Journal of Development Research

Experiential Learning Theory: Application for Understanding Learning Styles of Postgraduate Students

Seema Sant¹ and Neerja Kashive²

First Published 31 Oct 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/22297561221115516

Article Information

Volume 15, Issue 1 June 2022

Corresponding Author:

Seema Sant, Vivekanand Education Society’s Institute of Management Studies and Research, Hashu Advani Memorial Complex, 495/497 Near Municipal School, Collector’s Colony, Chembur, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400074, India.
Email: seema.sant@ves.ac.in

¹ Vivekanand Education Society’s Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

² VES Business School, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www . creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-Commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed

Abstract

The article examines the learning style of MBA students and looks into how gender effects the learning styles. Data was collected from a management Institute in Mumbai, and survey questionnaires were adapted from the Kolb Learning Style Inventory to investigate the four learning styles—active experimentation (AE), concrete experience (CE), abstract conceptualisation (AC) and reflective observation (RO). The data were analysed for the frequencies and percentages, and Chi-square for comparison of gender and specialisation. Major learning styles were for both gender and specialisation. Major learning styles were AE and CE, followed by AC for both gender and specialisation. It was seen that for all the students, the two major learning modes were convergent and accommodative, which were also the two major dominant learning modes observed across the genders and all specialisations. ESTJ and ESFJ were the two dominant personality types that emerged. A Chi-square test that revealed learning styles and learning modes did not vary based on different gender and specialisation.

Keywords

Experiential learning theory, Kolb learning styles, active experimentation, concrete experience, convergent and accommodative modes

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