Mezirow Transformative Learning Theory

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First introduced by Mezirow in 1978 (Taylor, 2008), transformative learning theory burgeoned into one of the most studied, most talked about, and most debated theories of education (Taylor, 2007). Mezirow’s psychocritical view, though largely uncontested in the past, has now produced a panoply of alternative views including, the phychoanalytic, the psychodevelopmental, the social emancipatory, the neurobiological, the cultural-spiritual, the race-centric, and the planetary views (Taylor, 2008).
Meaning
What is transformative learning? Mezirow’s original study in 1978 concluded that perspective transformation was the primary learning process in the women Mezirow studied (Mezirow, 2000). Transformative learning theory is distinctively adult …show more content…

(1996). Contemporary paradigms of learning. Adult Education Quarterly, 46, 158-172. doi: 10.1177/07417136904600303

Mezirow, J. (2000). Preface. In J. Mezirow & E. Taylor (Eds.). Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Robertson, D. L. (1996). Facilitating transformative learning: Attending to the dynamics of the educational helping relationship. Adult Education Quarterly, 47, 41-52. doi: 10.1177/074171369604700104

Taylor, E. W. (2001). Transformative learning theory: A neurobiological perspective of the role of emotions and unconscious ways of knowing. International Journal of Lifelong Education 20(3), 218-236. doi: 10.1080/02601370110036064

Taylor, E. W. (2003). Attending graduate school in adult education and the impact on teaching beliefs: A longitudinal study. Journal of Transformative Education, 1, 349-367. doi: 10.1177/1541344603257239

Taylor, E. W. (2007). An update of transformative learning theory: A critical review of the empirical research (1999–2005). International Journal of Lifelong Education, 26(2), 173–191. doi: 10.1080/02601370701219475
Taylor, E. W. (2008). Transformative learning theory. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 119, 5-15. doi:

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