While the theoretical and descriptive frameworks of learning theory vary widely, there is consensus that people perceive and process information in many ways. Some of these theories apply general personality theory to learning while others derive from studies of the learning process itself. Each seems coherent enough on its own. But can they all be right? Should teachers and learners try to
. accommodate them all in development philosophy and process? Guild and Garger (1998) suggest that students are in a pre-paradigmatic phase of learning style research. The blind researchers have each described a different part of the elephant, but have not yet synthesized their findings into a picture of the whole beast. Of the many theories about learning styles, researchers have found David Kolb"s experiential learning theory (ELT), first developed in the 1970s, to offer valuable insights. Kolb emphasizes the importance of experience in the learning process and draws on research by Dewey and Piaget, among others, to identify two major dimensions of learning: perception and processing. Each dimension has two extremes: perception ranges from concrete experience to abstract conceptualization, and processing ranges from reflective observation to active experimentation. Put plainly for the lay person, this means that insight learning theory involves three basic steps. Firstly, the subject assumes that he has tried all possible methods to solve a problem, and he remains unsuccessful in solving it. Secondly, after trying all methods that seem plausible to him, he more or less gives up and puts an end to his attempts to solve the problem. Thirdly, after the subject has tried, failed and more or less given up, a solution presents itself. This solution can happen accidentally or just suddenly occur to the subject. This sort of learning is often seen in animal behavior studies. For more information on insight learning theory, one can conduct an online search. More reference links: http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/gestalt/kohler.html http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289152/insight
