Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle

Which active learning strategies work best and how can you ensure that students will be engaged? Engaging students is challenging and isn’t a matter of simply finding the “right” activity or latest strategy. In this session, you will examine how Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle provides a template for designing each course session to engage students in being active learners using a wide range of pedagogy and strategies. In short, Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle is a flexible tool for framing each course session that begins with a provocative, multi-sensory, interactive experience versus abstract content and theory.

You will learn how to design and facilitate the four phases of Kolb’s Learning Cycle to engage your learners in higher level thinking that evokes their curiosity and better prepares them for abstract theory and principles. In this session, you will begin to align a Kolb Cycle Lesson plan with your specific course session or module outcomes. Even a lecture-based course can use Kolb’s Cycle to shift into a “modified lecture” format or a highly interactive experience by tapping students’ curiosity, prior knowledge, and diverse perspectives. Kolb’s Cycle can be adapted and applied to any discipline, course format, or class size. Multiple disciplinary examples and templates will be provided.