Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and Learning Cycle

Updated: 26 Oct 2026

David Kolb’s experiential learning theory says that people learn by turning experience into knowledge through a four-stage cycle: concrete experience (doing something), reflective observation (reviewing what happened), abstract conceptualisation (drawing conclusions from it) and active experimentation (trying out what was learned). American psychologist David Kolb published the theory in 1984 in Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. The cycle can start at any stage, but Kolb argued that effective learning involves all four.

In UK higher education, Kolb’s cycle is the foundation for reflective practice in nursing, teaching and social work, the model behind Gibbs’ reflective cycle, and a common design framework for placements, degree apprenticeships and industry projects. This guide explains each stage with worked examples, the four learning styles, how Kolb compares with Gibbs, and the main criticisms of the theory.

Experiential learning theory is about learning by doing. Developed by psychologist David Kolb, the theory describes a learning process in which knowledge is created through experience. Kolb’s theory explains that concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation form a four-stage process (or cycle) transformed into effective learning. Applying Kolb’s learning theory benefits students, educators, and employers.

David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory At A Glance

Theory: Experiential learning theory (ELT), also called Kolb’s learning cycle Developed by: David A. Kolb, American educational theorist, Professor Emeritus at Case Western Reserve University First published: 1984 (second edition 2015) Stages: 4. Concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, active experimentation Learning styles: 4 in the original model (diverging, assimilating, converging, accommodating); 9 in the Kolb Learning Style Inventory 4.0 (2013) Built on: John Dewey, Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget Influenced: Gibbs’ reflective cycle (1988) and Honey and Mumford’s learning styles (1986), both widely used in the UK Contents

1. Who is David Kolb
2. Kolb’s Four-Stage Experiential Learning Cycle
3. Benefits of Experiential Learning
4. Practera’s Experiential Leaning Platform

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Who Is David Kolb?

David Kolb, an American psychologist, professor, and education theorist, published the model in 1984. Kolb was born in 1939 and earned his undergraduate degree from Knox College in 1961. He then earned a PhD in social psychology from Harvard University. Kolb’s experiential learning theory was influenced by other education theorists, including Jean Piaget, John Dewey, and Kurt Lewin. Kolb has written numerous books, book chapters, and journal articles. He has been bestowed four honorary degrees and won several awards. Kolb’s learning cycle has four stages. Learners move through them in order, and each pass through the cycle becomes the starting point for the next. As the name suggests, experiential learning involves transforming experience into effective learning. Kolb’s experiential learning theory stresses how our experiences, including our thoughts, emotions and environment, impact the learning process. Kolb’s theory defines experiential learning as a four-stage process: 

1. Concrete experience occurs when a learner has a new experience or interprets a previous experience in a new way. For example, a nursing student has to learn a new procedure as part of their clinical education.
2. Reflective observation – the learner reflects on the new experience to understand what it means. In our example, the nursing student might think about how they could have done the procedure better.
3. Abstract conceptualisation – the learner adapts their thinking or constructs new ideas based on experience and reflection. For example, the nursing student realises they need to have all their materials ready before starting the procedure.
4. Active experimentation – the learner applies their new ideas to real-world situations to test whether they work and see if any changes need to be made. This process can happen quickly or over an extended time. Our nursing student might note how smoothly things go consistently when they have everything ready for a procedure in advance.

Example 1: a student nurse on placement

Concrete experience: during a placement shift, a second-year student nurse helps prepare a patient for a procedure. The patient becomes anxious and asks to stop.

Reflective observation: that evening she writes up what happened, including what she said, when the patient’s anxiety rose, and how her mentor responded.

Abstract conceptualisation: she reads about patient communication and concludes that explaining each step before it happens, rather than during it, reduces anxiety.

Active experimentation: on her next shift she talks the patient through each step in advance and notes how the patient responds. That becomes her next concrete experience.

Example 2: a student team on an industry project

Concrete experience: a team of business students presents a first draft of their recommendations to a client, who says the recommendations are too generic.

Reflective observation: the team reviews the client’s feedback and their own notes and realises they built the recommendations from desk research alone.

Abstract conceptualisation: they decide that recommendations need evidence from inside the organisation, and plan short interviews with client staff.

Active experimentation: they run the interviews, rebuild the recommendations and present again at the next milestone.

The Importance of Preferences in David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle

The four stages of Kolb’s model form an experiential learning cycle. Learners can enter the cycle at any time. For example, imagine a group of students are learning to use computer-aided design (CAD) software. One student might begin the learning process by observing others using it. Another learner might start by reading about the program. Still, another learner might immediately jump in and try it out. Kolb explains that learners have natural preferences for how they enter the experiential learning cycle. “Because of our hereditary equipment, our particular past life experiences, and the demands of our environment, we develop a preferred way of choosing,” he wrote.

What are Kolb’s Four Learning Styles?

Kolb described four learning styles, each combining two neighbouring stages of the cycle. A learning style describes the stages a person tends to prefer. It is not a fixed type. These preferences are the basis of Kolb’s learning styles model, which divides learners into four types based on their dominant learning style.

Learning style	Combines	Tends to prefer
Diverging	Concrete experience + reflective observation	Watching rather than doing, generating ideas, brainstorming, working with people.
Assimilating	Abstract conceptualisation + reflective observation	Clear explanations, logical models and reading, over practical application.
Converging	Abstract conceptualisation + active experimentation	Solving practical problems and applying theory to technical tasks.
Accommodating	Concrete experience + active experimentation	Hands-on work, trial and error, and acting on instinct.

  Kolb’s learning styles are:

• Diverging – In this learning style, learners focus on concrete experience and reflective observation. They prefer to watch and reflect on what they’ve observed before jumping in. 
• Assimilating – This learning style incorporates learners who favour abstract conceptualisation and reflective observation. They like using analytical models to explore and prefer concepts and abstract ideas.
• Converging – Learners using this learning style focus on abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. They like to solve problems and enjoy applying learning to practical issues.
• Accommodating – Learners using this learning style favour concrete experience and active experimentation. They relish a challenge and use intuition to solve problems. 

In 2013 Alice and David Kolb published version 4.0 of the Kolb Learning Style Inventory, which expands the model to nine learning styles: initiating, experiencing, imagining, reflecting, analysing, thinking, deciding, acting and balancing.

Kolb vs Gibbs: What is the difference?

Kolb’s learning cycle explains how people learn from experience. Gibbs’ reflective cycle is a practical tool for writing about an experience. Graham Gibbs developed it at Oxford Polytechnic and published it in 1988 in Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods, building on Kolb’s cycle. It adds a stage for feelings and ends with an action plan, which is why it is popular for reflective assignments in nursing and education.

	Kolb’s learning cycle	Gibbs’ reflective cycle
Published	1984, David Kolb	1988, Graham Gibbs (Oxford Polytechnic)
What it is	A theory of how learning happens	A structured guide for reflecting on one experience
Stages	4: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, active experimentation	6: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, action plan
Emotions	Not a separate stage	A dedicated “feelings” stage
Best used for	Designing courses, placements and projects	Writing reflective accounts and assignments
Common in UK	Programme and module design, placement frameworks	Nursing, midwifery, teacher training and social work assignments

How to design a course activity around the Kolb’s cycle

Kolb’s cycle is most useful to educators as a checklist for designing any experiential activity, from a placement to a two-week industry project.

1. Start with a real experience. A client brief, a placement task, a simulation or a live problem. Authenticity matters more than length.
2. Schedule reflection straight after it. Give students a short, structured prompt (What happened? What surprised you?) while the experience is fresh, not only at the end of term.
3. Connect the reflection to theory. Point students to the reading, frameworks or expert feedback that explain what they noticed.
4. Give them a second attempt. A next milestone, a revised draft or another shift lets students test their new idea. Without this step, the cycle is never completed.
5. Assess the change, not just the output. Reward evidence of what students did differently, not only the quality of the final deliverable.

How Can Experiential Learning Benefit Students?

Experiential learning has many benefits for students, including:

• The chance to immediately apply the learning process to real-world experiences, which supports knowledge retention
• Improved motivation, as students are more excited about learning in real-world situations
• Promotion of learning through reflection, which deepens and strengthens the learning  experience
• The chances to make good use of their preferred style of learning
• Enhanced teamwork because experiential learning often involves working as part of a team
• The opportunity to prepare for future work through genuine, meaningful real-world practice
• The chance to meet colleagues and potential employers.

How Can Experiential Learning Benefit Employers and Educators?

For educators, utilising experiential learning can:

• Allow you to develop highly engaging and appropriate learning opportunities for students, supporting your reputation as an educator of choice for preparing students for the real-world workforce
• Help you design learning and reflection activities that allow students to learn in ways that suit their preferred learning styles
• Ensure your students develop skills that enhance employability and optimise their chances of future success.

For employers, experiential learning gives you access to teams of highly motivated students who are equipped with the latest knowledge. It provides a chance to upskill your current workers, identify and attract leading graduate talent, and build relationships with key stakeholders in your industry.

How is Kolb’s cycle used in UK universities?

Kolb’s cycle is one of the most widely taught learning models in UK higher education. It is rarely used on its own. Instead it sits underneath the reflective frameworks, placement structures and assessment tasks students meet across their degree. Reflective practice in nursing, teaching and social work Health and care, teacher education and social work programmes teach reflection from the first year, and many use Kolb’s cycle or Gibbs’ reflective cycle to structure it. Students write reflective accounts of placement experiences that follow the stages: what happened, what they noticed, what it means, and what they will do next. The habit carries into professional life. Nurses, midwives and nursing associates registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council must write five reflective accounts every three years as part of revalidation. Placements, sandwich years and degree apprenticeships On a placement year or a degree apprenticeship, the workplace provides the concrete experience and the university provides the structure for reflection and theory. Reflective logs, placement reports and apprenticeship portfolios usually ask students to move through the full cycle rather than simply describe what they did. This is also how UK work-based learning is designed: learning happens through real work, and structured reflection turns that work into academic credit. Industry projects and virtual work experience Not every student can take a year-long placement. Short, structured industry projects give more students a concrete experience to learn from, and they work best when reflection and feedback are built into every milestone rather than left to the end. Horizons, a three-week, 30-hour professional project programme for UK students, delivered by Practera, is built this way: students work on a real brief, get feedback at each milestone and reflect before they move to the next one. Assessment Reflective essays, e-portfolios and viva-style debriefs are common ways UK universities assess experiential learning. The strongest assessment briefs mark the quality of the reflection and the change in practice, not just the description of the experience.

Become Involved In Experiential Learning

Before starting an experiential learning program, it’s wise to figure out how much work is involved. For example, educational researchers Lee Andresen, David Boud, and Ruth Cohen have created a criteria that makes a project to be truly experiential. These include a personally meaningful goal to the student, personal student engagement, and involvement of the whole person in the learning experience (including their senses, emotions, and personality). Moreover, projects need to recognise relevant prior learning and provide opportunities for students to reflect on their experiences throughout. They add that teachers must establish a sense of respect, trust, openness, and concern for student wellbeing.

How Practera Applies Experiential Learning

This might seem like a lot to organise, and it is if you’re doing it alone. But with support from Practera, starting an experiential learning program is probably much easier than you think. Our fully supported experiential learning programs help students develop practical employability skills by connecting them to real-world activities with industry partners. Practera can offer programs across a huge range of experiential learning categories, including team projects, internships, boot camps, mentoring, work simulations and more. Importantly, our experiential learning programs can be scaffolded to foster student competency before undertaking a full placement or internship. Education institutions taking this approach enable more students to experience success in the long term. Practera has supported experiential learning programs across dozens of universities, connecting tens of thousands of students to authentic industry projects with built-in reflection and feedback.

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Get your hands on invaluable resources that support effective collaborative experiential learning

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Kolb’s experiential learning theory FAQs

What are the four stages of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle?

Kolb’s experiential learning cycle has four stages: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, and active experimentation. A learner has an experience, reflects on it, forms new ideas from that reflection, then tests those ideas in practice, which creates the next experience. Learners can enter the cycle at any of the four stages.

What are Kolb’s four learning styles?

Kolb’s four learning styles are Diverging, Assimilating, Converging, and Accommodating. Each one combines two stages of the cycle: Diverging favours concrete experience and reflective observation, Assimilating favours reflective observation and abstract conceptualisation, Converging favours abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation, and Accommodating favours active experimentation and concrete experience. The styles describe a learner’s preferred way of moving through the cycle.

What is the difference between Kolb’s learning cycle and his learning styles?

The learning cycle is the four-stage process by which people learn from experience, while the learning styles describe individual preferences for how a person moves through that cycle. The cycle explains how learning happens; the styles explain why different learners approach the same experience differently. Kolb derived the four styles by pairing the stages of the cycle.

When was Kolb’s experiential learning theory developed?

David Kolb published his experiential learning theory in 1984, in the book Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. An American psychologist and education theorist, Kolb built on the earlier work of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget. It remains one of the most widely cited frameworks in education today.

How is Kolb’s theory used in universities?

Universities apply Kolb’s theory by building the four-stage cycle into real-world learning such as industry projects, internships, and placements, with structured reflection at each stage. The goal is to move students beyond the experience itself into reflection, conceptualisation, and experimentation so the learning transfers to professional practice. Practera helps institutions do this at scale by embedding reflection and feedback loops into authentic industry projects rather than simulations. References: Andresen, L., Boud, D. and Cohen, R. (2000) Experience-based learning. In Foley, G. (ed.) Understanding Adult Education and Training. 2nd edn. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E. and Ecclestone, K. (2004) Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: a systematic and critical review. London: Learning and Skills Research Centre. Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan. Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic. Honey, P. and Mumford, A. (1986) The Manual of Learning Styles. Maidenhead: Peter Honey. Kolb, A. Y. and Kolb, D. A. (2005) Learning styles and learning spaces: enhancing experiential learning in higher education. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4(2), 193 to 212. Kolb, A. Y. and Kolb, D. A. (2013) The Kolb Learning Style Inventory 4.0: Guide to Theory, Psychometrics, Research and Applications. Experience Based Learning Systems. Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. (2nd edn, 2015, Pearson Education.) Nursing and Midwifery Council. Revalidation: written reflective accounts. nmc.org.uk/revalidation/requirements/written-reflective-accounts/ Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D. and Bjork, R.