“Transformative Learning Theory: Connections with Christian Adult Education”. In this article, Ellen L. Marmon is expressing a new visionary idea of how to apply the Transformative Learning Theory, but working with adults. The main focus is the Christian Education and even though there are different ways to transmit information, she truly believes that an effective one is teaching grown-ups and not just having a learning process during the childhood and teenage years, as the majority usually think. Equally important, the author describes the Christian life as a “dynamic faith journey” (p.224) which remind us that is not just a linear process but a never-ending lifestyle that is constantly changing. It is like the worldview, described in Why College Matters to God, “continuously subject to growth and revision as we encounter new people, ideas, and experiences” (Ostrander, 2012, p. 28). That is why she claims that even during the adulthood people can keep building their knowledge in a different but excellent way. Adults have built their personal perspectives of situations in life, so she emphasizes that during this process, there are going to exist changes and that is how people acquire new information. That is why Marmon reaffirms: “Adult learning is tricky; grown men and women often must unlearn …show more content…
Then, as usual, they share they knowledge with others in an accurate way by analyzing carefully and with maturity what they have learned (socialize). Finally, having a new perspective of the situations creates changes in some aspects and then is when the transformation occurs. Marmon endorses the ideas of Mezirow’s article, Learning as transformation, to explain the three levels of transformation: “Meanings; premises, assumption, or habits of mind, and meaning perspectives”. She also agrees with him that when an adult embraces a new way of recognizing the world he or she has experienced a Transformative
Given the thought that adults learn in ways that are not the same as kids, instructive scholar Malcolm Knowles suggested that an alternate way to deal with teaching adults is needed. He thus promoted the term andragogy to separate adult showing techniques from teaching a method or showing strategies for youngsters (Sang, 2010). Therefore, there are a lot of theories in our culture. “For example, there are behaviorist, cognitivist, social and experiential learning theories. All learning theories strive to lead to change in basically three domains: cognitive, affective and psychomotor” (Wang, 2012, para. 1). However, great learning theories focus on the learners and educators and try to
In order to express genuine character, a person must undergo character transformation. Transformation solidifies a person’s values in their way of thinking and behaving. According to Wright, this
According to the TLT, when transformation learning occurs, adults become aware of learning beyond content, equations formation, and memorizing historical data. A perspective shift arises in transformative learning and a person’s worldview is affected. A new way of viewing life experience and situations occurs.
Thus, “Transformative adult education” helps to guide the learners to be self-guided analyzing their old deep seated perspectives comparing them with the significant ethical, moral and emotional values connected with their new experiences to create for them new interpretations that may achieve transformative learning that changes their whole perspectives in
.... (1987). ‘Malcolm Knowles’ in P. Jarvis (Ed.) Twentieth Century Thinkers in Adult Education. London: Croom Helm. Kearsley, G. (2011). The theory into practice database. Retrieved from http://tip.psychology.org Knowles, M. S., et al. (1984). Andragogy in action: Applying modern principles of adult education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Knowles, M. S. (1989). The making of an adult educator: An autobiographical journey. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Merriam, S. B. (2001). Andragogy and self-directed learning: Pillars of adult learning theory. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 89, 3-13. National Louis University. (2005). Retrieved from http://www.nl.edu/academics/cas/ace/resources/malcolmknowles.cfm Smith, M. K. (2002). Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and andragogy. Retrieved from www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm
As a graduate student, tell us how you have personally experienced transformational learning. Please be specific and include how this has caused any changes to your educational philosophy or your approaches to teaching.
Edward Lindeman is thought by many to be the founder of contemporary adult education. His work in the area of adult education included the writing of articles, books, public presentations, assistance in the collegiate system as a lecturer of social work and as an associate pastor in the church (Brookfield 1986). Lindeman and Martha Anderson traveled to observe and analyze the German Folk High School system and the worker’s movement. Consequently, Lindeman and Anderson’s comparative research lead to the breakthrough of the German perception of andragogy. Their studies define andragogy as the “true method of adult learning” (1986). In 1968 at Boston University, the initial use of the term “andragogy” to attain prevalent notice of adult instructors occurred when Malcolm Knowles who at the time was an instructor of adult education, presented the term via journal article. In his 1970 book publication, he defined “andragogy” as the art and science of helping adults learn. The concept of self-directed learning, or SDL, maintained below reveals Knowles’ definition of SDL:
I interviewed my grandmother Rachel, who is 76 years old. Our relationship is close but also distant since she lives in California, I don’t get the opportunity to talk and see her as much as I would like. There are multiple features of the lifespan development perspective that can be applied to my grandmother’s life. The first being development is as lifelong process apply to my grandmother religious development throughout her life. In school as a young child, she learned about religion and all the different kinds of religions. As a young adulthood, she developed her religious beliefs by attending church masses and participating in church activities. During her adulthood and into late adulthood, she continues to attend church masses regularly
There are two different ways of learning presented in this essay. These methods are rote learning and conversational teaching. Both of them have the purpose to help the Christian communities at churches to increase the knowledge that the congregation has about their beliefs and traditions. Equally, they can be useful for the people in charge of a group at church, from pastors to ministries’ leaders. On this case, conversational teaching is the best method to apply at churches considering it searches the transformation of people through the understating of a topic with the use of socialization. It is necessary to compare both of them and review at their elements to identify when
Taylor, E. W. (2008). Transformative learning theory. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 119, 5-15. doi: 10.1002/ace.301
The learning perspective what is it? This is the study of how exactly a person is effected through what they learn on a daily basis. Through family, their surroundings and behavior. The people who believe this line of thinking are called behaviorists. Many people look at the learning perspective in a suspiciouse manner not believeing or trusting any of the experiments. But there are many contributions and many limitations of the learning perspective.
The Biblical model for education is first found within the context of the family, of which is articulated within Deuteronomy 6:1-25. The church however, coinciding with the missional objective of the Christian family, must assist in ways to recapture and reinforce education through the family. This can be achieved through the learning process when there is as emphasis on affective learning, rather than the more prevalent bent towards cognitive processes (Eldridge, 1995). Therefore, the task of the church is to overcome the prevailing influence of the world which is destroying lives and families at a drastic pace. Eldridge shares that the church through its teaching through Christian education must provide opportunities for relational processes in a context where the content of curriculum may be caught as well as taught, so that authentic learning can occur (1995).
...ind hits it. Those who by the age of eighteen have thick calendars organizing their too-complicated lives, those who have learned that a branch does not have real meaning, those whose religion tries to teach simplicity but does not get heard ("consider the lilies of the field, they do not spin nor toil, yet Solomon in his glory was not so brightly arrayed") -- can we enter the vision of the writings of one of us who lived 2500 years ago and left the city of confusion to find wisdom? Can we find in the tensions of his writings -- as they are the shapes of the tensions of living in a confused world -- the "way" of life that is most natural? Can we be at home in the universe that produces us and mirrors so readily what we are when we stop and look, wary as those crossing the ice, listening for cracks that might freeze them before they drowned, we see and hear the signs?
Has there ever been an experience that not only has changed your development but also has recalibrated your entire life? If you were to ask me this question i would answer yes with great exuberance. I would also state that this occurred not even a month ago. I state this response with great joy simply because I enjoy the recalibration I have encountered, since this change can enhance a better future for myself. It has let me find my true passions and let me realize my true dislikes. Most importantly it has given me a new sense of maturity I feel that I didn’t earn! But in order to explain this adjustment that has crossed my path the reader must understand what and how my life was lived previously. Following this I can describe the events of my experience that leads to the pep talk that induced me into making the change that was essential in order to improve my future.
education is life itself." This philosophy truly emphasizes the importance of education in one's life, and that they are indeed interrelated, not separated. I believe he was expressing, in part, the notion that education should serve us throughout our lives, constantly empowering us to achieve our greatest potential through self-realization. Learning, is a life-long process, by which we are all constantly searching for meaning through reflecting on our experiences to make sense of, and better understand the world in which we live in. I am humble enough to say that I too remain a student, not just in the literal sense, but in life. As teachers, I believe it is our responsibility to provide an educational experience that motivates our students to discover their own hidden potentials and to hopefully achieve self-realization. This is especially important for young children, for it is with the combination of their innate learning ability and the influence of great educators that can account for their marvelous capacity of potential.