Kolb’s learning cycle: An alternative strategy for engineering education

Abstract- The knowledge exponential development, the multiple aspects of social problems, the fast technological advance and the growing availability of advanced hardware and software are increasing demands on undergraduate engineering education and practice. Therefore, it is imperative that engineering teachers become able to accomplish much more than the simply assignment of transmitting informations: they have to teach the students “how to learn”so they might be prepared for any challenges. More effective teaching methods and techniques have to be considered beyond the traditional model, which is based on information transmission and fully centered on teacher’s figure. However, this methods implementation requires fully comprehension of the available alternatives – and the possibility of create them – by the teacher. This work aim to present David Kolb’s ideas about learning styles and also describee his empyrical model – the Learning Cycle – as an alternative strategy to deal with the largely used traditional way of teaching engineering. The four styles or types of learning identified by Kolb derive from the manner which people perceive and process new informations. Each one these styles are associated with some typical questions that represent the internal structure of learning, which can be seen as a standart model for new concepts learning and can be used regardless of subject matter. 1