Educational Psychology / Unit 10 EDP 0932 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Kolb's Experiential Cycle
The idea
Experiential learning is learning by doing and reflecting, and Kolb's cycle describes it in four stages, in this order. Concrete experience: the learner has an experience. Reflective observation: the learner reviews and reflects on it. Abstract conceptualization: the learner forms a general idea or principle from the reflection. Active experimentation: the learner tests that idea in a new situation, which produces a new concrete experience and starts the cycle again.
In practice
Worked example: a student teacher leads a discussion that stalls, a concrete experience. That evening she reviews what happened and notices that her questions all had one right answer, which is reflective observation. She concludes that open questions invite more talk, which is abstract conceptualization. The next day she tries open questions, which is active experimentation, and the new discussion becomes the next experience.
Where people slip
The cycle begins with concrete experience, not with active experimentation; a sequence starting anywhere else misplaces the stages. Critics question what counts as a concrete experience, but the order of the four stages is standard.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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