Education Commons^™

Your Discomfort Is Valid: Big Feelings And Open Pedagogy, Liz Pearce, Silvia L. Lin Hanick, Amy R. Hofer, Lori Townsend, Michaela Willi Hooper

Publications and Research

This article explores the affective reactions of 13 community college students engaged in an open pedagogy textbook creation project. The instructor and first author, a human development and family services faculty member and department chair at a community college in Oregon, received feedback from her students that the project impacted them differently than past learning experiences. Student engagement with research and the diverse personal experiences of their classmates fostered both personal challenges and growth. This article groups these experiences into themes and explores different theoretical lenses, including scaffolding (constructivism), transformative learning, threshold concepts and safe spaces/brave spaces. We discuss the …

Assessing The Relationship Between Mandatory Faculty Development For Online Career College Instructors And Transformative Learning, Tremayne Simpson

Dissertations

Online teaching and learning has become a primary focal point for higher education administrators. Institutions have focused their strategic plans to maximize opportunities to grow their campuses, through distance education. A consistent issue that has surfaced with distance education initiatives is teacher preparation for online education. The issue is further compounded in proprietary institutions that may have limited resources and guidance for structuring effective faculty development programs. It is beneficial for faculty program developers to implement adult learning concepts into their courses to improve the overall training transfer for instructors. Transformative learning is an adult learning theory that focuses on …

Trust, Power, And Transformation In The Prison Classroom, Fran Fairbairn

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This article does three things. First, it asks a new question about transformative education, namely ‘what is the role of power and trust in the decision of whether to transform one’s meaning scheme in the face of new information or whether to simply reject the new information?’ Secondly, it develops a five-stage model which elaborates on the role of this decision in transformative learning.[1] Finally, it uses grounded-theory and the five-stage model to argue that power and trust play an important role in facilitating transformative learning.

[1] This account should be thought of as complementary to (not exclusionary of) Mezirow’s …

Analogy Co-Construction As A Learning Strategy In Life-Span Development Classes, Joseph A. Mayo

Perspectives In Learning

Analogies are commonplace heuristic tools in classrooms across all educational levels and content areas. In the present investigation, analogy-enhanced learning was examined in relation to conceptual applications of major developmental theories in undergraduate life-span development classes. To this end, systematic comparisons were undertaken between a learning condition in which individual students created their own analogies and a learning condition involving analogy co-construction as generated by small groups of students working cooperatively. On all quantitative and qualitative measures, results favored group co-construction of analogies over self-generated analogy creation. Findings are discussed in terms of social-constructivist and transformative-learning principles.

Interprofessional Reflective Journals: Content Themes And Self-Regulated Learning, Joan M. Tunningley

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Self-reflection has been linked with clinical reasoning, academic, and clinical outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine self-reflective journal entries from thirty students for interprofessional core competencies and for self-regulated learning components. The text data was analyzed using an in-depth three cycle coding process, thoroughly described in the methods. The findings were structured into two themes confirming interprofessional content learning: collaboration, team, and communication; and respect and roles. One additional theme emerged, transformation and relatedness, which indicated self-regulated learning components as well as supporting transformative learning. This qualitative case-study contributed to the research of occupational therapy students’ self-reflection …

Facilitation Of Disorientating Events For The Rpn To Bscn Learner / Soutenir, Par Des Occasions Déconcertantes, Les Apprentissages De L’Infirmière Diplômée D’Un Programme Collégial (Rpn En Ontario) Pour Devenir Infirmière Bachelière (B.Sc.), Maurine Parzen, Katharine Janzen

Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière

Jack Mezirow’s transformative learning theory provides a framework in which to explore learning experiences that facilitate the Registered Practical Nurses (RPN) who returns to school to upgrade their credentials to that of a Registered Nurse (RN). It is through self-exploration and critically reflection upon previous nursing knowledge that RPNs can begin to enhance their knowledge and transform their practice. Mezirow claims there are precursor steps that adult learners contemplate as they engage in the process of perspective transformation which is initiated by disorientating dilemmas. RPNs who return to school to upgrade their credentials to that of an RN need to …

In Pursuit Of Transformative Learning: Exploring The Stimulation Of Curiosity Through Critical Reflection In The College Classroom, Bo Y. Bae

Dissertations

Educators in higher education are faced with growing pressures to shift pedagogical practices in order to accommodate the growing population of learners and improve student learning outcomes. While the acquisition of knowledge and skills are important to the learning process, they are insufficient in preparing students to function in rapidly changing environments. Curiosity is a vital component in the learning process that, when stimulated, has the potential to increase students’ capacity to think critically. Implementing teaching practices that intentionally focus on how curiosity can be stimulated and enhanced develops students’ abilities to access higher levels of thinking that are essential …

The Patient As Mentor: Transformative Experience In An Occupational Therapy Course, Meagan Troop, Anne O'Riordan

Publications and Scholarship

“The Lived Experience of Disability” course matches first year occupational therapy students with mentors, individuals with health challenges, for a series of community visits. This learning relationship facilitates students’ understanding of disability and client-centred practice. Mentors share expertise of their lived experience; students consider personal attitudes, assumptions and knowledge of disability and their future client-therapist relationships. Findings of a qualitative research study using a case study approach reveal that students engaged in interactive course components that comprised reflective practice, mentor visits, and critical involvement in a community of practice. These experiential and collaborative interactions provided pedagogical conditions for building relational …

Stories Of Success: A Phenomenological Study Of Positive Transformative Learning Experiences Of Low-Socioeconomic Status Community College Mathematics Students, John Thomas Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

All too often education research focuses on academic disparities with under-served student populations. Frequently, both remedial and introductory college-level mathematics courses are cited as gatekeepers or insurmountable barriers for adult low-socioeconomic status (LSES) students. There has been a call from within the mathematics education community for less gap-gazing at disparities and more studies of success within marginalized groups. Many previously unsuccessful, under-prepared, under-served, and under-supported students persist and eventually succeed. In addition, there is a lack of research through the lens of the community college as a unique educational context, distinct from both K-12 and the four year colleges and …