Abstract A sentiment held by Dewey and shared by other educators is that learning should enrich and expand everyday experience. However, this goal has not been a focus of research. In this article, I propose transformative experience as a construct capable of reflecting this goal and functioning as an empirical research construct. I discuss the theoretical grounding for this construct in the work of Dewey and define it in terms of three characteristics: (a) motivated use, (b) expansion of perception, and (c) experiential value. In doing so, I describe how transformative experience integrates current research constructs such as transfer, conceptual change, and task value in a holistic way. I then provide illustrations of transformative experiences and review the existing research. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I thank David Bergin, David Wong, and the reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this article. I also thank Gale Sinatra for her editorial support. Notes 1Prior work has provided initial conceptualizations of transformative experience (see CitationPugh, 2002, Citation2004; CitationPugh, Linnenbrink-Garcia, Koskey, Stewart, & Manzey, 2010a). This article synthesizes prior work and provides a more extensive philosophical grounding and theoretical analysis of the construct. 2The construct of an idea is found throughout Dewey's (1933) work but most prominently in his description of reflective thinking in the revised version of How We Think (CitationDewey, 1933). Dewey drew on Peirce's concept of abduction in developing the construct (CitationPrawat, 1999a). 3According to CitationPrawat (1998), Dewey proposed that the responsibility for testing the validity of ideas lies with the individual. However, the social context is vital to the authoring of ideas, situating them in the context of other ideas, and constituting the nature of experience itself (see also, CitationPrawat, 1999a). 4This intentional transfer parallels intentional conceptual change (see CitationSinatra & Pintrich, 2003). The spontaneous transfer process is representative of forward-reaching transfer (see CitationSalomon & Perkins, 1989). 5Genuine conceptual change is typically viewed as involving a universal change in perception. For example, if a student has an impetus theory of motion and genuinely transforms this theory into a theory based on Newton's Laws, we would expect this student to use the new theory whenever she explains the motion of an object. However, as the case of Sarah illustrates, she may not care about explaining the motion of objects at all. Consequently, her perception of events of motion in everyday experience may remain unchanged even though her theory of motion did change. 6Girod and colleagues (CitationGirod, Rau, & Schepige, 2003; CitationGirod & Wong, 2002) have used the term aesthetic understanding in place of transformative experience. However, the constructs are similar. For a discussion, see CitationPugh and Girod (2007). 7The Rasch Model is a psychometric model used to create measures. It is beneficial for research involving integrative constructs, because it has tools to test whether items function as a unified construct and, if so, provides composite scores representing levels of performance for this construct. 8Specifically, a measure of task-based transfer (CitationPugh & Bergin, 2005) was used. Thus, the researchers investigated whether students who willfully applied learning in free-choice transfer contexts as part of a transformative experience would be more successful at applying such learning when required to do so by an assessment task. According to the CitationBarnett and Ceci (2002) transfer taxonomy, the transfer items used represented far transfer in terms of the knowledge domain.
Conflicting research results have stirred controversy over the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) compared to direct instruction at fostering content learning, particularly for novices. We addressed this by investigating effectiveness with respect to recognition learning and transfer and conducting an aptitude-treatment interaction analysis. We also examined how students' goal orientations may moderate learning in PBL and lecture/discussion environments. Participants included 197 preservice teachers in an undergraduate educational psychology course. Controlling for GPA, students in the PBL condition performed significantly better than students in the lecture/discussion condition on a transfer measure (p <.001, partial η2 =.271) and equally on a recognition learning measure (p =.530). We also found an aptitude-treatment interaction for recognition learning (p =.012, partial η2 =.034) but not transfer (p =.088). Results of goal orientation on learning outcomes were inconclusive.
This small-scale, exploratory study examines the effectiveness of two teaching elements (the artistic crafting of content and the modeling and scaffolding of perception and value) at fostering transformative experiences. The construct of a transformative experience was derived from Dewey's work and is defined as an expansion of perception and value resulting from active use of a concept. The elements were used in teaching a unit on adaptation and evolution in a high school zoology class. Student outcomes were compared with those of students in a roughly equivalent (as determined by a preintervention survey) class in which the same unit was taught using a case-based model of instruction. Results indicate that a significantly greater percentage of students in the experimental class (52.9%) than students in the control class (22.7%) engaged in some degree of transformative experience. Further, it was found that students from both classes who engaged in at least some form of transformative experience scored significantly higher than other students on a follow-up assessment of understanding but not on a postintervention assessment of understanding.
AbstractThe concept of natural selection serves as a foundation for understanding diverse biological concepts and has broad applicability to other domains. However, we know little about students' abilities to transfer (i.e. apply to a new context or use generatively) this concept and the relation between students' conceptual understanding and transfer ability. Consequently, the purposes of this study were to describe the patterns of transfer displayed by high school biology students learning about natural selection over time, evaluate their overall level of success at transferring the concept across knowledge domains and examine the relation between conceptual understanding and level of transfer of the concept. Transfer ability and conceptual understanding were assessed using open-response items administered to 138 students in the United States. Based on the responses to these items, we identified particular patterns of surface and deep-level transfer and found that deep-level transfer was uncommon. Further, we found that deep-level transfer and conceptual understanding shared a small but significant relation; surface-level transfer was unrelated. Based on these results, we recommend that teachers explicitly focus on fostering transfer of the concept of natural selection and use specific teaching for transfer strategies, in addition to teaching for conceptual understanding.Keywords: natural selectionevolutionbiologytransfer of learningconceptual change
Recruitment and retention of students in STEM fields continues to be a challenge. Existing models of recruitment and retention emphasize the role of domain interest and identity. In the current research, we investigated the role of transformative experience combined with domain interest/identity in predicting academic and career choice. Transformative experiences represent a form of deep engagement in which students actively apply school learning in their everyday lives and find value in doing so. We looked specifically at academic and career choice, i.e., available educational paths and various career options, in the field of geoscience, as the geosciences currently struggle to attract and retain majors, resulting in a lack of professionals to fill these jobs. We collected survey data from students (n = 60) at three U.S. universities, and used hierarchical multiple regression to investigate self-efficacy, pre-geoscience interest/identity, transformative experience, and post-geoscience interest/identity as predictors of geoscience academic and career choice. The full regression model explained 69% of the variance in geoscience academic/career choice. Further, stepwise regression analysis revealed that post-geoscience interest/identity fully mediated the relations between the other significant predictors (pre-geoscience interest/identity and transformative experience) and geoscience academic/career choice.
