behavior, nonprofit business, information systems,...

, Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...

, Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

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Kolb earned his BA from Knox College in 1961 and his MA and Ph.D. from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1964 and 1967 respectively, in social psychology

Social psychology

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...

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Experiential learning

In the early 1970s, Kolb and Ron Fry (now both at the Weatherhead School of Management

Weatherhead School of Management

The Weatherhead School of Management is a private business school of Case Western Reserve University located in Cleveland, Ohio. Weatherhead is considered a top-tier business school, with its strongest programs concentrated in organizational behavior, nonprofit business, information systems,...

) developed the Experiential Learning Model (ELM), 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. He named his model to emphasize its links to ideas from John Dewey

John Dewey

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...

, Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology"....

, Kurt Lewin

Kurt Lewin

Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology....

, and other writers of the experiential learning

Experiential learning

Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience. Simply put, Experiential Learning is learning from experience. The experience can be staged or left open. Aristotle once said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." David A...

 paradigm. His model was developed predominantly for use with adult education, but has found widespread pedagogical implications in higher education.

Learning Style Inventory

Kolb is renowned 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 and 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. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (version 4) is available exclusively through Hay Group

Hay Group

Hay Group or The Hay Group is a global human resources management consulting firm headquartered in Philadelphia, with offices worldwide. It was founded in 1943 by Edward N. Hay. In 1984 the firm was purchased by Saatchi & Saatchi, but returned to private ownership in 1990 after a management...

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External links

1. http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-explrn.htm

2. http://reviewing.co.uk/research/experiential.learning.htm

3. Hay Group On Demand products

4. Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI)

5. Faculty Profile at Case Western University