Skip to content
Grad Coach
Book

Diagram · CC BY 4.0

Kolb’s learning cycle and learning styles

Kolb’s cycle with its two axes and the four learning styles that sit between the stages.

Download PNG Download SVG
Kolb's experiential learning cycle (Kolb 1984) with its two dimensions and four learning styles. Grasping experience runs from concrete experience (top) to abstract conceptualization (bottom), and transforming experience from active experimentation (left) to reflective observation (right); each style combines the two stages beside it: diverging (concrete experience and reflective observation), assimilating (abstract conceptualization and reflective observation), converging (abstract conceptualization and active experimentation) and accommodating (concrete experience and active experimentation). A bike-riding example after Kraft (1994) runs round the cycle.
Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and learning styles. Derek Jansen, Grad Coach, CC BY 4.0.

What it shows

Kolb’s cycle with its two dimensions and the four learning styles derived from them. The vertical axis is how a learner grasps experience, from concrete experience at the top to abstract conceptualization at the bottom. The horizontal axis is how they transform it, from active experimentation on the left to reflective observation on the right.

Each learning style sits between the two stages it combines. The bike example from the four-stage version is carried over, so the two diagrams can be used together.

How to read it

  1. Diverging sits between concrete experience and reflective observation.

  2. Assimilating sits between abstract conceptualization and reflective observation.

  3. Converging sits between abstract conceptualization and active experimentation.

  4. Accommodating sits between concrete experience and active experimentation.

The two dimensions

  • Grasping experience (vertical): concrete experience to abstract conceptualization.
  • Transforming experience (horizontal): active experimentation to reflective observation.
  • The cycle runs clockwise from concrete experience.

Ways to use it in teaching

  • Present the styles as a descriptive model. The evidence that matching teaching to a learner’s style improves learning is weak: a review by Pashler et al. (2008) found virtually no evidence for it.

  • Ask students which pair of stages they rely on most when studying, and which they tend to skip.

  • Follow the four-stage cycle diagram with this one, once the cycle itself is familiar.

Sources

  • Experiential learning. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 18, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning
  • Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A. (2005). Learning styles and learning spaces: Enhancing experiential learning in higher education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4(2), 193–212. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2005.17268566
  • Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall.
  • Kraft, R. G. (1994). Bike riding and the art of learning. In L. B. Barnes, C. R. Christensen, & A. J. Hansen (Eds.), Teaching and the case method. Harvard Business School Press.
  • Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105–119. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6053.2009.01038.x

Learning and teaching theories

Related diagrams

All open educational resources

Need something else?

Tell us which diagram, template or worked examples would help your teaching, and we’ll do our best to add it to the collection.