Appendix A

The Kolb Learning Style Inventory 4.0

The Kolb Learning Style Inventory 4.0 (KLSI 4) was created to help you understand your unique way of learning and to use the insights gained to improve your learning power. The KLSI 4.0 describes the way you learn and how you deal with ideas and day-to-day situations. We all learn in different ways. This inventory can serve as a stimulus for you to interpret and reflect on the ways you prefer to learn in specific settings. Learning can be described as a cycle made up of four basic processes. The KLSI 4.0 takes you through those processes to give you better understanding of how you learn.

The KLSI 4.0 is the first major revision of the KLSI since 1999 and the third since the original LSI was published in 1971. Based on many years of research involving scholars around the world and data from many thousands of respondents, the KLSI 4.0 includes an assessment of the nine ways of learning and your personal learning style preference. The nine learning styles are Initiating, Experiencing, Imagining, Reflecting, Analyzing, Thinking, Deciding, Acting, and Balancing.

It also includes an assessment of learning flexibility. The nine learning styles are not fixed traits but dynamic states that can flex to meet the demands of different learning situations. For the first time the KLSI 4.0 includes a personal assessment of the degree to which a person changes their style in different learning contexts. The flexibility score also shows which ways of learning you use as a backup to your dominant learning style. This information can help you improve your ability to move freely around the learning cycle and improve your learning effectiveness in all areas of life.

You can take the KLSI 4.0 by going to www.learningfromexperience.com and clicking on the Learning Style Inventory Version Four under Featured Assessment Instruments. After taking the KLSI 4.0 online you will immediately be sent a personal report of your results. The personal report describes your learning strengths and will lead you through a process of applying them in your everyday life. In this report you will learn about:

The cycle of learning from experience.

Your learning style; the unique way you use the learning cycle to learn.

The ways in which you prefer to learn, and how to use your preferences to maximize your learning.

Your learning flexibility; your ability to fully use the learning cycle and modify your approach based on what you are learning about.

How to strengthen and develop your learning style.

How to apply what you have learned about yourself in your life: in your approach to problem-solving and decision making, dealing with conflict and disagreements, teamwork, communicating at work and at home, and your career development.

One person’s KLSI 4 report results are shown on the next two pages.

Your learning flexibility score

Your learning flexibility score is calculated by how much your learning style varies from situation to situation.

Your learning flexibility score is .59 which indicates that you show some flexibility; adapting your learning style to different situations but perhaps not using all four learning phases.