Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning First Edition

This is one of the seminal books in the field of adult education. It is actually the second book on the topic written by Jack Mezirow, but this book is the one that really placed Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) in the public consciousness. Mezirow was a professor at Teacher’s College, Columbia University when he began his groundbreaking work in developing TLT. Influenced by the works of Paulo Freire, Jurgen Habermas, Roger Gould, and Herbert Blumer among others, he began his theoretical development when his wife enrolled in Sarah Lawrence College to finish her undergraduate degree. Her experiences led him to study the experiences of women who came back to higher education via community colleges. Their experiences via a large study he conducted led to the development of TLT because as Mezirow saw things, the women experienced a decided transformation through their experiences. This was in the 1970s. In 1978 he published a paper titled “Perspective Transformations” in Adult Education Quarterly and from that point onward TLT moved into the constructivist family as a full fledged educational theory. Mezirow would spend the rest of his life working on this theory and this book is his collected work on the theory when it was first published in book form. Mezirow, who passed away in 2014 along with his wife Edee who had passed earlier in the year, developed an amazing theory. I employ this theory in my own teaching along with Stephen Brookfield’s critical thinking work. It is heavy on reflection which is often a feature of most adult education theories. In this book, Mezirow explored the prime features of his theory which revolve around perspective transformation. The book itself is tight. There is very little wasted space or academic double talk to stretch it out. Mezirow got to the point and hammered it home throughout the book. I particular liked the way he addressed criticism of his theory. He broke it down and explained why the theory was being criticized and then rebutted them quite well. Ever since he published “Perspective Transformations” in 1978, he had acquired disciples for the theory. He considered that to be important as the disciples would expand upon his work through additional perspectives and make it grow or change. This would also open the theory to criticism which was the key to expanding the theory. The disciples would address the criticism, extend the theory, and defend it against the criticism. In the case of TLT, it has done exactly that as the theory weathered the criticism and expanded in the field of adult education. This book is a must read for any educator who wishes to consider TLT in their teaching. It is a seminal book in education and in my opinion one of the most important in education along with Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed which is probably the most influential book on education in the last century. Mezirow acknowledge those who influenced him in this book as well, and he singled out Freire and Pedagogy of the Oppressed specifically for its impact upon him. Both Freire and Mezirow agreed on TLT being an education theory that rejected the older banking model as Freire called it in favor of activist learning principles. For some, that is anathema, but in the field of education activist learning is a dynamic form of education which rejects the classical mode of instructionist learning as the sole means of transferring knowledge. I think the recent developments of SOTL fit into this mode as well and I see TLT elements featured within SOTL. I can say that I have found success in my own teaching over the last two years as I jettisoned lecture based teaching in favor of activist concepts while employing TLT as the guiding force behind my course construction efforts. This semester I am running an American History to 1865 course that is a complete 100% flipped classroom. The result has been transformative for me as well. Last semester I made the move to the flipped classroom in the same course midway through the semester in an effort to engage students who were under performing. Their engagement with the content and upward shift in attendance and grades convinced me that the flipped mode works although it takes a great deal of time to put together. Using TLT to construct the course helped immensely and also shows in student comments about the course. History is a boring subject for most students mainly due to the way it is taught. Using TLT to guide me in developing the course caused me to build lesson plans that featured student interaction. The result was in the students’ own words, transformative. Jack Mezirow, your work has been validated. But then, you already knew that long ago.

This is a very basic text in learning about how adults learn. It explains in detail how it comes about, and cites relevant research to give further clarification of his basic concepts. It was worth the money to buy the text (kindle edition is easy to use, and had no glaring spelling/grammatical errors) for reference. Although i am not in education per se, since i am constantly teaching clients, the information was of value.

The book arrived promptly. The book is exactly what Im looking for. Mezirow is a famous for this writing on Transformative Learning so this is an essential book to have since it is quoted quite frequently in articles on the subject. It was just what I was looking for!! Thank you!

The book is very helpful in that it reflected on the dynamics of learning and how learning leads to change.Thank you for some good reading.

Thanks

perfect

I bought this book together the other two as recommended by Amazon.com. Well written to provide good description of the academic sources of the transformative learning. Highly Recommended!

good

One of the key books on TL.