INTRODUCTION
Staying on the top of poker food chain not only requires staying long night hours grinding, but also requires continuous improvement and extending poker knowledge and theory to gain maximum edge over the opponents. Players who don’t adjust to the constantly changing level and dynamics of the game are usually forced to lower the stakes they play or even quit poker as it stops being profitable.
Nowadays the world of poker offers many sources of gaining poker knowledge. There are plenty of poker websites sharing a variety of materials, such as videos or articles concerning certain aspects of game theory, as well as poker software allowing players to conduct specific mathematical calculations helping them analyze their strategy. Still, choosing the most effective way of learning poker is a very important matter which may have a great impact on strategy improvement.
In this post I would like to describe the Experiential Learning Model developed by David A. Kolb – a psychological concept presenting the way of learning through experience.
KOLB'S EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING THEORY
For many years, learning has been mostly perceived as increasing the content of individual’s memory by gaining new information. In this concept, every skill or knowledge people gained was just a piece of information stored in their minds. David Kolb, however, created Experiential Learning Theory in which perspective learning is a process of transformation of one’s experience and knowledge. Therefore, learning isn’t just memorizing new information, but also its constant verification and modification through the interaction of an individual with the environment. The abovementioned process can be presented by the graph called Kolb’s Learning Cycle:
Following the cycle, the experiential learning can be viewed as a process in which a concrete experience or specific situations are being observed and evaluated. Afterwards, individual’s reflections on that experience are transformed into concepts and theories. In the stage of Active Experimentation, however, the individual verifies newly possessed skills and apply them into certain actions. The results of those actions are new occurrences providing new, unique experience.
STYLES OF LEARNING
Every stage of Kolb’s Learning Cycle allows individuals to try different styles of learning. Kolb distinguishes four styles of learning adequate to the following phases of experiential learning process: Diverging, Assimilating, Converging and Accommodating style of learning.
Diverging style of learning is prefered by people who perform best in the phases of Concrete Experience and Reflective Observation of Kolb’s cycle. Those individuals are usually the ones focusing their work on gathering great amount of information and generating new ideas, especially while cooperating with their teammates. They are usually emotionally-oriented and value mostly the personal feedback coming from other people. Therefore they often seek social interactions and base their learning on interpersonal relations. Assimilating style of learning, however, combines actions characteristic for Reflective Observation and Abstract Conceptualization. This style of learning is mostly prefered by analytics who develop their knowledge by trying to understand given information and putting it into concise, logical form. On the contrary, people practising Converging style of learning, involving Abstract Conceptualization and Active Experimentation, focus on finding practical use for the theory and make their decisions based on solutions to specific questions and problems. The last of the mentioned styles of learning called Accommodation (Active Experimentation and Concrete Experience) suits people who value hands-on experience and increase their knowledge by involving themselves into certain situations and experiences. They tend to enjoy different challenges and concentrate on their feelings instead of searching for logical conclusions.
Recognizing which of those styles of learning is most efficient for a specific person is a very important matter in the context of enhancing his/her effectiveness of acquiring knowledge. For example, poker players performing best in the stages of Concrete Experience and Reflective Observation may develop their strategy better by attending to group coachings or joining learning-groups where they can share their ideas and receive feedback, either from other players or their coach. More analytic players, however, may enhance their learning abilities by focusing on session reviews and mathematical aspects of the game or even just by thinking things through. It should be remember that if one of the most practised methods of learning does not welcome expected effects, it is worth trying different approach and see what are the results of this change.
REFERENCE
Kolb, A.Y. and Kolb, D.A. (2005) ‘Learning styles and learning spaces: Enhancing experiential learning in higher education’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4 (2): 193–212.
Kolb, A.Y., Kolb, D.A. (2011). Experiential Learning Theory: A Dynamic, Holistic Approach to Management Learning, Education and Development. Armstrong: Management Learning, Edu. and Develop., 5020, 42-68.
