大卫·库伯（David Kolb）出生于1939年，是美国社会心理学家、教育家，也是一位著名的体验式学习大师。

　　在1984年, 大卫·库伯曾在他的著作《体验学习：体验——学习发展的源泉》(Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development)一书中提出了颇具影响的体验学习概念。并且，他把体验学习阐释为一个体验循环过程：具体的体验——对体验的反思——形成抽象的概念——行动实验——具体的体验，如此循环，形成一个贯穿的学习经历,学习者自动地完成着反馈与调整，经历一个学习过程，在体验中认知。

　　David A. Kolb (born 1939) is an American educational theorist whose interests and publications focus on experiential learning, the individual and social change, career development, and executive and professional education. He is the founder and chairman of Experience Based Learning Systems, Inc. (EBLS), and a Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

　　Kolb earned his BA from Knox College in 1961 and his MA and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1964 and 1967 respectively, in social psychology. In the early 1970s, Kolb and Ron Fry (now both at the Weatherhead School of Management) developed "The Experiential Learning Model," composed of four elements:

• concrete experience,
• observation of and reflection on that experience,
• formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection,
• testing the new concepts,
• (repeat).

　　These four elements are the essence of a spiral of learning that can begin with any one of the four elements, but typically begins with a concrete experience. He named his model to emphasize its links to ideas from John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Kurt Lewin, and others writers of the experiential learning paradigm. His model was developed predominantly for use with adult education, but has found widespread pedagogical implications in higher education. Dr. Kolb is renowned in educational circles for his Learning Style Inventory (LSI). His model is built upon the idea that learning preferences can be described using two continuums: active experimentation-reflective observation and abstract conceptualization-concrete experience. The result is four types of learners: converger (active experimentation-abstract conceptualization), accommodator (active experimentation-concrete experience), assimilator (reflective observation-abstract conceptualization), and diverger (reflective observation-concrete experience). The LSI is designed to determine an individual"s learning preference. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (version 3.1) is available exclusively through Hay Group Transforming Learning.

　　体验式学习理论的完整提出，当属20世纪80年代美国人大卫·库伯（David kolb），在总结了约翰·杜威(John.Dewey)、库尔特·勒温(Kurt Lewin，1890～1947)和皮亚杰经验学习模式的基础之上提出自己的经验学习模式亦即经验学习圈理论(experiential learning)。

　　他认为经验学习过程是由四个适应性学习阶段构成的环形结构，包括具体经验，反思性观察，抽象概念化，主动实践。具体经验是让学习者完全投入一种新的体验；反思性观察是学习者在停下的时候对已经历的体验加以思考；抽象概念化是学习者必须达到能理解所观察的内容的程度并且吸收它们使之成为合乎逻辑的概念；到了主动实践阶段，学习者要验证这些概念并将它们运用到制定策略、解决问题之中去(Sugarman，1985)。

　　学习过程有两个基本结构维度，第一个称为领悟维度，包括两个对立的掌握经验的模式：一是通过直接领悟具体经验；二是通过间接理解符号代表的经验。第二个称为改造维度，包括两个对立的经验改造模式：一是通过内在的反思；二是通过外在的行动。在学习过程中两者缺一不可。经验学习过程是不断的经验领悟和改造过程。