Harnessing the Potential of Constructive Develop-mental Pedagogy to Achieve Transformative Learning in Social Work Education

Abstract

This project starts with the contention that social work education must challenge students to reframe their knowledge and assumptions to prepare them for working with oppressed groups and develop emancipatory practice. Using transformative learning theory, constructive developmental pedagogy and related approaches, it explored the extent to which students achieved transformative learning in the context of a communication skills module. The learning and teaching components were changed in three ways: by introducing critical reflection seminars; by encouraging students to discuss their assumptions about practice within lectures; and by making immediate use of student observations about their learning needs to reconstruct the pedagogy as the module progressed. Data were gathered using semi-structured questionnaires, a self-efficacy rating scale, and a focus group. The findings highlight problems in measuring and determining causality for transformative learning but indicate that for a majority of students transformative learning in relation to knowledge and assumptions occurred.

Experiencing Transformative Learning in a Counseling Masters’ Course: A Process-Oriented Case Study With a Focus on the Emotional Experience

“…On the one hand, Rose’s insights into the meaning of learning, such as starting to accept uncertainty (McCusker, 2013), are examples of transformative outcomes in epistemology (Hoggan, 2016). According to Van Rossum and Hamer’s (2010) epistemological model, 4 these insights are evidence of Rose’s transition toward Learning Conception 4, “thinking for oneself.” Unlike a less sophisticated conception of learning as reproductive application of knowledge (Learning Conception 3), from this fourth learning conception, understanding, and constructing meaning become core processes.…”

“…On the one hand, Rose's insights into the meaning of learning, such as starting to accept uncertainty (McCusker, 2013), are examples of transformative outcomes in epistemology (Hoggan, 2016). According to Van Rossum and Hamer's (2010) epistemological model, 4 these insights are evidence of Rose's transition toward Learning Conception 4, "thinking for oneself."…”

A Call for Methodological Plurality: Reconsidering Research Approaches in Adult Education

“…The first reason stems from the field’s move toward a unified meaning-making epistemology based on constructivist assumptions and its subsequent rejection of the idea of objective knowledge (Roessger, 2017a). From this epistemological vantage, knowledge is assumed to be made by the learner (Erickson, 2007), its meaning constructed through integrations between content and a learner’s personal experiences, assumptions, and behaviors (McCusker, 2013). Some characterizations of quantitative research seemingly diverge from this view, describing it as a methodology concerned with developing objective knowledge about human nature (Rumrill & Bellini, 2018).…”

From Theory to Practice: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Adult Education’s Language on Meaning Making

“…In contrast to objectivist or positivist perspectives of learning that see knowledge as something that is acquired, constructivists see knowledge as something that is made by the learner (Erickson, 2007). Accordingly, knowledge always has idiosyncratic meaning developed through integrations between content and a learner’s personal experiences, assumptions, and behaviors (McCusker, 2013). The idea of acquiring immutable knowledge becomes nonsensical from this perspective because the meaning a person ascribes to content can never be perfectly duplicated, regardless of an educator’s best attempts.…”