Experiential Learning Theory:
A Lifelong Cycle of Learning and Development
David Kolb
Another widely researched, experience-based theory of human learning and personal development
is David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory. Also based on an expanded view of human
intellectual capacity which involves testing ideas in actual experience, Experiential Learning
Theory focuses on those adaptive modes of thinking from which productive lines of thought and
action can be fashioned. According to Kolb human learning and personal development are synonymous
processes which involve the continuous integration of a distinct set of independent
systems that give meaning to life’s circumstances. Kolb specifically names these systems (or
modes) as follows: Concrete Experiential (CE) , Reflective Observation (RO), Abstract
Conceptual (AC), and Active Experimentation (AE).