Lifelong Learning -TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

     The aim of Lifelong Learning is to increase the competency, knowledge and skill levels of the target group through the provision of appropriate lifelong learning opportunities, which acknowledge relevant prior experience and learning, and the provision of new progression pathways thereby presenting better life choices.
                          
                         

                     MEZIROW AND TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

The theory of transformative learning that has been developed by Mezirow during the past 2 decades has evolved "into a comprehensive and complex description of how learners construe, validate, and reformulate the meaning of their experience" (Cranton 1994, p. 22)..........
 Centrality of experience, critical reflection, and rational discourse are three common themes in Mezirow's theory (Taylor 1998), which is based on psychoanalytic theory (Boyd and Myers 1988) and critical social theory (Scott 1997).

For learners to change their "meaning schemes (specific beliefs, attitudes, and emotional reactions)," they must engage in critical reflection on their experiences, which in turn leads to a perspective transformation (Mezirow 1991, p. 167). "Perspective transformation is the process of becoming critically aware of how and why our assumptions have come to constrain the way we perceive, understand, and feel about our world; changing these structures of habitual expectation to make possible a more inclusive, discriminating, and integrating perspective; and, finally, making choices or otherwise acting upon these new understandings" (ibid.).

Perspective transformation explains how the meaning structures that adults have acquired over a lifetime become transformed. These meaning structures are frames of reference that are based on the totality of individuals' cultural and contextual experiences and that influence how they behave and interpret events (Taylor 1998). An individual's meaning structure will influence how she chooses to vote or how she reacts to women who suffer physical abuse, for example.

The meaning schemes that make up meaning structures may change as an individual adds to or integrates ideas within an existing scheme and, in fact, this transformation of meaning schemes occurs routinely through learning. Perspective transformation leading to transformative learning, however, occurs much less frequently. Mezirow believes that it usually results from a "disorienting dilemma," which is triggered by a life crisis or major life transition, although it may also result from an accumulation of transformations in meaning schemes over a period of time (Mezirow 1995, p. 50).

Meaning schemes are based upon experiences that can be deconstructed and acted upon in a rational way (Taylor 1998). Mezirow (1995) suggests this happens through a series of phases that begin with the disorienting dilemma. Other phases include self-examination, critical assessment of assumptions, recognition that others have shared similar transformations, exploration of new roles or actions, development of a plan for action, acquisition of knowledge and skills for implementing the plan, tryout of the plan, development of competence and self-confidence in new roles, and reintegration into life on the basis of new perspectives (ibid., adapted from p. 50).

As described by Mezirow (1997), transformative learning occurs when individuals change their frames of reference by critically reflecting on their assumptions and beliefs and consciously making and implementing plans that bring about new ways of defining their worlds. His theory describes a learning process that is primarily "rational, analytical, and cognitive" with an "inherent logic" (Grabov 1997, pp. 90-91).

                                               REFERENCES

Boyd, R.D., and Myers, J. . "Transformative Education." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFELONG EDUCATION 7, no. 4 (October-December 1988): 261-284.

Cranton, P. UNDERSTANDING AND PROMOTING TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING: A GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS OF ADULTS. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1994.

Cranton, P., ed. TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING IN ACTION: INSIGHTS FROM PRACTICE. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION NO. 74. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Summer 1997.

Grabov, V. "The Many Facets of Transformative Learning Theory and Practice." In TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING IN ACTION: INSIGHTS FROM PRACTICE. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION NO. 74, edited by P. Cranton, pp. 89-96. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Summer 1997.

Mezirow, J. "Perspective Transformation." ADULT EDUCATION 28 (1978): 100-110.

Mezirow, . TRANSFORMATIVE DIMENSIONS OF ADULT LEARNING. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1991.

Mezirow, J. "Transformation Theory of Adult Learning." In IN DEFENSE OF THE LIFEWORLD, edited by M. R. Welton, pp. 39-70. New York: SUNY Press, 1995.

Mezirow, . "Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice." In TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING IN ACTION: INSIGHTS FROM PRACTICE. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION NO. 74, edited by P. Cranton, pp. 5-12. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Summer 1997.

Scott, S. M. "The Grieving Soul in the Transformation Process." In TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING IN ACTION: INSIGHTS FROM PRACTICE. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION NO. 74, edited by P. Cranton, pp. 41-50. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Summer 1997.

Taylor, E. W. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING: A CRITICAL REVIEW. INFORMATION SERIES NO. 374. Columbus: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment, College of Education, the Ohio State University, 1998.

AUTHOR : MARIA PERISTERI -- AEGEAN UNIVERSITY 2010