Cooperative learning emphasizes task over process and the educator is in control. Collaborative learners work together to construct understanding, and the educator establishes an environment for shared exploration. Transformative group learning involves critical reflection, facilitated by the educator, for individual or social change. (SK)

Defines the meaning of life as meaning making--filtering experience through basic assumptions. Uses the theory of perspective transformation to explain the relationship between learning and meaning making. Identifies techniques for teaching critical thinking to facilitate perspective transformation. (SK)

Habermas' work has influenced Mezirow's perspective transformation theory as well as schools of thought in critical thinking and critical theory. However, some interpretations of Habermas do not demonstrate familiarity with his work nor critiques outside of education, posing challenges to adult education grounded in his theories. (SK)

Emotional reactions to text are manifestations of learners' inner selves. Adult learners can engage in the process of meaning making by working with images and integrating them into their holistic beings. (SK)

Using the framework of communities of practice, data were collected from a labor union education program (152 survey responses, 3 life histories). Despite negative early schooling experiences, respondents saw union involvement as a rationale to participate in formal education. Union education was depicted as situated learning through participation…

Develops and defends the concept of the critical stance as a goal in college teaching. Explains that the critical stance is an attitude or disposition towards oneself, others, and the object of inquiry that challenges and impels learners to reflect, understand, and act in the milieu of potentiality. (EV)

Transformative learning theory provides a framework for development of authentic, individuated, critically reflective practitioners. Strategies for transformative professional development include action plans, reflective activities, case studies, and critical theory discussions. (Contains 17 references.) (SK)

A case study examined 10 successful partnerships between county extension educators and university researchers. Successful partnerships included commitment to the bigger picture, communication, mutual respect, trust, and a supportive environment. Conditions that promoted transformative learning in partnerships included strong partner facilitation,…

A framework for further education in Australia includes eight lifelong-learning goals and four key principles: multiplicity, connectedness, critical intelligence, and transformation. The curriculum-design model outlines educational, learning, recognition, and pathway outcomes. (SK)

Explores the postmodern critique of dominant conceptions of the self in adult education: psychological/humanistic and sociological/critical. Identifies valuable aspects of the critique, for example, showing how individuals participate in their own subjugation with adult educators as accomplices. (SK)

Transformative learning is a theory based on the premise that all individuals have perspectives derived from experiences, thoughts, values, and insights. Adult educators create meaning out of their experiences as practitioners and as learners. (JOW)

Examines differences among types of critical reflection, the role of critical reflection of assumption (CRA) in the transformative theory of adult learning, and philosophical foundations of CRA. (SK)

Describes the use of transformative learning theory to evaluate a family-empowerment project focusing on life skills (N=34). Results reveal evidence of transformative learning outcomes such as an empowered sense of self and new connections with others. Participants also spoke of factors built into the program designed to foster transformative…

Contrasts Western traditional objectivism with the interpretist paradigm explaining cognitive processes. Describes the transformation theory of adult learning based on the emancipatory paradigm. (SK)

Adult educators can use the concepts of chaos, emergence, creativity, and transformation from biological and physical sciences and evolution theories to reassess the prominence of transformation as an educational orientation. Developmental potential can be facilitated in learners who are at crisis points, struggling with inner turbulence, or…