ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

David A. Kolb

David A. Kolb is a man who came up with a very, very cool idea about how people learn new things. He said that there are four different things that we do when we're learning something new, and they all work together to help us learn better.

The first thing we do is called "concrete experience." This just means that we do something in real life and have an experience with it. For example, maybe we touch a hot stove and it hurts. That's a concrete experience.

The second thing we do is called "reflection." This is when we think about what just happened in that concrete experience. Maybe we think, "Why did that stove hurt me? Oh, it was hot!" That's reflection.

The third thing we do is called "abstract conceptualization." This just means that we make connections between what we just experienced and other things we know. Maybe we remember that we learned about heat in science class, and now we can connect that to what just happened with the stove.

Lastly, the fourth thing we do is called "active experimentation." This means that we use everything we just learned to try something new. Maybe we decide we're going to be more careful around hot stoves from now on.

So, David A. Kolb said that these four things (concrete experience, reflection, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation) all work together to help us learn new things better. Pretty cool, huh?