KOLB theories for Law Enforcement

 Author: Odhinn Kohout

Over the last month I have been using David A. Kolb ( 1939-) theories to assist in teaching my Police classes. Kolb developed his “experimental learning theory” to explain learning as a cycle which has four root stages The first being the “Concrete experience” where the student is actually performing the skill-set or knowledge being taught . This also could described as learning through doing. The student could be getting concrete experience while on the job itself or performing it in a controlled classroom setting. With “Reflective observation” the student reflects back on the concrete experience. This in turn could lead to “Abstract conceptualization” where the student takes the time to construct a theory of the learning experience or to produce a model which could further demonstrate and explain their abstract conceptualization of the learning experience. In the last learning cycle of “Active experimentation”, the student puts his newly formulated theory or model to the test. As with the concrete experience this could be accomplished as a clinical study or in the field.

Adult learners in a Military/Police setting will be exposed to the Kolb four stage learning cycle. What I find fascinating is that it, (Kolb) is being taught by the Instructor’s who may not have any prerequisite knowledge of his theories. The reason for this I believe, is that the Kolb’s four stage cycle is a common sense approach to teaching certain material to students and yields positive and predictable outcomes. In a class where the learners already have a great deal of concrete experience the Instructor could find that a great of deal of his work has been done for him, and could then proceed to the next category in the Kolb cycles. With a group of new students (Police recruits) the concrete experience would be done in class under the supervision of the Instructor. Reflective observation is used continually in conjunction with abstract conceptualization for advanced tactics and training. In the event of a previous mission failure, the adult learners who had taken part in it (concrete experience) could debrief new team members on what had taken place. The group could then talk about the experience as a whole (reflective) and strategize a solution (abstract) to make the next attempt successful. In extreme circumstances as was the case with Bin Laden mission. A mock up of the compound was developed that could encompass all four of Kolb’s learning cycles together at once. This would of course culminate in active experimentation in which the abstract conceptualization theories could be tested in real time. Kolb further broke his theory down into what he called the “Learning Style Inventory” which utilized a 12-item self-assessment tool to help students better understand the way in which they learn. Kolb also theorized Learning Styles in his work which ranged from Diverging, Assimilating, Converging, and Accommodating. I have found it difficult to put the Learning Style Inventory into practice. As the separation of learners into specific groups is extremely difficult and may be not applicable in my specific area of teaching adults.