Understanding Learning Styles: Building a Personal Learning Strategy
In exploring learning styles, I’ve found Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) to be both practical and insightful. It provides a clear framework for understanding how we process, retain, and apply information. In this post, I’ll break down Kolb’s model, the associated learning styles, and the four areas I focus on when building a personal learning strategy.
A Quick Recap: Kolb’s Learning styles
Kolb (1984) identifies four core learning processes that form the basis of his model:
- Feeling (Concrete Experience – CE): Learning through direct experience and emotional engagement.
- Watching (Reflective Observation – RO): Learning by observing and reflecting on experiences.
- Thinking (Abstract Conceptualization – AC): Learning by analysing ideas and forming concepts.
- Doing (Active Experimentation – AE): Learning through hands-on practice and testing ideas. These processes form a cycle, allowing learners to move from experiencing to reflecting, conceptualizing, and experimenting.
Kolb’s Four Learning Styles
Kolb also describes four learning styles, each combining two of these processes:
- Diverging (CE + RO): Learners who excel at viewing situations from multiple perspectives.
- Assimilating (RO + AC): Learners who value logical reasoning and conceptual understanding.
- Converging (AC + AE): Learners who apply ideas practically and solve problems effectively.
- Accommodating (AE + CE): Learners who rely on intuition and hands-on experience.
The Four Focus Areas
After reflecting on my own learning experiences, I focus on four specific areas when considering a student’s learning strategy:
- Approach to lectures
- Approach to studying
- Approach to exams
- Approach to group work.
- How should you approach lectures to maximize engagement?
- What types of questions help you process and retain information?
- How can you adapt when a lecturer’s style doesn’t match your own?
Applying Learning Styles in Practice
Learning begins in the classroom. If you miss the teacher’s explanation or lose track of the lesson, studying later becomes much harder. Understanding your learning style helps you ask the right questions and grasp the work more effectively.
Studying: Your learning style affects how you absorb and retain information. Once you understand your style, you can adapt your study techniques to align with your natural tendencies.
Exams: Planning, time management, and answering questions can all benefit from awareness of your learning style. Reflecting on your approach may help reduce stress and improve performance.
Group Work: When team members understand each other’s learning styles, they can complement each other’s strengths, leading to richer discussions, stronger collaboration, and better outcomes.
Something to Reflect On
As you consider your learning habits, think about these questions:
- What do the four learning styles look like in practice?
- Why focus on these four specific areas?
- Is it possible—or even beneficial—to apply different learning styles in different contexts? Reflecting on these questions is the first step toward building a personalized, effective learning strategy.
Reference:
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.