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УДК (UDC)372.881.161.1
Sedova-Hotaling Elena, DLI, Monterey, CA, USA Soboleva Valentina, DLI, Monterey, CA, USA
ТРАНСФОРМАТИВНОЕ ОБУЧЕНИЕ:ОТ ТЕОРИИ К ПРАКТИКЕ TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
Abstract
Transformative learning has been known to educators over several decades.The goal of transformative learning is independent thinking. What is the difference between a traditional lesson and a transformative lesson? Instructional learning is the acquisition of skills and knowledge through mastering tasks, a problem solving, manipulating the environment, and looking for explanations of "how" and "what" happens around us. In contrast, transformative learning is a perspective transformation, a paradigm shift, whereby we critically examine our prior interpretations and assumptions to form new meaning and to explain "why " such things happen. One more crucial distinction is that, unlike the traditional lesson, where the teacher is a mentor, in a transformative lesson, the teacher is only a navigator, while students play numerous roles, explore real-life situations while learning a foreign language.
The authors of this article would like to share some ideas with the readers of the journal.
Keywords: transformative learning, traditional lesson, critical reflection, rational dialogue, content-based, student-centered teaching, socio-cultural communicative practices.
Introduction
AsMezirow(1991, 2000) states, Transformative Learning (TL) is "the expansion of consciousness through the transformation of basic worldview and specific capacities of the self." TL theory says that the process of "perspective transformation" has three dimensions: psychological (changes in understanding of the self), convictional (revision of belief systems), and behavioral (changes in lifestyle). There are many divergent interpretations of TL.
Mezirowbelieves that transformative learning is facilitated through consciously directed processes.We have to learn to make our own interpretations rather than rely upon the purposes, beliefs, judgements, and feelings of others. Facilitating such processes is the cardinal goal of adult education. Transformative learning develops autonomous thinking.
What is the difference between a traditional lesson and a transformative lesson? According to Mezirow, instructional learning is the acquisition of skills and knowledge through mastering tasks, a problem solving, manipulating the environment, and looking for explanations of "how" and "what" happens around us.
In contrast, transformative learning isa perspective transformation, a paradigm shift, whereby we critically examine our prior interpretations and assumptions to form new meaning and to explain "why" such things happen.This perspective transformation is according to Mezirow 20
achieved through (1) disorienting dilemmas, (2) critical reflection, (3) rational dialogue, and (4) action.
Theory
Numerous descriptions of TL exist. One of these is alearning experience focused on social, cultural, aesthetic, historical, and other types ofknowledge, with the main focus on the communicative learning domain. Its crucial distinction is that, unlike the traditional lesson, where theteacher is a mentor, in a transformative lesson, the teacher is a navigator, while students play numerous roles ascommunity helpers, teachers, patients, scientists, and many others. In TL, students explore real-life situations while learning a foreignlanguage (FL). All possible scenarios should be authentic, not pedagogical. This type of learning is strictly content-based, student-centered. Students are actively engagedin a scenario through contextualized vocabulary, and thus develop and improve all FL skills.
The goal of transformative learning is independent thinking. Cognitive development is foundational for transformative learning. Critically reflective inquiry, or simply critical reflection, may lead to TL. What does "being reflective" mean? It means, that the student learns how to describe and reframe the problem, how to solve it, finding the most meaningful actions to take or finding alternatives for a solutionto the problem. In other words, critically reflective inquiry is the most significant part of communicative learning and autonomy in thinking.
Fostering greater autonomy in thinking is both a goal and a method for adult educators, and achieving greater autonomy in thinking is a product of transformative learning. Even partial autonomy requires communicative competence and transformative learning. Merriam (2004) states that TL replaces a currentpoint of view or amind-set with one that is more developed or mature. Hence, the goal of transformative learning is to empower thelearner through critical reflection for a more participatory learning society (Cranton,1994). According to the TL theory, a triggering event catalyzes the transformative learning process that requires thinking deeply about assumptions that change due to the triggering event. The learner constructs new meaning of herexperience from the new context, created by the triggering event, and through conversation with others assesses the justification forher assumptions (and possibly change them) rather than justify them as true.
The constructivist developmental psychology has its roots in Vygotsky's theory, as well as Mezirow's transformative learning theory. According to Mezirow (2000), "transformative process results in reflective action from changes in life experience. All modern theories on interactive activities that lead to the development of cognitive skills date back to Vygotsky (1978), who accentuated the importance of social interaction for the advancement of learners' comprehension and awareness of the subject matter.
Full cognitive development requires social interaction. According to Vygotsky, language and thinking are closely linked. Language is essential for the transmission of knowledge and ideas. Johnson (2004) believesthat Vygotsky's theory holds great promise for the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory and practice, providinga unique opportunity to "heal" the schism that currently separates the learner's social environment from his/her mental functioning
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(ibid: 170). Cognitive science along with educational psychology is a basis for the development of higher-order thinking skills. The field of SLA strongly adheres to the cognitive theory. The cognitive tradition, most widely accepted in SLA, lays stress on the importance of mental processes, rather than external processes; thereby reversing the well-established pattern of behaviorism, which focused on the external reality and disregarded the internal processes.
As Vygotsky points out in his "Thought and Language" (1986), the property of human mental functioning can be discovered by the observation of mental and the linguistic activities to which the individual has been exposed throughout his or her life. The dynamic role of social contexts, individuality, intentionality, and the socio-cultural, historical, and institutional backgrounds of the individualfactor prominently in cognitive growth. From the perspective of Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory, learning originates in a dynamic social interaction in which the learner is an active agent who controls his/her engagement in learning activities.
In her"A Philosophy of Second Language Acquisition," Johnson (2004) suggests that communicative activities, dialogs, role-plays and scenarios, contrary to the cognitive tradition, lead to reflection on multiple realties that each person interprets differently. These multiple realities exist because human beings,in the course of their lives, receive exposure to different sociocultural and historical backgrounds.Social contexts create language just as language creates social contexts (ibid: 172). It means that socio-cultural communicative practices impact on cognitive growth, and cognitive skills, in turn, allow implementing socio-cultural knowledge into TL performance. However, it is important to distinguish between two notions: socio-cultural competence and socio-cultural performance.Socio-cultural competence, as other types of competence, is a passive skill; it indicates that the learner ofa particular culture is knowledgeable about it. While socio-cultural performance is an active skill; it shows that an individual is capable of adequate interaction with the members of this particular culture, in accordance with its norms and traditions.
Practice
Transformative learning involves 'learning to do.' This includes a critique of an assertion itself. It also requires a critique of the relevant social norms and cultural codes. The basis for TL is communicative tasks. The problem-solving process, involved in this type of learning,includes learner's attempt to understand another's meaning through speech, real-life role plays, various scenarios, writing, drama or art. Communicative learning involves searching, often intuitively, for themes and metaphors in order to fit the unfamiliar into a meaningful perspective. Therefore,in communicative learning, reflection requires a critical assessment of this distinctive process of problem solving. Achieving criticalthinking represents culmination of transformative learning.
Task-based instruction is the main approach in teaching a foreignlanguage (FL), because task is a vehicle of teaching. Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) constitutesa pedagogical approach inassisting learnersto produce near-native accuracy within a communicative classroom (Long,1985). It is important to distinguish between pedagogical tasks and real-lifetasks. Both have a communicative goal and similar stages, such as input, procedure, and outcome. However, the pedagogical task has a predictable outcome, while the target task is unpredictable. The best
teachers are artists who know the science of teaching. Joe Kincheloe (1998) states that "the well-prepared teacher is not the one who enters the classroom with a fixed set of lesson plans but a scholar with a thorough knowledge of subject, an understanding of knowledge production, ability to produce knowledge, an appreciation of social context, and a sophisticated appreciation of critical educational goals and purposes" (ibid:13).
Teachers engaged in critically reflective inquiry might ask questions such as: — What are the aims, purposes and goals of my teaching? — How meaningful are these aims, goals and purposes? —Are they equally relevant for all learners? — What might be other possibilities/alternatives? — What do I expect of students in terms of the learning that they need to master? — What are the challenges for different students?
Besides finding the answers to these kinds of questions, the most difficult part for the teachers in refining their craft of transformative teaching is to get ready for switching the roles of the teacher and the student: the teachers should truly believe in students' capabilities andentrust them with their own learning. This is crucial fora student-centered type of teaching. According to Ernest Boyer (1987), the goal of educators is to encourage students to develop their capacity to judge wisely in matters of life and conductappropriately; it is also important to set them free in the world of ideas and provide them witha climate in which they can thoughtfully examineethical and moral choices and form convictions.
None of this means that transformative teaching, centered on task-based instruction, excludes direct instruction or pedagogical activities. For instance, if the teacher wants to help students construct analyses or comparison, it could beuseful if students in groups report on differences/commonalities using a Venn diagram, rather than each group giving entirely separate presentations; however, direct instruction should not dominate. During students' performance, for assessment purposes, the teacher can observe and evaluate the students' interaction, performance, and useoftarget language. At the same time, students should be, in Vygotsky's term, "self-regulated", rather than "object-regulated", for which a greater social involvement is required. In other words, the more teachers require social involvement, the more students perform socio-cultural activities.
"The systematic and reflective process of transforming principles of learning into activities, information resources, and evaluation" (Smith & Ragan, 2005:4) impacts learners' cognitive growth; and cognitive growth, in turn, allows transforming socio-cultural knowledge into language performance.
It is importantto emphasize the difference between socio-cultural awareness versus socio-cultural performance. The former represents passive knowledge of an authentic life, while the latter is an active skill, which blossoms in the form of learner output through the transformative learning and teaching process.
Real-life situations have the potential to engage students in genuine reflective inquiryunderpinned by public exchanges (debates, discussions, presentations, etc.). During this process, participants question and defend knowledge claims, and the meaningful forms of self-
and tutor- assessmentbecome transformative. This leads to a deeper understanding of both subject matter and self.
There is a variety of tasks for practice in the transformative-teaching classroom. For example, there are well-recognized transformative projects in the neighborhood communities, which create real-life connections for learning purposes. Here are also some ideas the authors of this article would like to share. For instance, the Socratic transformative method does not require that students generate the right answers, but rather it illuminates the difference between systemic and fragmented thinking. It teaches students to dig beneath the surface of ideas. The teacher can model the questioning strategies s/he wants students to emulate and employ. The Socratic method involves the whole class in analysis and discussions on contemporary issues. Controversial issues are always a great resource for communicative activities. Integrating Socratic questions in the classroom helps students becomeactive and independent learners and leadsthem to think "outside the box."During Socratic questioning debates, the teacher respects students' viewpoints, probes their understanding, and shows genuine interest in their thinking. Of course, students need some time to research the issue. Moreover, TL requires a new grading design - formative assessment or project-based tests are the best in this teaching format.
Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, transformative learning has been known to educators over several decades. It empowers both the students to take charge of their own learning and the teachers to take charge of their own classrooms.
However, it is still not employed in foreign language teaching as broadly as it should be. There are several reasons for this. The first question that comes immediately to mind is how to balance learner independence in foreign languageacquisition and the development of grammar proficiency. Many teachers, especially of inflected languages such as Russian, believe that teaching the FL grammar through fill-in-the blanks exercises is a necessary step for achieving grammatical competence, without which, undoubtedly, students cannot achieve high levels of FL mastery. Depending on the complexity of FL grammar and how it is introduced and assessed, drill exercises receive a significant portion of time in syllabi. Therefore, teachers delay the practice of transformative learning mostly until the end of the course.
The next question, in the spirit of Socratic tradition, is this: what should be done in the field of FL teaching so that FL learning models real-life learning? This is the central question at hand if transformative learning is the foundation of real-life learning, and, according to Vygotsky, the tool of such learning is the language itself that develops through social interaction and exchange of opinions.The authors hope to get a broad exchange of professional opinions on what teachers and administrators can do to createfully transformative learning in the field of FL teaching from the start.
References:
Cranton, P. (1994). Self-directed and transformative instructional development. Journal of Higher Education, 65(6), November/December, 726-744. Retrieved from http://web.stanford.edu/dept/CTL/Tomprof/postings/621.html
Boyer, E. (1987).Transformative Learning - University of Edinburgh. Retrieved from: http://slidegur.com/doc/304801/transformative-learning—university-of-edinburgh
Johnson, M. (2004).Philosophy of second language acquisition. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press. Retrieved from:
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/capella/Doc?id=10169981&ppg=12
Kincheloe, J. ( 1998). Unauthorized Methods .Taylor & Francis Ltd. Imprint ROUTLEDGE. London, United Kingdom (p. 13)
Long, M. H. (1985). Bibliography of Research on Second Language Classroom Processes and Classroom Second Language Acquisition. Technical Report No. 2. Honolulu: Center for Second Language Classroom Research, Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
Merriam, S. (2004). The role of cognitive development in Mezirow's transformational learning. Adult Education Quarterly, 55, 69.
Mezirow, J. (1997).New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. Volume 1997, Issue 74, pages 5-12, Summer 1997
Mezirow, J. (2004). Learning theory ''Forum comment on Sharan Merriam's "The role of cognitive development in Mezirow's transformational learning. Adult Education Quarterly, 55, 69.
Smith, P. & Ragan, T. J. (2005) Instructional design. John Wiley& Sons
Vygotsky, Lev S. (1986). Thought and Language.Translated by Alex Kozulin. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Information about the authors
Sedova-Hotaling, Elena (Monterey, California, USA) - Associate Professor, Defense Language
Institute.
e-mail:[email protected]
Mailing address: 300 Glenwood Circle, 258, Monterey, CA 93940 USA
Soboleva, Valentina Ph.D. (Monterey, California, USA) - Associate Professor, Defense Language
Institute.
e-mail:valentina.s. [email protected]
Mailing address:644 Van Buren St, # 6, Monterey, CA 93940 USA
