Dear Chris,
This is the subject of my PhD. You have to be careful, I think, with assuming
all design education come under the heading of Transformative learning. Mezirow
particularly discusses transformation in terms which imply self conscious
decision making which is quite different than something which is also
transformative but fails more in line with realigning the learners thinking to
conform to some predetermined paradigm. These are niggling issues and core
issues when one is thinking in terms of freedom and responsibility or the
democratic process. So some design students are just in an environment where
they are given permission to think the way they may already think. Other
students may be channelled into a specific set of formulaic processes toward a
particular pattern of thinking. And other students may truly be in an
environment which has structured the learning experience to create an option to
self determine.
What I mean by this for instance is that creative stock brokers take risks and
experiment. Some times they win and some times they lose. It is very much the
same mentality as professional gambling I suppose. That outcome alone is not
what I would define as transformative education. That may be personal
personality profiles, functional or dysfunctional behavior patterns. It may
work for some people and not others.
It is interesting to me that you are asking what is happening. Ask yourself
where there have been moments of transformation in you own life. Then ask
yourself what happened? What did you do? What did you think? How did you feel?
What did it mean? What's its significance? When you answer these questions then
you will probably have the answer to what happens during transformative
education.
There is an evolution of education or model we sometimes talk about here,
unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence to conscious competence and
then unconscious competence. That is the outward and inward transition of
education in general I think. Transformative education requires a bit more. It
requires "higher states of understanding".
What I have done in my research is structure a learning environment within one
subject with the express purpose of creating a transformative learning
environment. It is the evaluation of what happened which I hope to have
completed by the end of the year in the form of my thesis. But I already at
this early stage of evaluation hopeful signs of establishing more clarity in
this area.
Cheers from Down Under
Jan
"Justice is not limited, it is a universal quality. Its operation must be
carried out in all classes, from the highest to the lowest. Justice must be
sacred, and the rights of all the people must be considered. Desire for others
only that which you desire for yourselves. Then shall we rejoice in the Sun of
Justice."
Abdu'l-Bahá
Jan Coker
Lecturer in Industrial Design
Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design
City West Campus, North Terrace
Adelaide, South Australia 5000
Telephone: +61 8 8302 0421
Facsimile: +61 8 8302 0211
email: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Heape [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, 17 February 2003 5:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Transformative learning
Hello,
My apologies for cross postings.
I have a question that maybe some of you could help me with.
I am very interested in the aspects of transformative learning with
regard to design students.
What is it that enables them to achieve a truly changed way of thinking
and a fundamental change in themselves, that can then encourage them to
be more willing to take risks and experiment. A breakthrough.
I have read some of the literature concerning learning as
transformation, (Jack Mezirow et al., Paulo Freire, Jerome Bruner, John
Dewey, Donald Schön, Jennifer Moon, and others on reflective practice),
but most authors never go into a deeper description of the
psychological or emotional aspects of what is happening within the
individual.
I have found some answers in Piaget's writing, with regard to cognitive
network, accomodation, assimilation and avoidance of disturbance. But I
still can't find anything on what is actually happening when a
transformation occurs.
Any help here would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Best regards,
Chris Heape.
-------------
from:
Chris Heape
Senior Researcher - Design Didactics / Design Practice
Mads Clausen Institute
University of Southern Denmark
Sřnderborg
Denmark
http://www.mci.sdu.dk
Work:
tel: +45 6550 1671
e.mail: chris @mci.sdu.dk
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