Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development

Not everyone is interested in a referenced text. This is not your sit down and breeze through popular book on a topic. However, if you are interested in understanding the foundation of the field of learning through experience, you absolutely must read, no study, this reference. For those of us who are practitioners, understanding theory is critical and this reference provides the foundation for much of the current work in the learning field. I highly recommend. This book will not go out of date as experiential strategies are not a fade and will not go out of style.

This book is fantastic. It helps explain in detail the Why, What, How, and What if... If you are a leader and want to communicate better in presentations, negotiations, and team meetings. It is a great book on how people experience the world and internalise it. Another great read that uses examples to explain the theory is 'The Art of Changing the Brain' by J. Zull.

although occasionally overly complex, the core ideas of experiential learning are easily understood and implemented. kolb's theories and ideas match up smoothly to real life. i would submit that most teachers already use experiential learning, and those that don't are missing out. read it, try it, reflect on it, and then you will understand... but i'm paraphrasing.stu

This is a classic work, and if you are an educator who uses experiential learning theory, it is a must for your personal library. Dewey and Kolb are experts on experiential learning theory, and their books and articles are needed as references when writing about these subjects.

Built on Lewin, Dewey, and Piaget, Kolb's theory of learning is consistent with Deming's PDSA cycle and Nonaka's Knowledge generation spiral. Academics meets Business in the experience of Online students...

It's a very good book.

When one encounters the word " dialectic" while reading academic texts it should be as a clear signal as a fire to forest ranger that trouble is on the horizon. This statement may be a bit of an exaggeration but it would definitely be accurate to say that Kolb's Experiential Learning is no easy read. Of course, this does not diminish the value of the book, in spite of difficult passages. Ironically, this is the essence of the concept of "dialectic". Liberal doses of psychology are ladled throughout the book as the masters (Piaget, Jung, et. al) are consistently consulted to back up theory. Although not professing to have knowledge about psychology, it is clear that their work is essential to establish the interrelationship between cognition and experiential learning. Theory of learning and the opposing learning styles of apprehension and comprehension are explored. This book is clearly the cure for a stubborn case of insomnia. I can't say that the book is without merit, however, because it held some great information that will be useful now and in future applications when I have the chance to practice my current endeavors. Some passages even caused a sense of anticipation for the succeeding ones because there was a considerable amount of interesting information that I had not yet pondered. I would compare this book to putting molasses on pancakes on a winter day. It is thick and doesn't go down easily but great once you warm up to it

Going back and forward to trace key roots in my intellectual/professional life and current manifestations, I got into Kolb’s book. There are more recent versions, but I went with the version as it was available to me at the time. Glad for the exposure to the first edition of this classic, I was able to better to discern the way Kolb’s work has evolved. Furthermore, I was impressed by the breadth of the author’s work as a framework for understanding not only experiential learning but also broader learning and knowledge generation.The book’s contents include a Foreword (by Warren Bennis, eminent group dynamics/organization development pioneer and educator), Preface and Introduction, then 31 Chapters in Eight Parts. The main Parts consist of (1) The Foundations of Contemporary Approaches to Experiential Learning, (2) The Process of Experiential Learning, (3) Structural Foundations of the Learning Process, (4) Individuality in Learning and the Concept of Learning Styles, (5) The Structure of Knowledge, (6) The Experiential Learning Theory of Development, (7) Learning and Development in Higher Education, and (8) Lifelong Learning and Integrative Development. (The second edition, issued in 2014, has these same major sections, but they are grouped into the three overarching segments of Experience and Learning, The Structure of Learning and Knowledge, then Learning and Development; there are also a revised Preface and Introduction as well as “Updates and Reflections” in each of the 8 parts listed above along with a Bibliography and Index amended accordingly).There is so much in this compact book, but the aspects that stood out for me revolved around Kolb’s diagrams and tables as well as the many sources he incorporates. For instance, on pg. 42, the author’s chart summarizes the four essential dimensions of the experiential learning process where one has a concrete experience (CE), engages in reflective observation (RO), then through abstract conceptualization (AC) to help explain and through active experimentation (AE) to test one’s new understanding. On pgs. 96 and 97, there are depictions that show the traits of those who tend to emphasize one of these dimensions as their dominant learning style and ways these characteristics line up with personality types and education specializations as well as professional careers, jobs, and adaptive capabilities. Similarly, the figure on pg. 124 indicates how the four styles (divergent, assimilative, convergent, and accommodative) translate into different structures of learning, knowledge, and fields of inquiry. Figures on pgs. 126 to 127 provide more details on correspondence of learning styles and academic fields. A complex drawing on pg. 130 illustrates the structures and progressions in careers in line with the four dominant styles of learning. The diagram on pg. 140 represents how one progresses in experiential learning and the four styles through affective, perceptual, behavioral, and symbolic complexity in acquiring, specializing and integrating one’s identity and sense of self.If the previous summary is difficult to follow, the pictures and Kolb’s text really lay things out in a straightforward and engaging manner. Furthermore, the background and derivations tie back to such thinkers as John Dewey and William James, Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, and Paulo Freire (see my reviews of Menard’s “Metaphysical Club,” Jones and Brazzel’s “NTL Handbook,” Gopnik’s “The Carpenter and the Gardner,” and Freire’s “Pedagogy of Freedom”). The author’s narrative also informs the differences among academic disciplines along with career development choices and stages (see my reviews of Huber and Morreale’s “Disciplinary Styles” as well as Schein’s “Career Dynamics”).The detail backing up Kolb’s assertions and his survey results can be a bit much at times. However, this version is essential providing underpinning of Kolb’s approach which he continued to refine in numerous articles over the years and in second edition of this book. Also, in this first edition one can see where further development would likely come as in the last chapter and sure enough in subsequent writing Kolb goes a long way in filling in such detail even though experiential and lifelong learning is a continuing saga. Read this classic to get into ongoing knowledge generation schema.

Good book.