Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle L4: Make space for conversational learning

Genuine conversation is built into the learning process as a way of reflecting on and making meaning of experience, for example through learning teams that work under psychologically safe conditions. In conversation individual learning cycles meet, alternating reading (experiencing and reflecting on the other) and flexing (forming and acting on intentions). Good conversation is more likely where the space integrates five dialectics (feeling and thinking, listening and talking, solidarity and leadership, relatedness and individuality, recursive and discursive processes), and is diminished when one extreme dominates; making space may be physical, temporal or emotional, and the boundaries and norms that hold the conversation shape who is heard.