Use This Four-Step Cycle to Learn New Concepts

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If you want to truly grasp what you’re learning, not just memorize it short-term for a test, you should familiarize yourself with Kolb’s learning cycle. Hell, even if you do just want to pass a test, you should familiarize yourself with Kolb’s learning cycle. Educational theorist David A. Kolb published his experiential learning theory in 1984 and it’s been popular ever since, at least among teachers. If you haven't heard of it, that's no issue; let's go over what it's all about so you can learn better.

What is Kolb’s four-step cycle?

Kolb proposed a cycle of four stages that, once passed through, will result in effective learning:

• Concrete learning: This happens when the learner has a new experience and uses it to reinterpret or reframe an existing one. As an example, say you gave a presentation and it didn't go as well as you hoped it would, even though you felt like you prepared for it. You had a new experience and it made you reframe what you considered solid preparation.

• Reflective observation: This occurs when the learner thinks about the experience in a personal way. In our presentation example, this could mean you reflected on how disengaged or confused your audience looked, then questioned whether it was your speaking speed or cluttered PowerPoint slides that contributed to that.

• Abstract conceptualization: This is the part when the learner forms or modifies ideas after reflecting. Maybe here, you came up with ideas to make your next presentation better, like cutting out extra info from your slides or speaking more slowly and with better eye contact.

• Active experimentation: Finally, this happens when the learner applies the new thinking and notes if anything changes. In active experimentation, let's say you applied what you learned during the last presentation and paid attention to see how the audience responded to your new approach.

Essentially, this method is a rigid, more academic way to describe the phenomenon of doing something, thinking about how you did it, and doing it again with some changes based on that reflection, which circles back around to the starting point of "doing something."

While these steps tend to happen in order, it’s important to note that you can technically enter the cycle at any stage. For instance, you might have an experience and reflect on it, form an idea about it, and apply your thinking to your broader understanding of it, then learn more concrete details and information about it in a new class a year later. Don't get too hung up on mastering this in order, but do familiarize yourself with the stages so you can learn to recognize and use them.

How Kolb's cycle looks in practice

Let’s say you’re studying accounting. You have personal experience like doing your own taxes or budgeting your paycheck, which is concrete learning. You gain more experience in class, being introduced to higher-level accounting concepts.

After learning those concepts, you can do reflective observation by thinking of how your own experiences budgeting match up with what you were just taught and whether what you just learned could have enhanced your old results.

In abstract conceptualization, you apply those reflections, considering whether they impact how you approach accounting in your life and whether you’d do anything differently next time you go to budget.

In active experimentation, you can try implementing new lessons from class in your own financial planning or working on practice exercises, informed by your own experiences and the new information. As you consider the outcome of the practical application, you start over again with the concrete learning you experienced during the exercise.

What to keep in mind about Kolb’s cycle

To me, the most crucial element here is the reflective observation. If you get a B on a quiz and don't go over what you did wrong, you'll get those same questions wrong on the midterm. Reflecting on what happened and what you can change is how you make the alterations you need in the future and what sets this apart as a learning and studying technique. After you study a new concept, try methods that force active recall—like blurting, which is saying or writing down all the content you can remember from the chapter or section—and take your time when going over what you got wrong.

This doesn't have to be a solo endeavor, either. If you're stuck on something, ask a professor or fellow student to walk you through it. Getting an outside perspective can help with reflective observation and abstract conceptualization, allowing you to reframe your thoughts on a topic.

Kolb’s cycle is usually meant for teachers to think about when lesson planning. Structural Learning, for instance, encourages educators to use this model in lessons to improve students’ understanding and problem solving. But since the goal of using the method is to encourage the acquisition of more abstract concepts—which can then be applied to a variety of topics and situations—it works for anyone. Keeping the four stages in mind while you study a new concept and reflecting on how you can hit each one will help you think more flexibly about the topic overall and help you retain what you’re learning.

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