Kolb’s Cycle of Learning

[MaryRoseG Participant]

Good Morning

I am in the midst of Module 1 of an NPQSL and one of the formative assessments I am doing is about how Kolb’s Learning styles and cycle of learning relate to my current practice and can be used to design effective PD.  I have attached the article which we had to read first and I was struck by the similarities between this and FOSIL – although it lacks the depth and complexity of FOSIL and I wondered whether there is any direct relationship between the two (i.e. were you directly influenced or inspired by his work)?  I don’t see any reference to it on this site and my guess is that the similarities are coincidental.

The PD cycle I am planning for next year is around embedding a whole school reading culture and at its heart is the importance of inspiring and developing curiosity and I think that rather than being informed by Kolb’s learning styles to design it, it would be much more sensible to use the FOSIL cycle as a blueprint for staff PD.  I need to think long and hard about this!

Attachments:

1. 

   simplypsychology.org-Kolb-Learning-Styles.pdf
   

[Darryl Toerien Keymaster]

Hello, Mary-Rose.

This is very interesting, and thanks for sharing the article.

Although I am familiar with Kolb, no direct influence on me. I can’t speak for Barbara, though, and haven’t had a chance to check her bibliographies – I’m just finishing off an article for ACCESS, but will have time over the weekend to look. She doesn’t mention Kolb in her E&L Memo – E&L Memo 1 | Learning to know and understand through inquiry – but the similarity with Dewey on education and/ as experience is obvious & striking.

The use of FOSIL for staff PD makes perfect sense to me, especially if FOSIL is already in use in your school – PD as inquiry into my own practice, and a meaningful opportunity to deepen knowledge and understanding of the very learning process that I am teaching.

In fact, my colleague at Oakham, Chris, considered FOSIL ideal for this very purpose, and developed a proposal along these lines. I am not sure what came of this, but I will see over the weekend whether I still have the work on this that he shared with me.

Darryl

[Darryl Toerien Keymaster]

Hello, again, Mary-Rose.

Sorry – a whole week has managed to slip by!

Kolb is not referenced in Brainstorms and Blueprints: Teaching Library Research as a Thinking Process (Stripling & Pitts, 1988).

However, there is a discussion of Kolb’s work on learning styles and his learning style inventory in Teaching for Inquiry: Engaging the Learner Within (Small, Arnone, Stripling & Berger, 2012).

Chris’ proposal/ article is substantial enough for its own topic, so I will create one for it and link to it from here.

Darryl

Edit: The link is to the work leading to the actual proposal, which I am still looking for.

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