FEATURED SESSION:
Transformative Learning in Practice
with Patricia Cranton and Edward W. Taylor
Description: The leading authorities in the field have a new book, entitled Transformative Learning in Practice: Insights from Community, Workplace, and Higher Education, which provides strategies and methods for fostering Transformative Learning (TL) practice in a wide variety of higher and adult education settings. This session by the same name answers relevant questions such as: What are effective practices for promoting TL in the classroom? What is it about TL that is most helpful in informing practice? How does the teaching setting shape the practice of TL? What are the successes, strengths, and outcomes of fostering TL? What are the risks and challenges when practicing TL in the classroom?
About the Presenters:
Patricia Cranton is currently Professor of Adult Education at Penn State University at Harrisburg. She has been Professor of Adult Education at St. Francis Xavier University, University of New Brunswick, and Brock University in Canada. Prior to that, she was on faculty at McGill University from 1976 to 1986. Patricia Cranton’s books include Planning Instruction for Adult Learners (1989) with a second edition in 2000, Working with Adult Learners (1992) also translated into Japanese in 1999, Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning (1994) also translated into Chinese in 1995, Professional Development as Transformative Learning (1996) also translated into Japanese in 2000, No One Way: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (1998), Personal Empowerment through Type (1998), Becoming an Authentic Teacher (2001), Finding our Way: A Guide for Adult Educators (2003). The second edition of Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning was published in 2006. Patricia has edited four New Directions volumes, Transformative Learning in Action (1997), Universal Challenges in Faculty Work: Fresh Perspectives from around the World (1997), Fresh Approaches to the Evaluation of Teaching (2001), and Authenticity in Teaching (2006). She is currently co-editing a fifth volume with Leona English, entitled Reaching Out Across the Border: Canadian Perspectives in Adult Education.
Dr. Edward W. Taylor is an Associate Professor of Adult Education at Penn State University-Harrisburg. He received his Ed.D. in Adult Education from the University of Georgia. Research interests include adult cognition and learning (transformative learning), nonformal education, medical education. His work has appeared in Adult Education Quarterly, International Journal of Lifelong Education, Studies in the Education of Adults and among other scholarly journals. He recently published an edited book “Teaching For Change: Fostering Transformative Learning in the Classroom.” He has been a co-editor of the Adult Education Quarterly since 2006 and active member of the planning committee for several International Transformative Learning Conferences. Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State, Ed was a Core faculty member at Antioch University for six years. Before his venture into higher education he worked for Eckerd Family Youth Alternatives as a training specialist (adventure-based education) in Clearwater, Florida.
