Transformative Learning Theory

Transformative learning theory describes how adults fundamentally revise the assumptions and beliefs through which they interpret experience, a process Jack Mezirow began developing from 1978 after studying women returning to community college. Mezirow argued that this kind of deep perspective change is usually triggered by a disorienting dilemma, a life crisis or major transition that a person's existing frame of reference cannot make sense of, though the shift can also build gradually. The resulting transformation runs through stages of self-examination, critical reflection on assumptions, and eventual reintegration with a revised, better justified point of view. Later theorists such as Dirkx and Boyd have argued Mezirow's account is too narrowly rational, and that transformation is often as much an emotional or spiritual experience as a cognitive one.