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Abstract This research used three instruments derived from experiential learning theory-- the Learning Style Inventory, the Adaptive Style Inventory and the Learning Skills Profile-to test hypotheses about differences between balanced and specialized learning styles in a sample of 198 part-time and full-time MBA students. Learning styles that balanced experiencing and conceptualizing showed greater adaptive flexibility in responding to experiencing and conceptualizing learning contexts. The learning style specializing in experiencing showed higher levels of skill development in interpersonal skills and lower levels of skill development in analytic skills; while the reverse was true for the learning style specializing in conceptualizing. Similar tests for the acting/reflecting specialized and balanced learning styles showed no consistent results. Analysis of male and female sub-- samples produced results supporting these general conclusions. The study adds further construct validity for the hypothesis that adaptive flexibility in learning style is predictive of highly integrated and complex levels of adult development. Key Words: adaptive flexibility; Adaptive Style Inventory; experiential learning theory; forced choice method; ipsative measures; Learning Skills Profile; Learning Style Inventory; learning styles
Experiential learning theory (ELT) defines learning as `the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience' (Kolb, 1984: 41). The learning model portrays two dialectically related modes of grasping experience-concrete experience (CE) and abstract conceptualization (AC)-and two dialectically related modes of transforming experience-reflective observation (RO) and active experimentation (AE). Individual learning styles are determined by an individual's preferred way of resolving these two dialectics, favoring one mode over the other. The experiential learning theory suggests that, as such, these learning styles represent specialized and limited ways of learning. Following Jung's theory that adult development moves from a specialized way of adapting toward a holistic integrated way, development in learning sophistication is seen as a move from specialization to integration. Integrated learning is a process involving a creative tension among the four learning modes that is responsive to contextual demands. This is portrayed as an idealized learning cycle or spiral where the learner `touches all the bases'-experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting-in a recursive process that is responsive to the learning situation and what is being learned. The theory argues that this development in learning sophistication and creative adaptation...