What “form” transforms? : A constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning

TLDR

Constructive‑developmental theory posits that knowing is a dynamic relationship between subject and object, and that learners bring a history of prior transformations, relationships, and dispositions that shape their current learning. The study argues that transformational and informational learning must be clearly distinguished and that adult educators should recognize students’ histories of prior transformations as a key factor in supporting transformative learning.

Abstract

Constructive-developmental theory invites those with an interest in transformational to consider that a form of knowing always consists of a relationship or temporary equilibrium between the subject and the object in one's knowing. Transformational kinds of need to be more clearly distinguished from informational kinds of learning, and each needs to be recognized as valuable in any activity, discipline, or field. As all good teachers know, every student comes with a learning that is an important part of his or her present and future learning. Important features of this past – for adult learners especially, and their teachers – include the history of their relationship to the subject at hand and the history of their personal disposition toward the enterprise of itself. But for the adult educator with an interest in supporting transformative learning, an important and often overlooked feature of their students' pasts is their history of prior transformations.