Kolb Lsi

1. Kolb Lsi Learning style inventory types & characteristics

2. The Kolb LSI is • a springboard for discussion about learning preferences • a framework through which we can begin to understand our relationship to others around us and our learning environment, including our relationships in group work • a language of process & product easily connected to writing • a resource for thinking about career options appropriate to the ways that we as individuals perceive and process information

3. The Kolb LSI is not • a personality test • a test of learning ability • a diagnostic for learning problems or disabilities • foolproof

4. Benefits of Kolb’s LSI • aids in self-discovery, awareness, and reflection • helps people convert emotional responses to analytical responses • promotes critical thinking and argumentation skills

5. Aids in self-discovery, awareness, and reflection • Am I really this learning style type? • What features of other types describe me too? • What are my strengths? • What weaknesses should I focus on? • How do others see me? • How do I see others?

6. Helps people convert emotional responses to analytical responses • In school • Why do I “like” this teacher and “dislike” that one? • Why don’t I “like” this class? • Why have I always hated this subject? • Are there similarities among teachers in my major? What are those? • Do particular types of processes or procedures occur in my major? Am I comfortable with those?

7. Helps people convert emotional responses to analytical responses • In the workplace • Why do I work well with a particular supervisor or colleague? • Why do I struggle when working with another supervisor or colleague? • Why do I prefer to work on my own or prefer to work in project groups? • Why do I like certain tasks and dislike others?

8. Promotes critical thinking & argumentation skills • Are there similarities among my teachers? • Does a teacher’s style reflect the subject? • Are there similarities among workers in my chosen field? • Is there a pattern to my success? • Why do I accept or reject my LSI results? • Can I flex my learning styles in different contexts?

9. The LSI Types and their questions

10. The concrete learners Accommodators and divergers — the learners in the upper quadrants — tend to perceive information concretely

11. The abstract learners while their opposites in the lower quadrants — convergers and assimilators — tend to perceive information abstractly.

12. Reflective learners The reflective learners in the right-hand quadrants — divergers and assimilators — then process that information by observing and thinking about it.

13. Active learners In contrast, the active learners in the left-hand quadrants — accommodators and convergers — process information actively by doing and experimenting.

14. The concrete learners as writers As writers, divergers and accommodators tend to work from the details up to an overall structure for their texts. As such, they tend to feel uncomfortable writing outlines and, when required to do so, often construct their outlines after they’ve written their documents. Their writing strengths include providing rich detail. Given their immersion in the concretes of experience, divergers and accommodators often tend to write texts that are too long.

15. The abstract learners as writers As writers, convergers and assimilators usually begin with the overall structure of their ideas and then move to the details. As such, they usually feel very comfortable working from outlines. They may, in fact, be unable to proceed until they know the overall framework for their ideas. The abstract learner’s writing strengths tend to include strong organization and logic. However, given their tendency to think in structures, convergersand assimilators often struggle with drafts that are well structured but too short.

16. Reflective learners as writers Divergers and assimilators sometimes think of themselves as procrastinators since they need reflection time to sort through their observations and their materials before they write. Reflective learners, then, need to build thinking time into their writing processes; they may block if they write too fast — especially if the information or concepts are relatively new to them. This thinking time may include time for sort through their ideas before they write as well as time while writing to step away from the computer — even if briefly (to grab a cup of coffee or throw some laundry in the washing machine) — to think about their next step in writing.

17. Reflective learners & their environments Divergers and assimilators tend to prefer well structured learning and working environments as well as detailed assignments. If the structure isn’t present, they tend to build it around them. If the detail isn’t there, they tend to ask teachers or supervisors lots of questions to fill in the gaps.

18. Active learners as writers Accommodators and convergers often plunge into writing or other activities without thinking ahead of time and process their ideas as they work. They tend to feel comfortable experimenting with structures, details,and ideas, and often figure out where they are going as they write.

19. Active learners & their enviromments Accommodators and convergers tend to prefer open-ended learning and working environments that include a lot of hands-on activities and active experimentation. They also tend to prefer open-ended assignments and, when presented with more highly structured or detailed assignments, may push the boundaries of the assignment or ignore assignment parameters altogether.

20. Divergers—Innovative Learners CE As Kolb defines them, divergers perceive information through concrete experience; then they process that information through reflective observation. Divergers are imaginative need “people” problems and reflecting time prefer atmosphere of high involvement create own structure through struggle with ideas value personal meaning and social interaction ask “why?” prefer to learn through discussion and interaction methods RO

21. Divergers—Your teacher CE I’m a diverger, and I’ve driven my teachers crazy with the “why” question as long as I remember. If I didn’t know why I was doing something or why something was the way it was, I would have to figure out why. For instance, although I was good at math, I had to know why formulas were set up the way they were in order to use them. My teachers would simply say, “It doesn’t matter, Judy. Just use the formula.” My research is often driven by the question “why.” I need to be personally invested in what I write to do my best; if I’m bored with something or don’t care about the topic, that’s not a good thing. My writing process is really messy, and I tend to move things around a lot before I find the structure click. I never outline; my outlines look like clusters. I tend to need large blocks of time to write something serious. It’s easy for me to write long and hard to write short. The most difficult paper I ever wrote was a one-page first-intensity insight into the meaning of Hamlet. Seriously. RO

22. Assimilators—Analytic Learners RO As Kolb defines them, assimilators perceive information through abstract conceptualization; then they process that information through reflective observation. Assimilators are theoretical need rational, sequential organization prefer systematic structure and subdued emotional climate value information, facts, and intellect ask “what?” prefer to learn through informational methods AC

23. Assimilators — A few examples RO My son, an assimilator, prefers a structured working environment; if the environment isn’t structured, he builds a structure. For instance, he’s done this while waiting tables (reorganizing all the set ups, the process for scheduling, etc.). He’s also done this when in charge of casting calls, where he’s set up structures and processes that enable him to schedule 100 auditions for a two-day casting call. When he writes, my son needs to have a logical framework for his ideas. Until he finds that framework, he cannot write; if he cannot find what he calls a “logic lock,” he blocks. A professor on my dissertation committee is also an assimilator. Many students described his discussion method as Socratic. Once when I consulted with him about writer’s block on a dissertation chapter, his first questions were whether or not I’d written a sentence-outline for the chapter and whether I’d produced my notecards. At that time, his draft of a book on Isaak Walton was well underway with detailed chapter outlines and a box of notecards, divided by chapter and ordered according to the chapter outline. (This was when personal computers had just come on the market.) Both of these assimilators enjoy research, love finding out the data, the information, what experts think — whether they’re writing or doing something else in their daily lives. AC

24. Convergers—Common Sense Learners As Kolb defines them, convergers perceive information through abstract conceptualization; then they process that information through active experimentation. Convergers are practical need direct, hands-on stimuli value sensory stimuli, the concrete, and workability ask “how does it work?” prefer to learn through coaching AE AC

25. Convergers — a few examples My adviser for my dissertation is a converger. Once when I consulted with him about writer’s block on a dissertation chapter — the same case of writer’s block that I talked about in an earlier slide — his first suggestion was that I just write, and I would figure out what it was I wanted to say. At that time, this professor was working on a novel, and this was his method of drafting: He would boot up his computer and begin a new file. Then he would just begin writing and see where the writing would take him. When he had a draft, he would print it, read it, and then throw away the paper copy and delete the file from his computer. He would know the direction he would take in the next draft, and he would open a new file and begin that draft. He wrote the entire novel this way. My younger brother is a converger, and he attended my graduate school his freshman year in college as an engineering major. Although he often talked to me about his writing, he clearly never wanted a response from me. He just wanted me to listen. He often thought through his writing when practicing his katas (for karate) or when walking between classes; then when he had access to a computer, he would dump what he’d processed in his head. He’s now a systems analyst and runs project teams that are distributed (now globally) — often trouble shooting. For fun, he does things like building or rebuilding computers. AE AC

26. Accommodators—Dynamic Learners CE As Kolb defines them, accommodators perceive information through concrete experimentation; then they process that information through active experimentation. Accommodators are intuitive need unstructured experimental organization prefer lack of structure create their own structure through experimentation value intuition, experience, & hidden possibilities ask “if?” or “what can this become?” prefer to learn through self-discovery AE

27. Accommodators — an example CE A colleague of mine in the department is an accommodator. When we did some consulting with a county employment agency, this professor identified himself as the “fuzzy guy” in the cartoon on the next slide. (More on this later.) He’s constantly running scenarios about current situations: If we did this, what would happen? What if we did something else instead? Wouldn’t it be fun to do xxx and see what happens? Although he’s very creative and an idea generator — excellent at imagining what could be, he would be the first to say that he needs to be sure to follow through, that follow up is not one of his strengths. He has a project binder with cards so that he can log his ideas and order them using a flexible system; this is also the system that he uses for following up on project details. When he’s given a structure, he likes to push on the boundaries of this structure to see what it might become. He says he’s done this forever — including purposefully coloring outside the lines in coloring books. AE

28. Assimilators VS. Accommodators An aside on group work: Like my colleague, the employees we consulted with — social workers at a county employment agency — saw themselves as the fuzzy guy too. They saw their supervisor as the buzzard given her emphasis on data collection and assessment. This says something about the group dynamics we were asked to address. Once the employees saw the differences as differences in learning style rather than personality, they were able to approach their work differently.

29. DivergerVS. converger • In a year-long project that resulted in a presentation at a national conference, two tutors did hands-on research in the writing center. • When they began, one of the tutors, Barb (a converger) wanted to head right to the computer to generate a draft of their proposal. • The other tutor, Cindy (a diverger) didn’t want to begin until she’d had some time to think about the project. Cindy’s normal way of writing anything was to think and think and think — and then run to a computer to dump everything in one draft. • If they were going to work together for a year, they needed to figure out a way to work together while respecting their various processes. They essentially worked out a system that allowed them to work separately on individual tasks and then come together to discuss next steps. • They retook the Kolb test when their project was successfully completed; although both still tested in the same quadrants, each had stretched her abilities in the direction of her research partner’s learning styles. • This stretching of skills sets is not unusual when people with different learning styles work together and concentrate on effective group practices.

30. Bernice McCarthy on Classroom applications of Kolb • Bernice McCarthy has applied Kolb’s LSI to the classroom. • She has suggested that we should “teach around the clock” — starting with the upper right-hand quadrant of Kolb’s LSI grid. • Chris Gordon and I talk more about McCarthy’s work in “Teaching around the Circle.” • For now, I’d like to concentrate on McCarthy’s perspective of classroom activities painful for each learning style.

31. Classroom Activities Painful for Each Learning Style In McCarthy’s view, Accommodators and divergers are uncomfortable learning alone. Convergers and assimilators are uncomfortable learning in groups. Accommodators and convergers find too much structure uncomfortable. Divergers and assimilators find insufficient structure uncomfortable.

32. Think concretely about painful activities (an example) • However, we need to be careful when we think about activities McCarthy sees as painful for specific learning styles — in fact, about overgeneralizing based upon elements of Kolb’s LSI. • We also need to be careful not to pigeon hole people, including ourselves. • As we mature, we learn to build upon our strengths and address our weaknesses; in addition, as we gain experience, we learn to do things we need to do — whether or not they make us feel uncomfortable — and can flex our learning style a bit. • So for instance, as a diverger, I’m not supposed to feel comfortable doing science or research projects. • Although this may be true, I’ve done many of these projects in my lifetime, both at school at as part of my work. • I’ve learned how to work through them in a way that works for me. • I’ve discovered that the research is actually fun if I pick a project of personal interest or that answers the question why. • It’s true that I don’t like fast answers generally. • If the question relates to something I haven’t thought much about, fast answers are particularly painful. I’m likely to respond with, “Let me think about that, and I’ll get back to you.” • If the question relates to something I know a lot about, fast answers aren’t painful at all. • It’s true that I hate speaking in front of groups. • If I need to do it, I make certain that I have lots of preparation time. • My teaching style doesn’t focus on lecturing. • It’s true that I hate reading projects where material is not of personal interest. Ask me about Pilgrim’s Progress sometime.

33. So . . . . • Use Kolb’s LSI and Bernice McCarthy’s application of it to help you think about why you tend to prefer or to resist • certain processes when you write, learn, and work in groups • certain processes when you teach • certain technologies (that may have these processes embedded in them or may help to facilitate these processes) • Also consider using in your teaching technologies and processes • that are appropriate for different learning styles, that help you to “teach around the clock” • that don’t preference a particular learning style (perhaps your own) over the others • that help you to achieve specific learning goals. • In any case, please resist pigeon holing yourself or others. • Although Kolb presents four learning-styles quadrants, people’s test results span over 700-places on Kolb’s grid. • We also know that people can shift on the grid, depending upon when they take the test and what they’re thinking about — although I only know of one case of people shifting quadrants over time. • Instead, use the LSI as a trigger for your own reflection about yourself, your writing and group work, your teaching, and your use of technology.