Just as I felt in when writing about Kolb's Learning Style assessment, and having a chance to read about the characteristics that make me divergent, I felt the opposite when reading about Transformative Learning in Jack Mezirow's chapter on Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice in New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. When reading about the Divergent Style that my assessment told me I was, I found that reading about what makes a Divergent Learning Style was much like reading a horoscope; vague promises that anyone can see in their future, general statements that fit most personalities, nothing concrete, just enough to whet an appetite. When reading about what goes into setting up and creating a transformative learning experience for an adult learner, I found more substantial information.
Within the same above referenced chapter, Mezirow (1997) writes the following three key phrases "Education that fosters critically reflective thought, imaginative problem posing, and discourse is learner-centered, participatory, and interacting and it involves group deliberation and group problem solving" (p. 10). Unlike the vagaries of Kolb's learning style's descriptions, this is far more spot on and reads like a lesson plan for creating a transformative learning experience. It becomes even more precise when he writes, to "promote discovery learning, the educator often reframes learner questions in terms of learner's current level of understanding" (p. 10). Finally, the game plan sketches out that "the key idea is to help the learners actively engage the concepts presented in the context of their own lives and collectively critically assess the justification of the knowledge" (p. 10).
As I read this I became excited about the chance to apply this to the primary training offerings we provide at my organization. One of our key offerings is a series of Leadership classes that we call Insightful Leadership. It's designed for managers and directors within our oil and gas industry member organizations who may have had an initial taste of leadership training, but need to have a bit deeper understanding of personality assessments, situational leadership, and the leadership feedback model.
Generally what I find when I audit this class is not a teacher at a chalkboard reciting concepts, but a facilitator with decades of HR experience in oil and gas helping to make a raging discussion amongst the class take flight. The first few times I felt that the two-day class was slow and plodding, but have come around since to find that the pace is deliberate for a reason. Having read more about transformative learning I see that the plodding and seemingly lackadaisical speed of the class actually provide fertile ground for the process to take shape, and allows the trainees to teach each other.
In that class which is limited to twelve to fifteen trainees, we promote an open seating arrangement rather than uniform desks and rows. We facilitate the trainee's learning, we do not teach. We foster and promote open discussion and self-reflection about their positions, what got them to their positions, and what their own employees may see when they look at their leaders. I had no idea that those elements were a part of the playbook that would lead our trainees to their own transformative learning experience.
For the past several years as we developed our LEAD series which includes Insightful Leadership without a true roadmap to lead us to transformative learning. It was as if we knew what we wanted instinctively and could fumble our way there but didn't have the road map that would ensure we got to our destination every time. With this article and the other tools we are using in this class I feel that we can make our Insightful Leadership offering as well as our other classes designed for the adult learner in the peak years of their leadership career more powerful and informative for them. Unlike with Kolb's assessment where it felt like it was general and open-ended, I found this far more uniquely specific which is exactly what I was hoping to find. I wonder if others found that same thing to be true.
Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice. In New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education (No 74, Summer, pp. 5-12). Josey & Bass Publishers.
No comments:
Post a Comment