This article shows how a student centered pedagogy called the Improvisational Theater Art Form (ITAF) empowers transformative awareness, growth, and change. In this particular study representative of a larger body of work, 30 undergraduate researcher/participants created improvised games and scenes as expressions of their inner selves to explore…

Engineering designers often generate multiple concepts to increase novelty and diversity among early solution candidates. Many past studies have focused on creating new concepts "from scratch;" however, designers at every level become fixated on their initial designs and struggle to generate different ideas. In line with prior work on…

Jack Mezirow's (1978, 1991, and 2008) transformative learning (TL) theory was developed with transforming society in mind. However, that intent has been overshadowed by a dominant focus on individual transformation and a rational cognitive approach to critically assessing assumptions as the path to transformation. We (the authors) wonder what…

Integrative transformative learning in a feminist perspective asks students to engage in potentially troublesome and unsettling debates, to confront their own privilege and situated knowledges, and to experiment with conventional boundaries for knowledge production. We introduce the idea of the "tentacular classroom" grounded in the work…

This article explores the cognitive aspects of utopia in environmental and sustainability education. Utopia here is understood as the imaginary transformation of society, entailing a critique of society and its imaginary reconstruction aligned with the ideal of just and flourishing communities. To gain insight into the processes at play, I develop…

This article presents research conducted with six French physicians who have been trained in complementary and alternative medicines. The perceived effects of this body-mind training, (i.e. 'Awakening the Sensible Being'), are addressed in the thesis being posited. These 'Awakening the Sensible Being' practices help develop a quality of presence…

Increased online learning is helping many appreciate that online grading, formative assessment, and summative testing can cause instructor burnout and leave little time for more productive instructor interactions. We reimagined grading, assessment, and testing in an extended program of design-based research using situative theory to refine online…

Despite growing evidence of many environmental and other problems being caused by industrialized meat production, the issue of meat consumption is still generally seen as a private affair that has nothing to do with politics or education. This article problematizes meat consumption and discusses transformative learning theory in the light of the…

This study aimed to investigate differences in students' situational interest (exploration intention, instant enjoyment, novelty, attention demand, challenge, and total interest) and cognitive load (intrinsic, extraneous, and germane) of VR-guide and map-guide groups in a university library. The VR-guide group used wearable spherical video-based…

This article employs transformative learning and decolonial theories to investigate the efficacy of simulation pedagogy for undergraduate student learning about refugees and the internally displaced. The simulation of refugee experience was adapted from the Doctors Without Borders' "Forced From Home" exhibit and facilitated by an…

Transformation has been the fundamental basis upon which education has always stood, as without transformation in mind, education would seem purposeless and undirected. This would imply that the objective of providing information in education is not just to gain knowledge but to achieve the desired transformation in character or behaviour by…

Education theorists have emphasized that transformative learning is not simply a matter of students gaining access to new knowledge and information, but instead centers upon personal transformation: it alters students' perspectives, interpretations, and responses. How should learning that brings about this sort of self-transformation be understood…

Research has demonstrated that many quality sport-based youth development programs promote life skill acquisition (e.g., leadership, self-control) with the ultimate goal of facilitating positive outcomes in youth participants' social and academic environments. Researchers call this "transfer of life skills" (i.e., the idea that physical,…

When it comes to education, the dream cannot be controlled by the strictures of language or the conscious mind, and in its insistently disobedient character, is unwilling to submit to the demands of a deliberate and conscious curriculum. Indeed, we might say that what dreams represent is the absence of education itself, and a mobile energy…

Narratives have a unique ability to grant listeners emotional and cognitive space in a way that encourages them to choose how they will make sense of a story. This effect, called narrative distance, also has the potential to help create transformative learning experiences. This article is a qualitative research study of experts who regularly…