Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

degree in which it is cumulative or amounts to something; it has meaning (Dewey,
1916, p. 147).
Piaget. The Illeris (2007) interpretation of Piaget’s learning theory focuses on the
learner’s interactions with the social world being in a continual state of adaptation. Two
underlying principles of this adaptation modality are assimilation and accommodation.
Taken together, assimilation and accommodation form a dialectic tension that maintains a
cognitive structure. Assimilation refers to “incorporating new influences of established
patterns of movement, potential actions, structures of knowledge or modes of
understanding” (Illeris, 2007, p. 37). Assimilative learning involves deliberate
development in which the learning is constructed, integrated and steadied (Illeris, 2007).
Accommodation has an altogether different orientation: “it is the [learner] that changes ...
in order to be able to take in influences from the environment” (Illeris, 2007, p.37).
Accommodative learning, also labeled transformative learning by Illeris (2007), implies
going beyond what has already been developed; this can occur immediately or over an
extended duration of time until learner comprehension happens. Both assimilation and
accommodation are action-oriented and arise as a result of interacting with the
environment (Kolb, 1984).
Kolb. A seminal theorist in experiential learning, Kolb took “his point of
departure [from] Piaget, among others” (Illeris, 2007, p. 53). Kolb (1984) himself
explicitly and extensively acknowledged the influence of Dewey and Piaget. The
continual transaction between assimilation and accommodation, pillars of Piaget’s
learning theory, were integral to the theory and model constructed by Kolb (1984).