This article considers transformative learning within the context of the Partnership Program, an instructional development initiative of the Academic Technologies for Learning unit at the University of Alberta. This initiative focused on introducing faculty to technology-enhanced teaching and learning strategies and tools, developing educational resources through a collaborative instructional development process, promoting faculty use of educational technologies within the university, and supporting faculty to change their teaching practice through participation in an instructional development project. One question asked in this study was: Does the involvement of faculty members in an instructional development project facilitate a transformation in their teaching philosophy and practice? This article focuses on three themes that emerged from the study—alignment/misalignment of expectations with experience, change in attitudes toward technology-enhanced instruction, and change in pedagogical style—and how they may relate to the presence or lack of transformative learning experiences for faculty participating in instructional development projects.
Argyris, C., & Schön, D. A. (1992). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
2.
Bates, A. W. (2000). Managing technological change: Strategies for college and university leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
3.
Chawla, S., & Renesch, J. (Eds.). (1995). Learning organizations: Developing cultures for tomorrow’s workplace. Portland, OR: Productivity Press.
4.
Chin, S., & Hortin, J. A. (1994). Teachers’ perceptions of instructions technology and staff development. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 22(2), 83-98.
5.
Cranton, P. (1996). Professional development as transformative learning: New perspectives for teachers of adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
6.
Dahler-Larsen, P. (2002). Evaluation packages in practice. Paper presented at Nordic Political Science Association Conference. Retrieved June 7, 2003, from http://www.socsci.auc.dk/institut2/nopsa/arbejdsgruppe10/peterdahler.pdf
7.
Ewing, J. M., Dowling, J. D., & Coutts, N. (1998). Learning using the World Wide Web: A collaborative learning event. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 8(1), 3-22.
8.
Foley, G. (2001, July). Emancipatory organizational learning: Research and practice. Keynote address at the Second International Conference on Researching Work and Learning, Calgary, Canada.
9.
Fuller, F. (1999, April). Web instruction as cultural transformation: A reeducation model for faculty development. Presented to Northwestern State University of Louisiana Twelfth Annual Research Day. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 429 499)
10.
Glaser, R. (1991). The maturing of the relationship between the science of learning and cognition and educational practice. Learning and Instruction, 1, 129-144.
11.
Hunter, E. K. (1980). Perspective transformation in health practices: A study in adult learning and fundamental life change. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
12.
Jacobsen, W. (1996). Learning, culture, and learning culture. Adult Education Quarterly, 47, 15-28.
13.
Jarvis, P. (1999). The practitioner-researcher: Developing theory from practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
14.
Jonassen, D., Dyer, D., Peters, K., Robinson, T., Harvey, D., King, M., et al. (1997). Cognitive flexibility hypertexts on the Web: Engaging learners in making meaning. In B. H. Khan (Ed.), Web-based instruction (pp. 119-133). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.
15.
Kanuka, H., & Anderson, T. (1998). Online social interchange, discord, and knowledge construction. Journal of Distance Education, 13(1), 57-74.
16.
Kegan, R. (2000). What “form” transforms? A constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning. In J. Mezirow (Ed.), Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 35-70). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
17.
King, K. P. (1999, May). How technology education transforms teachers’ perspectives of their profession. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada.
18.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
19.
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
20.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
21.
Lewin, K. (1945). Cassirer's philosophy of science and social science. In P. A. Schlipp (Ed.), The philosophy of Ernst Cassirer. New York: Tudor.
22.
Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning to think like an adult: Core concepts of transformation theory. In J. Mezirow (Ed.), Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 3-34). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
23.
Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
24.
Newman, J. M. (2000, January). Action research: A brief overview. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research. Retrieved June 7, 2003, from http://qualitative-research.net/fqs
25.
Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking. New York: Oxford University Press.
26.
Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books.
27.
Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
28.
Sokol, A. V., & Cranton, P. (1998). Transforming, not training. Adult Learning, 93(3), 14-16.
29.
Taylor, E. W. (1997). Building upon the theoretical debate: A critical review of the empirical studies of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory. Adult Education Quarterly, 48, 34-59.
30.
Tergan, S. O. (1997). Misleading theoretical assumptions in hypertext/hypermedia research. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 6, 257-283.
31.
Wilhite, S. C., DeCosmo, A. D., & Lawler, P. A. (1996). Faculty as adult learners: Implications for faculty development initiatives [Electronic version]. In The Eastern Adult, Continuing and Distance Education Research Conference Proceedings. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University.
