Kolb Learning Styles and the best Teaching Methods for Lifelong Learners. A study of professionals undertaking tertiary education

This research uses a mixed method design to investigate the relationship between Kolb’s Learning Styles and teaching methods that are effective with Lifelong Learners. Lifelong learners are an under-researched cohort of learners, but a cohort that is increasing in size. Furthermore, much of the research that has been conducted on Kolb’s Learning Styles has focused on traditional, full-time students rather than lifelong learners who have a wealth of professional work and life experience that could impact their learning style.

Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, including assessments of test performance and surveys of student preferences for teaching methods. Interviews and focus group discussions were also conducted with lecturers and lifelong learners to elicit their perspectives on the impact of various teaching approaches and Kolb's Learning Styles.

The research found that matching teaching methods to Kolb's learning styles had little effect on test performance, with any differences being small and not statistically significant. In addition, analysis of learners' ratings of effective teaching methods found no correlation with their learning style. These findings suggest that using Kolb's learning style may not have a positive impact on lifelong learners.

The second part of the research explored the views of lifelong learners and lecturers with regard to the Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle and Kolb Learning Styles. This aligns with the secondary aim of the thesis, which is to gain insight into the most effective methods to use with this type of learner. The findings indicate that lifelong learners placed the most value on content that was relevant to their professional lives, as well as learning methods such as demonstrations, case studies, discussions, and real-life examples.

Lecturers were supportive of the Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle as it placed the learners’ professional experience at the heart of the learning process. They were also largely supportive of Kolb Learning Styles as a tool for helping learners reflect on how they learn and for understanding the diversity of learners in their classroom. The lecturers indicated that they tended to use a wider variety of teaching methods than they might have otherwise because they had previously heard that learning styles were important.

Insights from this research are intended to inform and improve the education of educators, when teaching lifelong learners. The evidence suggests that Kolb learning styles make little difference to life-long learners, however, they rate teaching methods such as real-life examples and stories, feedback, live demonstrations, case studies, discussions and practice sessions as effective methods.