ABSTRACT
According to the American educationalist, David Kolb (1984), ‘Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.’ There are, of course, other definitions – and considerable debate about the nature of learning in adulthood (see Tennant 1997 for a fuller discussion), but this is the working definition adopted here. This notion of learning puts you, the learner, in the driving seat. It emphasises that, as a learner, you are actively transforming your experience, hence Kolb refers to this kind of learning as ‘experiential’. It considers learning as a process in which knowledge is continuously created and recreated by you, the learner, rather than seeing it as something independent of you that has to be transmitted to you and that you have to acquire. It treats you as an adult, able to decide for yourself which approaches to learning suit you best.
