MDDE612+Chapter+4

link to chapters 1 to 7

Mezirow, J. (2000). **Learning to think like an adult: Core concepts of transformation theory**. In J. Mezirow & Associates, Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 3-33). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Bruner (1996) identifies four modes of making meaning: (p. 4)
 * 1) establishing, shaping, and maintaining intersubjectivity; //[intersubjectivity refers to the "common-sense," shared meanings constructed by people in their interactions with each other and used as an everyday resource to interpret the meaning of elements of social and cultural life. If people share common sense, then they share a definition of the situation. Iintersubjectivity can refer to agreement. There is intersubjectivity between people if they agree on a given set of meanings or a definition of the situation.]//
 * 2) relating events, utterances, and behavior to the action taken;
 * 3) construing of particulars in a normative context—deals with meaning relative to obligations, standards, conformities, and deviations;
 * 4) making propositions—application of rules of the symbolic, syntactic, and conceptual systems used to achieve decontexualized meanings, including rules of inference and logic and such distinctions as whole-part, object-attribute, and identity-otherness.
 * 5) **becoming critically aware of one's own tacit assumptions and expectations and those of others and assessing their relevance for making an interpretation.** (Transformative Learning adds a fifth and crucial mode of making meaning.)

Kitchener (1983, p. 230) has suggested that there are three levels of cognitive processing:
 * 1) At the first level, individuals compute, memorize, read and comprehend.
 * 2) At the second level [metacognition], they monitor their own progress and products as they are engaged in first-order cognitive tasks. ...
 * 3) The third level . . . [the] epistemic cognition, must be introduced to explain how humans monitor their problem solving when engaged in ill-structured problems, i.e. those which do not have an absolutely correct solution. Epistemic cognition has to do with reflection on the limits of knowledge, the certainty of knowledge, and the criteria for knowing. . . . [E]pistemic cognition emerges in late adolescence, although its form may change in the adult years.[**transformative learning pertains to epistemic cognition**]

(P. 7)
 * Mindful learning** is defined by Langer (1997, p. 4) as the continuous creation of new categories, openness to new information, and an implicit awareness of more than one perspective. **Mindlessness** involves relying on past forms of action or previously established distinctions and categories.


 * Open**-**mindedness** as "a willingness to construe knowledge and values from multiple perspectives without loss of commitment to one's own,_values (p. 13)

(P. 8)
 * Transformation Theory's focus** is on how we learn to negotiate and act on our own purposes, values, feelings, and meanings rather than those we have uncritically assimilated from others—to gain greater control over our lives as socially responsible, clear-thinking decision makers

Cultural canon, socioeconomic structures, ideologies and beliefs about ourselves, and the practices they support **often conspire to foster conformity** and impede development of a sense of responsible agency.


 * instrumental learning**
 * learning to control and manipulate the environment or other people, as in task-oriented problem solving to improve performance.
 * involves communicative learning. In instrumental learning, problem solving and inquiry follow a hypothetical-deductive logic (test a hypothesis; analyze its consequences).
 * We establish the validity of our problematic beliefs in instrumental learning by empirically testing to determine the truth of an assertion.
 * In coping with the external world, instrumental competence involves attainment of improved task-oriented performance.
 * We test our interpretations and beliefs instrumentally by hypothesis testing and empirical measurement when we can and justify them communicatively through reflective discourse when we cannot.


 * communicative learning**
 * learning what others mean when they communicate with you. This often involves feelings, intentions, values, and moral issues.
 * Understanding in communicative learning requires that we assess the meanings behind the words; the coherence, truth, and appropriateness of what is being communicated; the truthfulness and qualifications of the speaker; and the authenticity of expressions of feeling. That is, we must become critically reflective of the assumptions of the person communicating. We need to know whether the person who gives us a diagnosis about our health is a trained medical worker, that one who gives us direction at work is authorized to do so, or whether a stranger who talks to us on a bus is just passing the time or trying to sell us something, proselytize, or pick us up. The meaning of the words the stranger uses depends on his or her assumptions.
 * Communicative learning often involves a critical assessment of assumptions supporting the justification of norms. Assumptions include
 * intent, sometimes implied as a subtext;
 * what is taken for granted, like conventional wisdom;
 * a particular religious worldview;
 * whether one means what is said and in what sense it is meant—literally or metaphorically, as a joke or caricature;
 * the frame of reference;
 * the character—liar, zealot, crook—and qualifications of the person communicating;
 * the relevance and timing of the communication and the context—biographical, historical, and cultural—within which what is being communicated makessense.
 * inquiry assumes a metaphorical-abductive logic (make an analogy; let each step in understanding dictate the next one).
 * we determine the justification of a problematic belief or understanding through **rational discourse** to arrive at a tentative best judgment.
 * In coping with the external world, communicative competence refers to the ability of the learner to negotiate his or her own purposes, values, feelings, and meanings rather than to simply act on those of others (what I later refer to as autonomous thinking)

Rationality (p. 10)
 * refers to assessing reasons supporting one's options as objectively as possible and choosing the most effective means available to achieve one's objectives.
 * **instrumental learning**,
 * rationality is judged by whether we are able to achieve technical success in meeting our objectives (for example, use methods that result in improved performance).
 * **communicative learning**,
 * rationality is judged by our success in coming to an understanding concerning the issues at hand.

Reflective Discourse (p. 10)
 * Discourse, in the context of Transformation Theory, is that specialized use of dialogue devoted to searching for a common understanding and assessment of the justification of an interpretation or belief. This involves assessing reasons advanced by weighing the supporting evidence and arguments and by examining alternative perspectives.
 * Reflective discourse involves a critical assessment of assumptions. It leads toward a clearer understanding by tapping collective experience to arrive at a tentative best judgment.
 * Discourse is the forum in which "finding one's voice" becomes a prerequisite for free full participation.
 * Effective participation in discourse and in transformative learning
 * requires emotional maturity—awareness, empathy, and control—what Goleman (1998) calls "emotional intelligence"—knowing and managing one's emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others and handling relationships—as well as clear thinking.
 * Major social competencies include
 * empathy (understanding others and cultivating opportunity through diverse people and political awareness)
 * social skills (adeptness in getting desired responses from others).
 * Self-regulation includes selfcontrol and trustworthiness (maintaining standards of honesty and integrity).
 * Reflective discourse involves what the Greek Skeptics called //epoche//, a provisional suspension of judgment about the truth or falsity of, or the belief or disbelief in, ideas until a better determination can be made. (p. 13)
 * The ideal conditions to optimize adult learning and education imply, what Bellah and others (1985) refer to as Democratic Habits of the Heart (p. 14)
 * respect for others,
 * self-respect,
 * willingness to accept responsibility for the common good,
 * willingness to welcome diversity
 * to approach others with openness.
 * really talking
 * in which emphasis is placed on active listening,
 * domination is absent,
 * reciprocity and cooperation are prominent,
 * judgment is withheld until one empathically understands another's point of view:
 * "Compared to other positions, there is a capacity at the position of constructed knowledge to attend to another person and to feel related to that person in spite of what may be enormous differences. . . . Empathy is a central feature in the development of connected procedures for knowing . . . attentivecaring is important in understanding not only people but also the written word, ideas, even impersonal objects

Brookfield (1995) emphasizes the importance of three common assumptions for critical reflection: (p. 19)
 * 1) paradigmatic assumptions that structure the world into fundamental **categories** (the most difficult to identify in oneself),
 * 2) prescriptive assumptions about what we think **ought** to be happening in a specific situation,
 * 3) causal assumptions about how the world **works** and how it may be **changed** (the easiest to identify).


 * Action** (p. 24)
 * A mindful transformative learning experience requires that the learner make an informed and reflective decision to act on his or her reflective insight. This decision may result in immediate action, delayed action, or reasoned reaffirmation of an existing pattern of action.
 * Taking action on reflective insights often involves overcoming situational, emotional, and informational constraints that may require new learning experiences in order to move forward.
 * As challenging one's cherished beliefs (a leap into the unknown) often invokes a threatening emotional experience, the qualities that constitute emotional intelligence are essential conditions of transformative learning.
 * Freedom involves not just the will and insight to change but also the power to act to attain one's purpose.
 * As Novak claims: "Perspective transformation represents not only a total change in life perspective, but an actualization of that perspective. In other words life is not seen from a new perspective, it is lived from that perspective" (quoted in Paprock, 1992, p. 197).


 * Goal of Adult Education**
 * to help adults realize their potential for becoming more liberated, socially responsible, and autonomous learners—that is, to make more informed choices by becoming more critically reflective as "dialogic thinkers" (Basseches, 1984) in their engagement in a given social context.
 * Adult educators actively strive to extend and equalize the opportunities for them to do so.


 * Objective of Adult Education**
 * to help adult learners assess and achieve what it is they want to learn.
 * Learning objectives
 * may be personal, such as getting a better job or helping a child do homework,
 * may focus on social change (in the context of a social movement, some community development and literacy programs, or labor union education)
 * on organizational change.

Wiessner, C. A. & Mezirow. J. (2000). **Theory building and the search for common ground**. In J. Mezirow & Associates, Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 343-358). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Transformative theory becomes more practical (p. 347)
 * adding an additional pragmatic test of functionality:
 * whether a frame of reference is more likely to produce interpretations, opinions, and judgments that will prove to be more true (is as purported to be) or justified (through discourse) than would those produced by other frames or beliefs.

This distinction between learner's objective and adult educator's goal is important for understanding how educators with different orientations use the term transformative learning and how these differences are part of a larger reality. It also clarifies the contested relationship of transformative learning to adult education for social action. (p. 348)
 * The **goal** of adult education
 * is to help the learner develop the requisite learning processes to think and choose with more reliable insight, to become a more autonomous thinker.
 * Others tend to focus instead on a social goal, such as greater respect and understanding of the planet (O'Sullivan, 1999), social action, or organizational change. From this point of view transformative learning becomes a means of changing frames of reference as required to initiate and support the prescribed personal, social, or organizational change.
 * The **objective** of adult education
 * the educator attempts to help the learner assess and achieve his or her learning objective whether it is personal, social, or organizational.

Action (p. 350)
 * Meaning becomes clarified by making a decision to act when this is feasible, to learn what one needs to know, to have the emotional stamina to take action effectively, and to learn from the results of taking action when one does so.

An especially cogent challenge to adult educators is Kegan's cautionary note concerning the importance of fully understanding that
 * "when the socialized mind dominates our meaning-making, what we //should// feel is what we //do// feel, what we //should// value is what we //do// value, and what we //should// want is what we //do// want.
 * Their goal therefore may not be a matter of getting students merely to identify and value a distinction between two parts that already exist, but a matter of fostering a qualitative evolution of mind that actually creates the distinction."

(p. 352)
 * Bookfield implies that critical reflection and transformative learning are equivalent processes, but most transformations of frames of reference do not involve critical reflection at all; they occur outside of awareness.
 * Learning is assimilative, as when we fall in love, leave home to marry or to go to college, learn to think like a doctor, policeman, or teacher, or spend a couple of years in a village in Asia or Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer.
 * When critical reflection on assumptions results in a change in point of view, it may or may not lead to a cumulative transformation in habit of mind.

Outside of Awareness Versus Mindful and Deliberate (p. 354)
 * Here it is important to differentiate between transformations that occur outside of awareness and those involving mindful and deliberate efforts to understand.
 * An adult learner may gain insight into prior transformations occurring outside of awareness.
 * This process of self-reflection by which one acquires insight into one's own tacit process of transformative learning can be, and often is, of great value to the learner. It renders experience coherent and meaningfuland provides insight into how one learns more effectively.

(Wiessner & Mezirow, 2000, Theory building and the search for common ground**,** page 345, Learning to think like an adult, from MDDE612 reading list)

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