The kind of transactional, or tit-for-tat giftedness that so many programs identify and develop will not help to create a better world. Yet, if anyone is in a position to create a better world, it is our gifted young people. In this article, roles are presented that can be used to create change in the world. Some of these roles, when applied…

Before Heritage Middle School began working with the Participate Learning team to connect lessons to real-world issues, the teachers and leadership had established a goal to encourage students to become more empathic about issues in their community. Although a handful of students and teachers who participated in the school's gardening club were…

Transformative learning theory has provided a sound theoretical base for adult education's Western and Eastern academic field. This article aims to introduce the mandala model of transformative learning by transferring Mezirow's theory of perspective transformation onto a mandala map. In the mandala model, the learning agent exercises two…

In this paper we discuss the potential of digital games to create meaningful educational experiences that contribute to the learning of ethics in higher education (HE) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degrees. We describe the design of a new digital ethics game with a focus on the challenges we encountered when applying…

Much academic development work, whether it be student, academic staff, institutional or curriculum development, is undertaken from an affirmative rather than a transformative approach (Luckett, L., and S. Shay. 2020. "Reframing the Curriculum: A Transformative Approach." "Critical Studies in Education" 61 (1): 50-65). To be…

Despite decades of research on the global mind-set concept, no cohesive framework has emerged through which this way-of-thinking can be developed in learners, leading some to perceive the global mind-set as elusive. To move the literature forward, I propose a theory-driven pedagogy which combines insights from the extant global mind-set literature…

It is not every day that a former student greets a teacher with, "Your course changed my life." The authors are the professor and student of the transformative course. Alicia Gonzales wanted to understand how to work with students to co-construct an environment where persistent problem solving in a technologically rich classroom was the…

Just as a compass orients a traveller, the OECD Learning Compass 2030 indicates the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values students need not just to weather the changes in our environment and in our daily lives, but to help shape the future. The Learning Compass 2030 is composed of seven elements: (1) core foundations; (2) transformative…

Historically, deep learning opportunities have occurred in schools attended by this country's most advantaged students, and there have been few successful efforts to systemically create the structures and policies necessary to ensure every student has access to this type of learning. The New Tech Network, a network of more than 200 elementary,…

We present a first-hand, longer-term account of one student's (Christine's) experiences in and after a mathematics inquiry course. In this course, students actively posed problems, conducted their own mathematical explorations, and wrote journal entries about their experiences. During the course, Christine found that inquiry helped her develop…

It's a staggering statistic -- 36 million adults in the United States read at a 3rd grade level or below. Of these, more than two-thirds are members of the workforce but don't have the skills for advancement. Yet, finding and completing education programs is often a struggle for this population. Access to quality education programs is limited at…

Knowledge-based environmental education has been consistently found to be limited in its effectiveness due to its small and indirect role in promoting sustainable behavior, while focusing on the impact of social context has been found to be more conceptually relevant. Transformative learning theory is positioned to be foundational to environmental…

The 21st century is seeing dramatic shifts in the business environment. In order for organizations to adapt to these shifts, they must be more flexible and learning oriented. To thrive in this environment, organizational leaders must facilitate and build the capacity for learning throughout the organization. Organizational leadership is looking…

The Transformative Pedagogy Project (TPP) at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), is an interdisciplinary and intergenerational learning community seeking to develop ways of knowing and ways of being that do not only augment individual and collective understanding of social structures and social relations, but also transform them…

Because researchers know so much more about the brain and development than they did when the 20th-century U.S. education system was designed, this knowledge can now be used to design a system in which all individuals are able to take advantage of high-quality opportunities for transformative learning and development. This playbook suggests a set…