Adult Learning Theories: Transformative Vs. Experiential : Adult Learning Theories: Transformative Vs. Experiential A Compare & Contrast Review
By Laura Hooks
February 2010
2 Rationale : 2 Rationale We are adults who work with other adults, and are charged with influencing them to do their job more effectively. Whether we are in a teaching, managerial or supervisory position, or just hoping to get our coworkers to work up to their potential, we influence others.
Knowing a little bit about Adult Learning Theory (ALT) will make us more effective.
3 Learning Objectives : 3 Learning Objectives Gain a clear understanding of what adult learning theory is.
Understand the concept of andragogy and how it differs from pedagogy.
Learn the key points of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory.
Learn the key points of Jarvis’ experiential learning theory.
Relate their personal experiences to both theories.
Decide which learning theory their personal experiences best support.
4 Questions : 4 Questions What recent experience have I had while working with another adult that caused a shock or unexpected emotion?
How did I handle it?
When I looked back on it (or looking back on it now), what did I learn from it?
5 My Story : 5 My Story When I worked at Mercer, Alexia Lutien and I were discussing walkthroughs. When trying to get evidence that the teacher incorporates the Essential Question (EQ), I told her that I asked the students, “How does the EQ help you learn?” Alexia said that my question was leading; it assumes that the EQ is being used and helps them learn. That question is not going to give a true picture as to whether the teacher is using the EQ or not. I could not count those answers in the data.
My immediate reaction was a bit defensive, but I had to think about it and realized she was right.
Although I didn’t like it at the moment, it has since made me much more careful about how I word questions so that I get clean data (I learned).
6 Andragogy : 6 Andragogy Malcolm Knowles was the first to coin this term in his study of how adults learn (as opposed to pedagogy, how children learn).
His research formed the framework that many others have used to develop theories on how adults learn.
There are many theories of pedagogy; we will look at and compare two of them:
Mezirow’s Transformative
Jarvis’ Experiential
7 Transformative Learning Theory – Jack Mezirow : 7 Transformative Learning Theory – Jack Mezirow 7
8 Transformative ALT : 8 Transformative ALT People have two learning structures:
1.) Habit of mind – The lens through which you view the world; difficult to identify and change.
2.) Point of view – Opinions that you’ve formed through your experiences; easier to change. Much more likely to be expressed.
9 For Example…. : 9 For Example…. Habit of Mind=People need to be held accountable for their actions and decisions.
You may not know where this comes from, but you get upset when people make a bad decision, other people get hurt, and that person escapes consequences with excuses, playing on people’s sympathies, lies, etc.
Point of View=Pro Death Penalty
You may recognize that this comes from your parents’ opinion, the Biblical “eye for an eye” notion, and you were raised in Texas.
10 But THEN… : 10 But THEN… As a fraternity joke, your son’s buddies put a hit of acid in your son’s soda. He has a hallucination that causes him to run out into the street, causing a car crash that kills a mother and her three small children. As a tough anti-drug statement, the judge sentences your son to death by lethal injection.
11 More Realistically : 11 More Realistically Habit of Mind=Punctuality is important.
Point of View=Students need to learn the real-life skill of respecting deadlines and being on time, so no late work is accepted.
Conflict: Another teacher feels that middle school students deserve a couple chances to submit work. He shows you research that shows that there is no strong correlation between firm deadlines for turning in work, and being on time in general in later years (college and early work-force). Also, he challenges you to think about why you even assign the work if you’re not going to make sure your students do it. If the work is worthwhile and a valid way to master the content, it seems more important to get them to complete it than to let them just take a zero.
12 Transformative ALT : 12 Transformative ALT A person feels some unease because a notion they have long held true has come into question.
They go through 10 phases that ultimately causes learning.
13 : 13
14 Criticisms of Mezirow : 14 Criticisms of Mezirow Bruce Pietrykowski feels that Mezirow’s concept of “reflective discourse” is overly simplified. Rather than being able to just bounce the new ideas off of some people to gain consensus, Pietrykowski claims that it must be people who are held in higher regard or considered more knowledgeable on the topic.
Pietrykowski, B.(1998, Fall). Modern and postmodern tensions in adult education theory: A response to Jack Mezirow. Adult Education Quarterly, 49(1), 67-70.
15 Criticisms of Mezirow : 15 Criticisms of Mezirow Sharan B. Merriam and Gabo Ntseane feel that Mezirow’s theory is too ethnocentric. He does not take into account the cultural impact on how adults learn. His theory is centered around Western civilization.
Merriam S., & Ntseane, G. (2008, February). Transformational learning in Botswana: How culture shapes the process. Adult Education Quarterly, 58(3),183-197.
16 Back to the Question : 16 Back to the Question How does the experience you thought back on support Mezirow’s theory?
17 Experiential Learning Theory by Peter Jarvis : 17 Experiential Learning Theory by Peter Jarvis
18 Experiential ALT : 18 Experiential ALT All learning is due to experience, and all experiences occur within society. The societal influence must be taken into account.
There are three possible outcomes from experience:
Nonlearning
Nonreflective learning
Reflective learning
19 Experiential ALT : 19 Experiential ALT While people can be side-by-side having the same experience at the same time, each one will learn differently from it because each one brings a unique set of past experiences with them.
Those past experiences—their biographies—form the basis for how they will interpret the current experience.
Even identical twins will learn differently.
20 Experiential ALT : 20 Experiential ALT A person’s age, gender, race and culture are all going to have an impact on how the experience is perceived, interpreted, and reflected upon. Hence, each person learns differently from it.
21 Experiential ALT : 21 Experiential ALT We all focus in on different aspects of the same experience. For example, if we all saw the same footage of a tornado destroying a house.
What is the person with a medical background focusing on?
What is the person who volunteered at an animal shelter for 8 years focusing on?
What is the person who just moved from the Midwest focusing on?
What is the person who paid a huge repair bill because she was insufficiently insured when a tree fell and smashed her roof focusing on?
What is the person who watches the Weather Channel for hours on end focusing on?
What might a land developer be focused on?
What might the Reverend be focused on?
22 Types of Experiences : 22 Types of Experiences Meaningless – No impact on the individual.
Meaningful – There is some impact on the individual and learning can occur. Normally the experience causes some unease which causes the person to reflect on it. No learning can take place without reflection.
Cyclical nature of learning.
23 Back to the Question : 23 Back to the Question How does your experience that you thought about at the beginning support Jarvis’ theory?
24 Criticisms of Jarvis : 24 Criticisms of Jarvis Knud Illeris states that Jarvis’ definition of learning is too narrow. Whereas Jarvis states that all learning causes a change in the whole person (both body & mind), Illeris argues that some learning occurs that does not cause a change. For example, memorizing the multiplication table is what Illeris calls an “accumulation of facts” that will lead to a change in the whole person.
Illeris, K. (2006, September). Book review: Towards a comprehensive theory of human learning. Sage
Publications, 5(3), 389-391. DOI: 10.1177/1534484306290366
25 Criticisms of Jarvis : 25 Criticisms of Jarvis According to Courtaney, Merriam and Reeves, Jarvis’s theory is flawed in that specific, measurable learning will be the outcome of meaningful experiences and reflection. They argue that people can and will re-reflect on the same experience, and can learn something different each time. They can and will remake new meaning as new experiences come along and shape new understandings.
Courtaney, B., Merriam, S., & Reeves, P. (1998, Winter). The centrality of meaning-making in transformational
learning: How HIV positive adults make sense of their lives. Adult Education Quarterly, 48(2), 65-84.
26 Criticisms of Jarvis : 26 Criticisms of Jarvis For example, if a man’s wife leaves him, he might reflect back and realize that he didn’t pay her enough attention, forgot her birthday and their anniversary too often, and didn’t truly listen to her when she spoke. So, when he gets serious about another woman, he changes those behaviors. But if his new wife leaves him for another man, he is apt to look back at his first marriage and decide that she was just a golddigger, had a chemical imbalance or something. He now surmises that his lack of attention towards her was not the cause of her leaving (whether it actually was or wasn’t).
27 Comparison of Them : 27 Comparison of Them There are many differences between the two theories. While Mezirow focuses on the way experiences have the potential to shape the structures of one’s mind (habits of mind & points of view), Jarvis is more focused on the societal context in which experience occurs, and how an individual’s biography and culture affects how meaning will be made out of experience.
28 Comparison of Them : 28 Comparison of Them There are a lot of overlapping ideas.
Learning Starts When a Person Confronts an Experience that Causes Uneasiness.
Learning Only Occurs When Reflection Takes Place.
Learning Causes a Change.
29 Thinking Back Again : 29 Thinking Back Again According to your experiences, which theory, Transformational or Experiential, do you think is more plausible? Why?