Historical Perspective: Major Theories Modeled in The 4MAT System for Teaching Learning and Leadership

Conceptualization Intuitive (marketing) Imaginative (counseling) Practical (engineering) Theoretical (research and design) H i s t o r i c a l P e r s p e c t i v e 1.3 About Learning, Inc. • 1251 N. Old Rand Road • Wauconda, Il 60084 • 847.487.1800 • 800.822.4MAT • Fax 847.487.1811 ©2002 About Learning, Inc. No duplication allowed. • aboutlearning.com • 6.02 through which individuals refine and integrate basic adaptive modes for perceiving, thinking, acting and feeling. The major assumptions of the Kolb Model include the following: (1) learning is a continual process, not an outcome, (2) learning is grounded in personal experience, (3) learning requires the resolution of conflicts between dialectically opposed modes of adaptation to the world, and (4) learning involves transactions between the individual and the environment whereby experiences are transformed into knowledge and actions. For Kolb, learning is the constant, all encompassing central life task, and how one learns becomes a major determinant of personal development. According to Kolb, Experiential Learning Theory is a holistic concept that objectifies the resolution of tensions between basic modes of personal adaptation. Kolb’s theory is, therefore grounded in the idea that individuals attain higher levels of cognitive complexity through the integration of preferred and less preferred modes of adapting their personal circumstances. Cycle of Learning David Kolb’s Cycle of Learning is the theoretical basis for the 4MAT Model. According to Kolb, adaptations to the environment proceed through a naturally recurring dialectic which begins with a valuation of the learner’s prior experience. This valuation, (usually an affective judgment), creates the context for engaging perception through observation and reflection. These observations enable the learner to move to a second stage in the process which is oppositional to affect and personal experience, a stage which requires a shift away from affect toward conceptual abstraction and the construction of a validated theory. From the construction and assimilation of this theory, the learner proceeds to the testing or third stage of the cycle in which implications for behavior are determined. The testing phase is oppositional to perception and reflective observation. The cycle completes itself with the integration of these implications into a newly constructed synthesis which forms a composite for action. Thus Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model describes a process through which the four modes of human experience are engaged at various levels of complexity to create more complete levels of understanding. For Kolb, the adaptive engagement between and among the modes of concrete experience (CE), reflective observation (RO), abstract conceptualization (AC) and active experimentation (AE) is prerequisite to learning and personal development . For example, one might view a problem exclusively from the perspective of personal experiences with this problem or those problems considered to be similar, or one might view a problem from what has been verified by experts about the nature of the problem. The decision to trust one adaptive strategy over the other is personal. One might also attempt to resolve the problem by reflecting upon it and designing a plan, or by manipulating and testing applications until a solution can be found. Balance and experience with all four of these adaptive learning modes is the basis of Kolb’s theory. Simply stated, according to Kolb, “individuals expand their learning and adaptive processes through exercising them.” H i s t o r i c a l P e r s p e c t i v e 1.4 About Learning, Inc. • 1251 N. Old Rand Road • Wauconda, Il 60084 • 847.487.1800 • 800.822.4MAT • Fax 847.487.1811 ©2002 About Learning, Inc. No duplication allowed. • aboutlearning.com • 6.02 Additionally, according to Kolb, when contrasting world views are consistently resolved through the suppression of one mode and the reliance upon its opposite, learning tends to become automatized around the trusted mode and limited in those areas which are suppressed. The result is a preferred “style” for learning. Kolb asserts, “ over time, accentuation forces operate on individuals in such a way that the dialectic tensions between these dimensions are consistently resolved in a characteristic fashion. Some people develop minds that excel at assimilating disparate facts into coherent theories, yet these same people are incapable of, or uninterested in, deducing hypotheses from the theory. Others are logical geniuses but find it impossible to involve and surrender themselves to an experience... Each of us in a unique way develops a learning style that has some weak and strong points.” Kolb has also popularized a classification system which identifies four basic learning “styles” which are described as follows: • Divergers ( CE+ RO) rely upon their concrete experiences and process these experiences reflectively; • Assimilators (AC+RO) rely upon theories and abstract conceptualizations which they process reflectively; • Convergers (AC+AE) rely upon abstract conceptualizations of the world, and process these them actively; • Accommodators ( CE+AE) rely upon their concrete experiences and process them actively. Using these four learning styles Kolb articulated his concept of environmental learning press, the idea that differentiated complexity inherent in each environment facilitates a particular type of adaptation. According to Kolb, a situation that demands experimenting with behavioral alternatives enhances and reinforces active experimentation. Hence, for Kolb, a particular task or ACCOMMODATING CONCEPTS INTO EXPERIENCE Active Experimentation finding out if they are right and what meaning I might make of the experience ASSIMILATING EXPERIENCE INTO CONCEPTS Reflective Observation from Subjective (what I know) to Objective (what they know) Concrete Experience Abstract Conceptualization Tinkering with, using, manipulating Standing back and examining, comprehending Back to an ever-renewing focus My feelings and experiences MEConceptualization Tinkering with, using, manipulating Standing back and examining, comprehending Back to an ever-renewing focus My feelings and experiences ME IT H i s t o r i c a l P e r s p e c t i v e 1.5 About Learning, Inc. • 1251 N. Old Rand Road • Wauconda, Il 60084 • 847.487.1800 • 800.822.4MAT • Fax 847.487.1811 ©2002 About Learning, Inc. No duplication allowed. • aboutlearning.com • 6.02 environment may be particularly fertile for enhancing one or another generic adaptive competence. Kolb reports that his examination of these four styles of learners in careers reveals that Divergers are over-represented in social professions, Assimilators in science-based professions, Convergers in natural science/ mathematics careers and Accommodators in humanities and social science. Again, one expands his/her learning and adaptive processes through exercising them, according to Kolb: “Divergers are apt to turn aside the challenge and tedium of abstract analysis in favor of pursuing new excitements, or to resist and delay making the decisions required for taking action when it is called for. Convergers, on the other hand, are apt to ignore or stereotype others in favor of applying abstract principles to problem solving.The former often defends against symbolic and behavioral complexity, while the later defends against the affective and perceptual.Accommodators and Assimilators likewise have their ways of reducing and defending against kinds of complexity with which they are ill-equipped to deal.” Principles of 4MAT modeled in Kolb David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, specifically his cycle of interaction between Concrete Experiential (CE), Reflective Observation (RO), Abstract Conceptualization (AC) and Active Experimentation (AE) modes of personal adaptation, is the theoretical basis for The 4MAT System for Teaching, Learning, and Leadership. McCarthy credits Kolb for the structure upon which she built her model. And while McCarthy has slightly changed the articulation of Kolb’s theory to incorporate other theories and to reflect more recent research, each change was an extension of rather than departure from, Kolb’s original dictum that individuals expand their adaptive processes through exercising them. Theoretical models which categorize individuals as one type or another are appealing to some and are odious oversimplifications to others. Nevertheless, different classification systems have been fruitful as general descriptions of human behavior. Most psychologists use the term “personality” to describe the full complex of reactions which distinguish an individual from others. Personality is distinguished from “type” in that type deals with individual reactions (or predisposition) to specific events. In this way, cognitive or learning type classifications like McCarthy’s Learning Type Measure and Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory are, by design, limited to learning. It is noteworthy here that the functions and descriptions of the four adaptive modes described in Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory have survived the test of twenty years of implementation. Applying Kolb’s theory, McCarthy demonstrates that her model effectively orchestrates a repertoire of specific teaching/ learning sets which balance tensions between concrete experiential and abstract conceptual orientations. The comprehensive quality and depth of these learning sets, especially their articulation in practical language, are McCarthy’s contribution to the expansion of Kolb’s theory. McCarthy’s model also provides for balance between reflective observation and active experimentation through specified variations in teacher/learner interactions. Learning by validating preferred modes of adaptation while stretching to less preferred modes are clearly unifying principles in both Kolb’s and McCarthy’s models. There is a difference between Kolb’s theory and McCarthy’s Model in the way learning style is classified. For Kolb, individuals are classified into one of four learning styles based on a mathematical computation which derives from the individual’s score on a self-report instrument which measures preferences for perception and processing. This style is then described in terms of individual behaviors. McCarthy emphasizes the independent yet related nature of all four of H i s t o r i c a l P e r s p e c t i v e 1.6 About Learning, Inc. • 1251 N. Old Rand Road • Wauconda, Il 60084 • 847.487.1800 • 800.822.4MAT • Fax 847.487.1811 ©2002 About Learning, Inc. No duplication allowed. • aboutlearning.com • 6.02 Kolb’s aspect of style. She describes a leading adaptive mode, two supporting modes and a least preferred mode. Using her 4MAT Model, McCarthy draws attention to the commonalities in learning that individuals share, while also indicating the extent to which the behaviors of others must be accommodated. In this way McCarthy applies Kolb’s constructs to helps individuals compare their composite profile to the specific task requisites in any endeavor (Kolb’s Environmental Press) and then make decisions about employing their preferred modes while managing or stretching less preferred modes. Therefore, McCarthy resists the temptation to classify learners in terms of a single style. In McCarthy’s Model, the key issues are the level of differentiation (or preference) and juxtaposition of each of Kolb’s four contrasting ways of understanding and acting on life’s circumstances. Also, for McCarthy, each of the four preferences is considered separately in light of its degree of reliance upon reflective or active processing. In essence, McCarthy is saying that individual learning style is the degree to which individuals differentiate and use each of Kolb’s four ways of knowing. Style for McCarthy, is the relationship between and among these modes as much as it is the most preferred. Additionally, when Kolb popularized his Experiential Learning Theory little was known about the influences of hemispheric specificity upon teaching, learning and human development. The inclusion of hemispheric specificity as a further determinant of individual differences in learning is a further extension of Kolb’s model by McCarthy. McCarthy, has overlaid a right and left hemispheric variation within each of Kolb’s four styles. Again, these additions were not a departure from but a deepening of Kolb’s model.