How You Learn Is How You Live by Peterson Kay;Kolb David A.;

Author:Peterson, Kay;Kolb, David A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Incorporated
Published: 2017-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Source: Adapted from David A. Kolb PhD and Alice Kolb, PhD. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory 4.0. Experience Based Learning Systems, Inc. 2016.

Embodying Your Style

Learning styles are deeply engrained; they are evident not just in how you think but also in how you feel, perceive, and behave—even in your gestures, posture, and movements. Building awareness about your own learning flexibility can be elusive, but you can use your physical behavior to gain insight into your learning style. Physical flexibility may provide a way for you to gauge your general flexibility in life and learning, too. People generally embody their learning style by moving in ways that are characteristic of the skills and attitudes of the learning style they favor. After all, an individual who gravitates toward the Acting style will need be quicker, stronger, and more free-flowing in movement than someone who spends more time in the Reflecting style, where the movements are more minimal, sustained, and controlled.

For example, Lance, an accountant, prefers the Analyzing style. Lance spends most of his day sitting behind his computer, crunching numbers for his clients. In fact, once he paid attention to his movements over the course of a day, he found that he was in only a few positions for about eighty percent of his day. Lance sits in a chair facing forward—typically with his right leg crossed over his left leg and his arms narrowly reaching out to his keyboard. He keeps his lower back rigidly straight and his shoulders slumped forward. His movements are slow and controlled; in fact, he often keeps his body in the same position for minutes at a time and senses tension in his shoulders. His vision is focused intently on the computer screen. His breath is shallow and high in his chest. At least three days per week, Lance enjoys running to get exercise. When he runs, his movements are rhythmical and repetitive in a front-to-back motion. Lance rarely moves from side to side or in ways that require a twist at the waist. He recognizes that it has been a long time since he moved with any free, easy spontaneity like he might have as a child on the playground. Like most adults, Lance spends so much time doing the same things everyday in habitual activities that his movements are habitual, too. He might even find that he only moves in about ten different ways on a regular basis, unlike young children who move in hundreds of ways.

Your own flexibility—in life and learning—may be evident through your own movements. Are you typically loose and relaxed, or more controlled with some tension? Do you make your body narrow by crossing your arms and legs, or are your shoulders wide and arms open? Understanding your movement preferences—your postures, gestures, tension levels, and even the way you breathe—can change the way you experience the world and the impact you have on others.

To explore various movement styles, you may want to watch other people and compare their movements to your own.

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