April 21, 2023

• 5• “Transformative Learning”• 7• Your “critical incidents”• 9• Transformative Learning• One definition• A view of its significance• Mezirow’s stages• Perspective transformation• Forms of education• Mezirow• Levels of Reflection• Questions• www.dmupce.org.uk/

transformative• Single and double-loop learning• Tension Field of Learning• The Developmental agenda

(Erikson)• Perry scheme of development

Women’s ways of knowing• Simple Supplantive Learning (SSL)

• Resistance Factors• Crisis• Sequence of PSL 2• De-stabilisation• Disorientation• Re-orientation• Oscillating support in the Re-

orientation stage• “Banking” education• Freire• Hidden Curriculum• What is taught, and what is

learned• “Sending messages”• Discourse and Framing• Labelling• Mechanisms of “adaptation”

(Piaget)• Conceptions of learning (Saljo

1979)• www.dmupce.org.uk/

transformative

April 21, 2023

“Transformative Learning”

17 January 07

www.bedspce.org.uk/adultlearning/

April 21, 2023

Transformative Learning

• Principally about yourself rather than an external subject…

• …so that you come to see yourself and your potential differently.

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One definition

• "Transformative learning involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world. Such a shift involves our understanding of ourselves and our self-locations; our relationships with other humans and with the natural world; our understanding of relations of power in interlocking structures of class, race and gender; our body awarenesses, our visions of alternative approaches to living; and our sense of possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy."

O’Sullivan (2003)

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A view of its significance

• “Perhaps even more central to adult learning than elaborating established meaning schemes is the process of reflecting back on prior learning to determine whether what we have learned is justified under present circumstances. This is a crucial learning process egregiously ignored by learning theorists.”

(Mezirow, 1990:5)

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Mezirow’s stages1. A disorienting dilemma2. Self-examination with feelings of fear, anger, guilt, or shame3. A critical assessment of assumptions4. Recognition that one’s discontent and the process of

transformation are shared5. Exploration of options for new roles, relationships, and actions6. Planning a course of action7. Acquiring knowledge and skills for implementing one’s plans8. Provisional trying of new roles9. Building competence and self-confidence in new roles and

relationships10. A reintegration into one’s life on the basis of conditions

dictated by one’s new perspective(Mezirow, 2000:22)

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Perspective transformation

• "Perspective transformation is the process of becoming critically aware of how and why our presuppositions have come to constrain the way we perceive, understand, and feel about our world; of reformulating these assumptions to permit a more inclusive, discriminating, permeable and integrative perspective; and of making decisions or otherwise acting on these new understandings. More inclusive, discriminating permeable and integrative perspectives are superior perspectives that adults choose if they can because they are motivated to better understand the meaning of their experience." (Mezirow, 1990:14 – my emphasis)

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Forms of education

• Transmissional• Transactional• Transformational

• Informational

• Transformational

Kegan, in Mezirow 2000

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Mezirow

Ex post facto

reflection

Process

Reflective action

Presuppositions

(critical reflection)

Thoughtful action with

reflection

Content

Action

Thoughtful action

without reflection

Non-reflective action

Habitual action

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Levels of Reflection

• Content Reflection: … on the content or description of a problem. (Similar to Dewey on problem solving)

• Process Reflection: about the strategies used to solve the problem rather than the content of the problem itself

• Premise Reflection: questioning the relevance of the problem itself—underlying assumptions, beliefs, or values. Distinct from problem-solving and can lead to transformative learning.

Based on Cranton (1996)

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Questions

• Is it always positive?• Is the induction of transformative

learning a legitimate task for the teacher of adults?

• Where is the social and political dimension?

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Single and double-loop learning

Governing

variablesActions

Conseque

nces

Match

Mismatch

Argyris C (1992) On Organizational Learning Oxford; Basil Blackwell

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Tension Field of Learning

Cognition Emotion

Society

Illeris (2002)

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The Developmental agenda(Erikson)

Basic Trust vs. Mistrust

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Initiative vs. Guilt

Industry vs. Inferiority

Identity vs. Role confusion

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Ego-integrity vs. Despair

Oral-sensory

Muscular-anal

Locomotor-genital

Latency

Puberty and adolescence

Young adulthood

Adulthood

Maturity

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Perry scheme of development

• Dualism Right/wrong

• Multiplicity Right, wrong, “not yet

known”

• Contextual Relativism Everything’s relative

• Commitment within Relativism Even so…

• “Positions” rather than stages

• Nine stages, of which the major four are;

Perry, W.G. (1999). Forms of Ethical and Intellectual Development in the College Years. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 1 of 2

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Women’s ways of knowing

1. Silence2. Received Knowledge3. Subjective Knowledge 4. Procedural Knowledge5. Constructed Knowledge

Belenky, M.F., Clinchy, B.M., Goldberger, N.R., and Tarule, J.M. (1986) Women's Ways of Knowing. New York: Basic Books.

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Simple Supplantive Learning (SSL)

Time

Competence

“Old” learning

New learning

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Resistance Factors

9A

Potential

Learner

The Present — Space to change

The Past —

the heritage of

history

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Intervention“window”

Crisis

Pre-crisis

“Angle ofRecovery”

Slightly diminished

capacity to cope

Seriously diminished

capacity to cope

Enhanced

capacity to copePrecipitating

event

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Sequence of PSL 2

Re-orientation

Time

Confidence/Morale

De-stabilisation

Disorientation

Facilitating

Environment

New learning

Old learning

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De-stabilisation

• Unpredictable process Effected by casual remarks as

much as deliberate intervention

• Has two necessary elements Declaration Application

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Disorientation

• Has cognitive and affective components

• May include Depression Frustration Anger Guilt “Attempted apathy” (not denial)

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Re-orientation

• Resembles additive learning• New learning still fragile• Diminishing echoes of whole

sequence• Facilitating environment still

required in initial stages

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Oscillating support inthe Re-orientation stage

Time

“In

de

pe

nd

en

ce”

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a. the teacher teaches and the students are taught; b. the teacher knows everything and the students know

nothing; c. the teacher thinks and the students are thought about; d. the teacher talks and the students listen—meekly; e. the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined;f. the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the

students comply;g. the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting

through the action of the teacher; h. the teacher chooses the program content, and the students

(who were not consulted) adapt to it; i. the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his

own professional authority, which he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students;

j. the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects.

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“Banking” education

April 21, 2023

Freire

“This book will present some aspects of what the writer has termed the “pedagogy of the oppressed”, a pedagogy which must be forged with, not for, the oppressed (be they individuals or whole peoples) in the incessant struggle to regain their humanity.

This pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed,

and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation.

And in the struggle this pedagogy will be made and remade.”

From Freire P The Pedagogy of the Oppressed Penguin 1972:25

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Hidden Curriculum• What pupils/students learn from the

sheer experience of participating in school/college

• largely about survival identity and worth

• … irrespective of, and often contrary to, what the college sets out to teach.

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What is taught,and what is learned

What is

learned

What is

taught

Formal

Curriculum

"Hidden"

Curriculum

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“Sending messages”

• All social practices have a sub-text, or send a message.

• … usually about values and relationships

• There is no way to avoid these messages The only question is whether they are

“good” messages or “bad” ones

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Discourse andFraming

• The culture of the school/college, and its procedures, are geared to deal with pupils/students in two frames, with associated discourses: academic: intelligence, ability,

application, performance in the educational game

social/behavioural: discipline, disruption, conformity to institutional rules

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Labelling

• Children/students are perceived and reported on in terms of these frames and may internalise (believe) the

judgements made and “act up to” them: a self-fulfilling

prophecy

• … or not, of course.

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Mechanisms of“adaptation”

(Piaget)

Assimilation

Accommodation

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Conceptions of learning (Saljo 1979)

1 Learning as a quantitative increase in knowledge. Learning is acquiring information or “knowing a lot”  

2 Learning as memorising. Learning is storing information that can be reproduced. 

3 Learning as acquiring facts, skills and methods that can be retained and used as necessary. 

4 Learning as making sense or abstracting meaning. Learning involves relating parts of the subject matter to each other and to the real world. 

5 Learning as interpreting and understanding reality in a different way. Learning involves comprehending the world by re-interpreting knowledge

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www.bedspce.org.uk/adultlearning/

April 21, 2023

Levels of Learning(Bateson)

Learning 0Direct experience

Learning I“Ordinary” learning

Learning IIInot really understood

Learning II/ Deutero-learningLearning how to learn

?