TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING THEORY: A PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK TO ENCOURAGE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE TAKING IN FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN POST-SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS

There has been an increased emphasis for professionals within the field of student affairs to focus on programming that will engage and help support increasingly diverse student populations on (Odağ, Wallin, & Kedzior, 2016). Bowman (2012) writes: “Many entering college students have had limited opportunities for meaningful interactions and friendships across difference, which further suggests the unique role of college in promoting diversity-related growth” (p.1). Missing within the literature are examples of pedagogical strategies for developing programs that can positively affect inclusivity on post-secondary institution (PSI) campuses. This paper identifies transformational learning theory as a specific pedagogical strategy to help student affairs professionals better support informal first-year programming. Developing innovative theory-guided programming is necessary to encourage learning and development (Baldwin et al., 2004).

Teaching Action Research to International Educators

This chapter examines how a team of university experts within the field of education adjusted the focus of a professional development (PD) model to teach action research to 60 international educators. Three key educational elements were used to create the PD model: 1) transformational learning theory, 2) language acquisition and learning methodologies, and 3) a personalized system of instruction (PSI). When the unexpected worldwide pandemic caused a shift to remote learning, the team was tasked with adjusting the original face-to-face model. Evidence from meeting agendas, action plan tracking spreadsheets, and personal communication were analyzed as the program moved to an online learning environment. Based on this data, the team recognized that the theoretical principles and conceptual framework did not change but were refocused and emphasized a more human-centered approach. Future research should explore continued long-term professional development after action research has been implemented to support reflective practice and inquiry.

“We Are Back”: Reverse Culture Shock Among Saudi Scholars After Doctoral Study Abroad

The experiences of individuals returning to the most conservative countries from abroad are not being recorded. The present study explores how Saudi scholars working in the higher education sector readjust and reconnect to their workplace after completing their doctoral scholarships abroad. The study has adopted a narrative approach and used the transformational learning theory to account for reverse culture shock. Six assistant professors (three males and three females) from three Saudi universities were recruited and they underwent 30- to 50-min-long semi-structured in-depth interviews. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis and the developed themes included emotional adaptation to home culture, adaptation to their work in their home culture, adaptation of families to home culture, and reentry coping mechanisms. The results depicted how the participants readjusted to their context after extended study abroad. They returned with new identities shaped by their life and education abroad and by their exposure at university to people from different cultural backgrounds. They had also become used to a more comfortable lifestyle in their host countries. The study concludes that there is a need to prepare and organize programs that could assist Saudi new returnees to readjust and reconnect to their context again. Moreover, it would be useful in helping universities prioritize their staff’s well-being and design rehabilitative courses for new returnees helping them integrate into their workplace.

Disorientation as a Learning Objective: Applying Transformational Learning Theory in Participatory Action Pedagogy

As the field of planning stretches toward redressing the injustices of past land use patterns through reparative practices, student learning needs to include socio-emotional, as well as technical and intellectual, skill-building. Pedagogy should increase the planner’s ability to recognize systems of oppression and center lived expertise in decision-making processes. Transformational learning theory considers the mechanisms through which place-based learning expands student worldviews through exposure to other ways of knowing. Reflecting on a participatory action course through the analytical lens of transformational learning theory, this paper considers the pedagogical and ethical challenges and opportunities for planning education through collaborative action.

Brand Stories: Transformative Learning Through Digital Brand Storytelling (DBS)

The purpose of the study is to explore how the digital brand story assignment creates a transformative learning experience for students. This study involves assessing the levels of learning according to Mezirow’s transformational learning theory through the development of digital brand stories. The authors have tested the Digital Brand Storytelling (DBS) video reflection assignment across two universities providing students the opportunity to meaningfully reflect on their brand relationships as part of their own personality. Study results showed that the DBS gives students an increased understanding of how brands influence their personal purchasing habits and increased awareness of the brands they purchase. Results of the study demonstrated that this assignment allows faculty to assess learning in courses where the DBS is applied toward the transformative pedagogical approach. The DBS requires reflection and articulation of personal brand attitudes, perceptions, and consumption behaviors. Guidance for course implementation is provided for educators to modify and implement in their courses.

Ordinary, Everyday Discipleship: Banding Together for Faithful Living at Home, Work, and in the World

The rediscovery of the church calendar, specifically Ordinary time and the daily office in popular Christian publishing, prompts the recovery of the whole of everyday life as integral to Christian discipleship. This paper considers how intentional Christian community in the spirit of the eighteenth-century Methodists that leverages insights from transformational learning theory offers contemporary Christians an opportunity for considering the small moments of everyday as important to faithful Christian discipleship.

Transformational Learning in First-Year Australian Preservice Primary Teacher

The early experience of commencing university students is an important precursor for retention and student success and involves a transformation in learning. This article reports the experiences of commencing students in an Australian Education (Primary) degree. Data were collected using a mixed methods approach, consisting of an online survey, and semistructured interviews. The data revealed that respondents experienced some phases of Mezirow’s transformational learning theory. Interviewees were enthusiastic about their future career with high scores in the online instrument for academic orientation and student identity, which indicated that they were experiencing the building of confidence and competence in new roles (Phase 7) and provisionally trying out new roles (Phase 8). Nevertheless, all respondents indicated being overwhelmed by the unexpectedly high academic study load, indicating a disorientating dilemma (Phase 1). These results are placed in the context of student retention and degree completion.

Engaging Heads, Hands, and Hearts to Optimize Study Abroad Outcomes

This chapter poses an innovative framework that can be utilized as a model for study abroad experiences, particularly those situated in developing countries. The model enhances a service learning structure by grounding both classroom study and related field work in the theoretical foundations of critical pedagogy, transformational learning theory, ecological systems theory and critical theory in a manner that sets the stage for success for study abroad students and in-country community members alike. The chapter concludes with a recommended plan for implementation of the framework as well as suggestions for optimizing sustainable outcomes for teachers as they begin work in classrooms of their own.

The long and winding road: Experiences of students entering university through transition programs

This article presents outcomes of two studies which focus on the lived experience of transition by students entering higher education in NSW (New South Wales), Australia, from two divergent pathways: Technical and Further Education (TAFE) and a university based enabling program. The studies intersect in two fundamental ways. First, the theoretical foundations (Mezirow’s Transformational Learning Theory and Bourdieu’s Social Capital Theory) which emphasise the role of habits of mind and the habitus respectively in an individual’s life. Second, both studies have identified the primacy of the contribution of education to changing notions of self. The studies have found that successful students reappraise and reimagine their self-identity inclusive of possible future selves. The studies reject deterministic and often deficit models of socio-cultural influences on self-concept, and instead embrace the perspective that adult learning can not only realise, but also build upon latent capabilities, and ultimately that it is an empowering experience for many transitioning students.

Reflective practice and the role of transformational learning in healthcare

Among possible adult learning theories, transformative learning emerged in the 1990’s with the aim to provide learners an educational experience consistent with the purpose of changing perspectives. Transformational learning theory provides the opportunity to learn, confront, engage and reflect on the possibility of learning through changes in perspective and to explore new meanings, roles, relationships and actions contained within it.Perspective transformation is, therefore, not only intended to create ownership of new knowledge, but its re-integration into new or re-configured ways of everyday living. The readiness to apply new knowledge is triggered by confronting an event, or mode of thought, that moves individuals from experiencing knowledge as a series of facts disconnected from their meaning and context into a relevant context, or one that has a different significance for the learner. New understanding requires that learners assess the meanings behind words, the coherence, truth and appropriateness of what is being communicated as well as the truthfulness, credibility and authenticity of the presenter. Unlike focusing only on instrumental learning in which logical problem solving and inquiry dominate, transformative learning entails the use of metaphor, analogies and reflective dialogue so that learners revise their interpretations of knowledge. In these ways transformative learning might help healthcare providers to change their frame of reference and perceptions to accommodate new and different ways of learning and engaging within a multidisciplinary clinical team.