Transformative Learning in Professional Teacher Development

Introduction: The Educator as Lifelong Learner

Patricia Cranton's Professional Development as Transformative Learning (Jossey-Bass, 1996) addresses what she sees as an underserved aspect of educational literature: the role of the educator as a lifelong learner. While it is common to stress the need for teachers to add to their qualifications by obtaining master's degrees or pursuing additional formal certification, Cranton approaches the idea more broadly, in terms of teachers' personal and transformative enrichment. As well as gaining additional credentials, simply receiving feedback from other instructors can also be an education for teachers. Educators must seek out transformative learning opportunities — the type of education that transforms one's sense of self, unlocks a sense of new possibilities, and transcends preconceived notions. To transform students' lives as learners, educators must first be transformative teachers of themselves.

Educators often lack the ability to speak openly about their experiences as teachers or learners, yet the act of articulating one's experiences is frequently one of the most critical aspects of learning. Educators also often lack effective and objective feedback about their performance in the classroom. Cranton discusses her experience with "Tim," an older science professor who was convinced he had nothing to learn from the evaluative process, even though he was somewhat concerned about written student feedback indicating he could be intimidating and aloof. After being videotaped, Tim was able to modify his performance and become more accessible to students. Despite being near the end of his career, learning was still possible, and the videotape provided an "aha" moment in Tim's development that previous written student evaluations had not.

Self-Reflection and Feedback in Teaching Practice

Teaching requires hard work on the part of the educator — not simply in lesson preparation, but also in how the teacher presents himself or herself to the classroom. To be an effective communicator, the teacher must understand himself or herself and how he or she is perceived by others. As Cranton's example of Tim illustrates, self-awareness gained through concrete feedback mechanisms can produce genuine behavioral change even in experienced practitioners.

By seeking to educate themselves, educators become more aware of the learning process. This type of self-reflective practice is essential, given that more and more teachers are being called upon to educate adults — not just in the classroom, but in the workplace and in other environments. Understanding oneself as an adult learner can be a valuable part of creating a meaningful classroom experience for adult students. Adult education often lacks a coherent sense of philosophy, partly because it is frequently less institutionalized than the education of young students.

Adult Education and Self-Directed Learning

Furthermore, adults are often more willing partners in the learning process and better equipped to engage in self-directed learning in pursuit of a goal. Educators themselves are on a learning journey, and as Cranton observes, "if educators see self-directed learning as the goal of their work with learners but not themselves, there is a discrepancy in their perspective."

To help her readers better understand their own personalities and learning orientations, Cranton offers a brief overview of Jungian personality types, so that readers can examine how their learning style does or does not align with the dominant learning style of their students. No human being is completely one Jungian type or another — most individuals exhibit tendencies in one direction or another. Jung divided personalities into categories of extroverts and introverts, thinkers and feelers, judgers and perceivers, and sensors and intuitive types.