Experiential Learning Theory and The Learning Style Inventory: A Reply to Freedman and Stumpf

Abstract

Freedman and Stumpf's critique of experiential learning theory and the Learning Style Inventory (LSI) is seriously flawed. Their judgments concerning the validity of experiential learning theory rest primarily on an analysis of the internal characteristics of the LSI, with no attention to the construct validity of that instrument; and they are made without analysis or even awareness of the considerable research literature on experiential learning. Their questions concerning the reliability of the LSI stem from a lack of understanding of the role of variability and situational adaptation in the experiential learning process. Similarly, their criticism of the forced-choice format of the LSI fails to recognize the theoretical rationale for the LSI instrument structure.