Transformative Learning Theory— an Overview

“Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind,” by Ethan Watters, is a compelling article that challenges the reader’s perception on culture and cognition. Instead of cognition affecting culture, our culture affects our cognition. It’s interesting to conceptualize, and it makes one have to introspect their culture, beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Why do we do behave the way that we do? Are our thoughts our own? How much of us is influenced by our environment? This effect of culture can be rooted in our childhoods. We are taught societal norms and how to view, categorize, and perceive the world through the lens of the environment surrounding us. A prime example of this comes from the games we played growing up.

Throughout the course of this semester Core 1 has given me opportunities to learn about many life relative topics. Some of the topics that have interested me were evolution, how people classify things; how religion and cultural beliefs influence the way we interpret meanings. As human beings we do not have the same cultural beliefs and do not do things the same ways. Many times we do not share the same values and see the world alike. Throughout the world there have been numerous groups of individuals who have had more than one belief and have had more than one cultural practice. We all have different perspectives on a single idea and it may be because of our past experiences. Understanding culture beliefs, early knowledge and environments are

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.” (C.S. Lewis) Though culture does shape one's life, one's view of the world depends on how they interpret their culture.

The basic of understanding a culture and events starts with the individual’s lifestyle. People will always have diverse images, understanding how people live, helps explain how they about their practices in their culture and religion. There is always a division of specialty in a given society. Understanding how and why individuals assume certain status in the society explains how each specialty is used to provide help in the society.

When determining ones perspective, you must take into account a person’s cultural, social background as well as their personal experiences along with many other factors.

Our actions, beliefs and interpretations are influenced by our culture. There are many cultural universals among different

The absolute “Truth depends on your point of view the truth, customs perspectives, morals or beliefs created by one owns culture will not necessarily apply to another culture.” (Muelhoff & Lewis). In many regions of the world, people tend to view and value different customs, beliefs and values.” The world we embrace have different perspectives and view points, which greatly influenced our perceptions. “Not only is our knowledge of the world influence and condition by culture, but our idea of how the world should change is influenced as

In Colson and Pearcey (2001) their research proves that, for the most part, worldviews vary with time. This is contingent upon general environmental factors. Despite some people having a single worldview their entire life, for others, their worldviews undergo gradual transformation. A single worldview is possible particularly for community and tribal cultures. Nevertheless, in the modern world there is more dynamism in the worldview of a person. This is true because in most occasions, our worldview transforms much the same manner in which it was gotten; by experience as well as interactions. With reference to experiences: wherever a person continuously

Do you feel that transformative learning only applies to adult learners? Please explain. If not, how can the philosophy and strategies of transformative learning be applied to younger learners?

During my Indigenous cultures and health tutorial, we had to draw our cultures. At first my mind went blank, but after a while I started thinking of what is culture and what is my world view, to clarify my understandings. I found the strong relation between culture and worldviews by thinking and reflecting back to what I’ve learned the past three weeks.

Culture is not the defining factor that determines how one experiences the world. There are many other factors to consider when weighing the what makes up one’s stance. Memories and experience allow a person to form these stances and develops one as a person and in

In class we have been discussing the analogy of perspectives. A perspective is a way of seeing, also thought of as a ‘point of view’. This mental view or outlook can both enhance and constrain how we view the world in our own eyes. In the field of psychology and sociology there are many ways to perceive our world in which we live. No one perspective alone can define the world. Each perspective has its own distinctive strengths and blind spots. In class we have discussed different theories and analogies to better understand the complexity of perspectives.

Following the ONE Decision seminar, a transformative learning shift resonated with me. Jack Mezirow, professor and leading Transformative Learning thinker describes, “Transformative learning refers to the process by which we transform our taken-for-granted frames of reference (meaning perspectives, habits of mind, mind-sets) to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, emotionally capable of change, and reflective so that they may generate beliefs and opinions that will prove more true or justified to guide action.” Following this seminar, I began looking at my life, how my beliefs were formed and I questioned what kind of life I wanted to lead. Transformative learning took place for me following my involvement in teaching the ONE Decision seminar and I began gaining greater control over my life as a “socially responsible, clear-thinking decision maker.” I began discovering how the beliefs I held as a child were not necessarily beliefs I wanted to hold as an adult. Beliefs that I needed to please others in order to have worth and to be liked were not in line with my ONE Decision. I saw how my current view of the world was not in support of the type of lifestyle I wanted to lead. Mezirow writes that transformative learning “demands that we be aware of how we come to our knowledge and as aware as we can be about the values that lead us to our perspectives.” Through my assignments, research, writing, and coaching, I became capable of

As we began to evolve into knowing who we are inside, we begin to realize that our self awareness is distorted by our strong sense of belonging to a culture we can identify with. The culture in which we grew up in, share a common belief and assumption and because of those shared beliefs it also can distort our thinking process to listen, hear or to fully understand other cultures that we can't identify

As diverse characters of the planet, we entirely perceive our surroundings through our very own paradigm, which is shaped based on identity. When seeing the world through a paradigm one is effectively viewing and interpreting through a certain filter. For example, if a scientist is observing an art piece, he may not be able to perceive it through the artist’s paradigm and in order to be a critic of the art, he must understand what the illustrator is trying to portray. Because art can vary from a detailed painting in such dull colors to a bright coloured rectangle, and to look at it through a scientific paradigm he will not understand the story behind the art piece. This rectangle could represent someone’s entire life, as would the detailed painting. And for one to view it through an extremely different paradigm, they may not see past the ‘pretty picture’ or ‘plain rectangle’.