Transformational Learning

I find many things compelling about Transformational Learning Theory.

First, locating the process of human learning and change in the experience of failure has powerful resonances with my previous research on error. My dissertation, What We Talk About When We Talk About Error: Competing Tropes of “Deviance” in the History of Composition examined how my field has traditionally understood error as a “breakdown” or “lack”— something to be guarded against, avoided, eliminated, or remediated. But TLT gives us a powerful way to think about “failure” as a necessary and productive component in all human learning and development.

Without experiencing some kind of disconnect between what we previously held to be true and the demands of a new situation or evolving circumstances, most of us simply will not change or grow. In fact, even at the level of biochemistry, there is emerging agreement among cognitive scientists that neuroplasticity (or the ability of the brain to change on structural and functional levels over the course of a lifetime) is heavily dependent on repeatedly confronting challenging, often disruptive events and experiences.