Patricia Cranton

The third edition of Patricia Cranton’s Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning brings a wealth of new insight from the tremendous growth in the field during the decade since the previous edition. As in the previous editions, the book helps adult educators understand what transformative learning is, distinguish it from other forms of learning, and foster it in their practice. The first part of the book is dedicated to clarifying transformative learning theory and relating it to other theoretical frameworks. The author examines transformative learning from the learner’s perspective, and discusses individual differences in how learners go through the process. In the second half of the book, the focus is squarely on strategies for promoting transformative learning in a wide variety of adult and higher education contexts. Practitioners will be able to take ideas from the text and apply them directly in their teaching. Since 1975, transformative learning has become a core theoretical perspective in adult and higher education, and research has proliferated. In the past decade, adult education and especially transformative learning grew into a noticeably larger field. The numbers of undergraduate and graduate programs in adult education have increased and continue to increase as more and more individuals are seeking the expertise, skills, and training necessary to work with adult learners in higher education, business, industry, government, health professions, non-profit organizations, and community development. In addition, the number of programs in higher education (both undergraduate and graduate) that include courses in transformative learning has grown dramatically. These academic audiences use the book to further their understanding of transformative learning theory and practice. Drawing on the latest research as well as the author’s own teaching experience in both online and face-to-face courses, this new edition will be a vital resource for members of the transformative learning community, as well as those encountering the topic for the first time.

A Guide to Theory and Practice

Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning

Edward W. Taylor

The Handbook of Transformative Learning The leading resource for the field, this handbook provides a comprehensive and critical review of more than three decades of theory development, research, and practice in transformative learning. The starting place for understanding and fostering transformative learning, as well as diving deeper, the volume distinguishes transformative learning from other forms of learning, explores future perspectives, and is designed for scholars, students, and practitioners. PRAISE FOR THE HANDBOOK OF TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING "This book will be of inestimable value to students and scholars of learning irrespective of whether or not their emphasis is on transformative learning. It should find its way to the reference bookshelves of every academic library focusing on education, teaching, learning, or the care professions." —PETER JARVIS, professor of continuing education, University of Surrey "Can there be a coherent theory of transformative learning? Perhaps. This handbook goes a long way to answering this question by offering a kaleidoscope of perspectives, including non-Western, that consider the meaning and practice of transformative learning." —SHAUNA BUTTERWICK, associate professor, University of British Columbia "This handbook will be valuable and accessible to both scholars and practitioners who are new to the study of adult education and transformative learning and to more seasoned scholars who seek a sophisticated analysis of the state of transformative learning thirty years after Mezirow first shared his version of a then-fledgling theory of adult learning." —JOVITA ROSS-GORDON, professor and program coordinator, MA in Adult Education, Texas State University

Theory, Research, and Practice

The Handbook of Transformative Learning

Christopher Knapper

Student ratings have long been the primary means of evaluating teaching in higher education, but are they sufficient to meet the increasing demands in public accountability and the changes in learning needs? This volume explores a wide range of alternative approaches to assessing teaching performance and presents methods for documenting and judging teaching that have often been overlooked in the sometimes acrimonious debate about the reliability and validity of student questionnaires. Contributors discuss the underlying issue and principals that affect all forms of evaluation - making links between teaching methods and learning outcomes. They explore the goals and applications of the teaching portfolio, a widely used alternative to the sole reliance on student ratings; and discuss the strength and weaknesses of evaluating teaching through teaching awards. They also examine technology and its importance in automated evaluation systems, the role of formative evaluation in the scholarship of teaching; the role of evaluation in the accreditation of university teachers; and the evaluation of teaching for entire programs, departments, and institutions. Presenting a concept of interpretive and critical evaluation that considers knowledge about teaching as communicative and emancipatory, this volume is a frank and invigorating analysis of the emerging theories and applications of teaching evaluation. This is the 88th issue of the Jossey-Bass series New Directions for Teaching and Learning.

Patricia Cranton

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