Paper Example on Parenting According to Kolb's Learning Stages Theory

Introduction

In a child's life, the early learning years make a significant difference in the way a child develops and learns in their entire life. In a child's development process, parents play a significant role. Every child requires care and love thus parents should have the capacity, and the desire to bring up children whose mental and physical appearance is strong. Parents also desire to bring up children of high integrity. David Kolb established certain learning styles from which his experimental learning cycle is developed. Kolb consistently presents his ideas explaining specific learning styles in the process of gaining information.

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Nevertheless, Kolb believes that instinctive preferences cannot be developed during childhood for they are experienced in adolescence and adulthood. According to Kolb, learning is a process where an individual acquires knowledge by transforming prior experiences (Kolb, 1984). Similar to learning, parenting is a process where parents need to instill knowledge and value to children as they grow. Following Kolb's learning theory, parenting can follow the four-stage learning cycle to guide and be beneficial to their children. This paper incorporates the four processes discussed by David Kolb into parenting.

Kolb's learning styles theory was published in 1984, and they developed from his prior experimental learning cycle. In his learning styles theory, Kolb explains that every person has a different preferred learning style under which information is processed and used to understand past experiences (Kolb, 1984). Nevertheless, Kolb believes that in the learning process, knowledge is developed by transforming previous experiences. Therefore, Kolb represents the learning style theory by a four-stage learning cycle that all learners need to pass through to learn effectively. The four stages are concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation.

Concrete Experience

According to David Kolb, the concrete experience is the first stage of the learning style theory. In this stage, a child needs to participate in an action to be coherent in the same (Kolb, 1984). From this stage, a child learns from life experiences. In parenting, a parent has the role of controlling a child's early life experiences. It is the role of a parent to ensure that a child gets the right exposure while growing up as it significantly affects a child's future (Aunola, & Nurmi, 2005). Parents ought to understand their children's interests from a young age and nurture them. It is the role of a parent to accept their child's interest and respond to the same promptly. This stage involves exposure to new experiences. A parent ought to ensure that a child is exposed to the right content right from an early age (Steinberg, & Darling, 2017). Exposure leads to interest; a child's attention is therefore determined by the type of exposure they have been subjected.

From this stage, Kolb explains that due to concrete experiences, a child adapts to accommodators. In Kolb's view, accommodators help a person in seeking significance from their experiences (Kolb, 1984). Parents ought to recognize this and guide their children on the right path. At this stage, a child is likely to explore experience and therefore likely to try so much stuff at a tender age. Parents have the role of understanding their child's signals that support learning (Aunola, & Nurmi, 2005). This stage is characterized by anxiety, stress, and novelty in coping with a child's environment. A parent should create a trust bond by exposing the child to positive experiences, and in return, the child-parent relationship grows stronger. With a strong bond, a child can internalize the level of trust and open their minds to the general learning of new experiences (Steinberg, & Darling, 2017). Parents ought to support their child's experiences as sensitive support enables a child to engage in positive learning experiences with the parent. It is at this point that a parent-child affective-emotional behavior is created and a parent gets the ability to communicate with the child's interests, trains a child about self-acceptance thus fostering cooperation and self-regulation (Aunola, & Nurmi, 2005). From a socio-cultural point of view, the development of cognitive responsive traits occurs from one's daily experience. The cognitive characteristics are likely to facilitate higher learning levels due to their providence of a structure to address immature skills in children. Responsive behavior promotes parent-child interaction that enables a child to become more active and play an ultimate independent role during the process of learning. In parenting, parents should take up the part of responsive support to enable a child to get involved in active learning experiences (Steinberg, & Darling, 2017). Responsive support is commonly known as parental scaffolding and is a critical factor that facilitates a child's behavioral development. According to Kolb, a child cannot learn by watching or listening, and one must take action to learn efficiently. A parent should provide all the items needed for a child to experience his or her interests at a young age, by doing this, a parent will be supporting a child's interest hence providing the child with material to practice and enlarge the expertise.

Reflective Observation

According to Kolb, this stage involves taking a break from the action and ensuring that the experience gained from concrete experience is reviewed and understood (Kolb, 1984). It involves taking account of the experiences gained and evaluated their effectiveness. Responsive parenting is responsible for understanding the role played by a child's prior experiences and the environment in the development of a child. The environment surrounding a child's development is vital in affecting a child's experiences and interests (Nieuwerburgh, 2018). Their interests determine the experiences of a child. For example, is a child is interested in music, then he or she is likely to be attracted to musical instruments, songs, and beats which in return add on their concrete experiences. A parent has to take the role of guiding a child and providing a desirable environment for learning. Unresponsive parenting is more likely to jeopardize the development of a child exposing a child to a high risk for developmental challenges. Parents ought to take up the role of monitoring their children's indoor and outdoor activities (Aunola, & Nurmi, 2005). By doing this, a parent can determine a child's level of understanding and thinking.

Parenting seeks to provide children with better learning and experience environments. Parents are role models to children; therefore, a child is more likely to evaluate his or her past experiences depending on the way a parent handles different situations. A parent should be careful about their methods of controlling and solving solutions in the family (Steinberg, & Darling, 2017). For example, a family that is always in constant fights in the presence of a child is likely to make a child live fearfully. Parents ensure that they create a healthy environment for children to evaluate their experiences. Due to a strong bond formed between a parent and a child, a parent can offer a helping hand and a listening ear to a child's experiences. Parenting requires a parent to guide their child in matters relating to the child's interests, behavior, experience evaluation, and most importantly moral and ethical values (Aunola, & Nurmi, 2005). A child needs to grow up morally upright and since a child going through developmental stages may be too young to understand what is right or wrong; their parents should take up the role of correcting them. This way, a child can evaluate past experiences from a moral and ethical angle as they possess the knowledge about virtues and vices. Parents need to understand not every situation in a child's wrongdoing deserves scolding and beating, and some cases seek to advise and determine the factors that led to such activities (Nieuwerburgh, 2018). At times, a child may evaluate past experiences wrongly thus leading to a drift of the behaviors. In a situation, a parent needs to sit and guide the child on the ways of discerning right and wrong. It is the role of parents to instruct and offer proper guidance when children go a miss.

According to Kolb, the reflective observation stage requires one to stop acting and start reviewing (Kolb, 1984). Similarly, during parenting parents at some point need to examine their child's behavior. A review of a child's behavior can be carried out without the child's consent. It is more useful to carry out an observation of a child without their knowledge since a child is likely not to change their behavior to impress. Notifying a child of behavioral observation may result in the child acting "nice" while they are hiding their real self. And by doing this, a parent may not determine their child's real character. Therefore, it is recommended that parents take up the role of evaluating their child's behavior as influenced by their (children) prior experiences.

Additionally, from Kolb's view, reflective observation can be related to diverging whereby a person looks at things from various perspectives (Kolb, 1984). In parenting, children need to be guided by their parents on how to approach different situations differently. As a parent, one ought to take up the role of overseeing a child since in a child's tender age; they are sensitive and can be easily swayed (Aunola, & Nurmi, 2005). Parents need to adopt the art of watching instead of acting in situations that need proper decision-making skills. By doing this, a child is likely to emulate the same since a child looks up to their parents for guidance. Children should be made to understand the need for handling the concrete situation from various viewpoints.

Abstract Conceptualization

According to David Kolb, this is a stage where one can relate to past experiences sensibly. It is at this stage where one's thoughts are methodically organized to help one derive sense out of their experiences (Kolb, 1984). Here one can pass from reflecting on past experiences to generating a hypothesis about what previous experiences mean. It is a critical stage to consider during parenting. The way a child perceives situations generates ideas and solves problems is solely dependent on the way they interact with their parents. During parenting, parents should be careful about the character they display to children. As seen earlier, development of a child is a sensitive stage that shapes the future. Therefore, a parent needs to provide proper guidance to a child to enable them to make appropriate decisions (Aunola, & Nurmi, 2005). Sensibly relating with past experiences narrows down to a parent's character since the child gained cognition. At this stage, a child can realize the meaning of past experiences, the way a parent handles a child from a tender age all the way is achieved at this stage. It is therefore essential that right from the beginning of parenting, a parent should be mindful of the behaviors they portray to a child since it a child's conceptualization.

Additionally, in this stage parents need to offer both moral and financial support to allow children to create a hypothesis of their past experiences. Although it may require much financial aid, parents can use the motivation strategy to entice their children to become more creative in conceptualizing their past experiences (Nieuwerburgh, 2018). Abstract conceptualization stage is vital in parenting since it gives a child exposure to real life issues. It is at this stage when a child can realize the meaning of the past experiences and what the future is likely to hold...