Experiential Learning by Kolb David A

Author:Kolb, David A.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pearson Education Limited (US titles)
Published: 2015-05-09T04:00:00+00:00

In a subsequent analysis Becher extended his analysis to examine disciplinary subcultures, the sub-disciplines or specialties within disciplines. In many cases these sub-disciplines fragment the unity of a discipline and are countercultural to the dominant norms of the discipline: “. . . there is an anarchic tendency for some sub-units, even in the heartlands of their discipline, to appear more closely related to counterparts in the heartlands of other disciplines than to sub-units in their own” (1990, p. 336). These specialties can also facilitate communication and interaction with other disciplines that share their inquiry norms, and can be the breeding ground for new ideas and approaches. There have been numerous studies of learning style differences within disciplinary sub-specialties that support Becher’s analysis. For example, Plovnick (1975, 1980) studied learning style differences in senior medical students finding that family medicine and primary care were specialties chosen by accommodative and divergent medical students, internal medicine was chosen more often by convergers, and academic medicine and pathology tended to be chosen by assimilative students. Similarly, Loo (2002a, 2002b) found learning style differences among business students majoring in accounting, finance, and marketing.

Ludwig Huber (1990), while agreeing with Becher that the structure of knowledge influences the structure of disciplines, argues that the cultures of disciplines are embedded more deeply in social structure and are associated with traits such as political affiliations, social class, and private life preferences that cannot be solely attributed to epistemological differences through a process of social reproduction based on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus.

Bourdieu defines habitus as, “systems of durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures, that is, as principles which generate and organize practices and representations that can be objectively adapted to their outcomes without presupposing a conscious aiming at ends or an express mastery of the operations necessary in order to attain them” (1990, p. 53). The practices emerging from habitus are both durable “structured structures,” rules of the game, and generative structuring structures, strategies of the game, that allow for creativity and innovation within the structure. Habitus-shaped practices operate for the most part at practical and tacit levels with little conscious intention and reflection. Gerholm, for example, argues that acquiring tacit knowledge is critical for success in academia and disciplines such as the arts, though there are few possibilities to acquire it in graduate education. Thus, success in these fields favors those with habitus-acquired cultural capital, “a stock of knowledge, a frame of reference and a capacity to make the proper judgments which are called ‘taste’”(1990, p. 269).

The concept of habitus, though more encompassing in a scope that includes lifestyle, values, and dispositions, is similar to the experiential learning theory concept of learning style. “Habitus gives practices a particular manner or style. The disposition of habitus identifies certain individuals as risk takers, others as cautious, some as bold, others as timid, some as balanced, others as awkward. Individuals do not simply conform to the external constraints and opportunities given them. They adapt, seize the moment, or miss the chance in characteristic manners” (Swartz, 2002, p.

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