concrete experience

While there are several learning styles out there for the next few days we are going to focus on David Kolb and his four pillars of learning.


Concrete Experience:

Yesterday I made mention of those moments that we have, those memories that we can look back and and take out the lesson learned and apply it to our current situation. That is what Kolb is alluding to with concrete experience. However, let’s take a look at a concrete experience. I made mention of my athleticism (or my lack of it) and the event of trying out for roller derby. I have two life events that are challenging my brain on what my real experience would be. My Brain is looking back at my life in high school where I loved being on a team, enjoyed working out, and felt the personal accomplishment in getting a Varsity letter in volleyball. However, it’s also looking back to my years of ice skating, poor balance, and ease of injury. All of these little events that occurred in my life are creating an experience. They built upon each other to create a memory, something I could access later and draw some conclusions upon. So it’s telling me that I could enjoy myself on a team, possibly enjoy working out on a regular basis, and feel really good about myself while doing it. It’s also telling me that I might want to wait for better health insurance coverage and improve my balance before giving it a shot.

Concrete experience is about taking those little events that happen and making sense of them. Those two experiences I described interacted with each other and challenged two ways of thinking. That challenge led to a new pathway, or insight on the subject at hand.

Can you think of a time where you had an experience like the one mentioned? What makes concrete experience work for some learners, what are the challenges it might have?

p.s. up to 3 points bonus for upbeat tempo workout songs for me to skate to!