I like the way Wikipedia (on the internet) defines transformative learning. It says: "Transformative Learning (or transformational learning) is a process of getting beyond gaining factual knowledge alone to instead become changed by what one learns in some meaningful way. It involves questioning assumptions, beliefs and values, and considering multiple points of view, while always seeking to verify reasoning."
Note it says "to become changed by what one learns"... Does your training change your students? It should. All teaching should change us. It should reach deep down inside us and make us change from doing wrong to doing right. Whether you are learning how to drive an automobile or learning how to operate submarine equipment, you need to do it right. Most teaching models merely pass along information. Do you want to inform people, or transform people? Is there any arguing that there should be any other kind of teaching system than one that changes us in a meaningful way? By adopting all of the rudiments of Transformative learning we will make a tremendous change in the world. This kind of training is self-empowering. it gets results. This is what employers want and it is what any company paying for training deserves to get. Results and change.
Transformative learning is a learning theory created by Professor Jack Mezirow of Teacher's College, Columbia University in New York City. Wikipedia says: "Transformative learning theory came out of Jack Mezirow's earlier theory of perspective transformation, which he saw as the same concept as Paulo Freire's "conscientization" and Jürgen Habermas's "emancipatory action" domain of learning.
The word emancipatory is an eye opener. Are you a human development trainer? Do you specialize in soft people skills training? Are you involved with emancipatory education of some kind? If so then you should be especially interested in transformative learning theory and TL Facilitation. As Mezirow explains, "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."
This is the kind of results that every company in the world wants to see. Sadly, most training initiatives do not come with such results. They can not because they lack the power to transform. Most training programs are designed to merely pass along information. This is because of cost constraints and the fact that we are surrounded with an entire army of trainers out there who have been moved up in the ranks to their positions because they were SME's (Subject Matter Experts). They were not schooled in adult learning nor especially transformational learning.
Transformative Learning Theory promises a more profound change in learners as a result o it's use of rational discourse and critical reflection and other cognitive and emotional tools. Without this all we have is the traditional passing along of knowledge through a teacher talking and a student listening and test taking. Believe it or not, this epitome of just passing along knowledge still exists predominantly among trainers in today's world. Education has taken some strides towards developing learning, they have adopted case scenarios and role playing perhaps, they might even condole a discussion or two, but Transformative Learning has yet to be adopted by the majority of educators as the chief method by which an adult learns today. It is good that there are some teaching models recognizing the importance of the inclusion of some of these tools in what they do. I for one am a strong advocate of Transformative Learning Theory and endorse it so far as to name my own teaching model after it; TL Facilitation.
TL Facilitation is not Transformative Learning. The later is a theory based and conceptualized by emeritus professor of Teachers College, Columbia University Jack Mezirow. TL Facilitation (TL) is a teaching model created by me which derives it's strength from the learning theory mentioned.
TL Facilitation uses 15 essential elements of teaching. The training program can be taught and is offered to any trainers, teachers, educators who are interested in something more than the conventional pedagogy approach to teaching.