This book aims to provide insight into the complexities confronting higher education today and to highlight tangible opportunities that exist to address such issues. We are in a constant state of flux and higher education needs to respond in more proactive, intentional and innovative ways to remain a relevant cornerstone to society and culture. The editors begin by asking how our collective reality might change if the complexity and uncertainty surrounding us were embraced and leveraged to serve the learner and society as a whole. They invite the reader to explore collaborative approaches to individualized learning pathways, networked learning and a reimagined ecosystem of academia. The chapters are arranged to inform the reader seeking knowledge on how to 1) reshape and redefine the 21st century university, with its evolving role in these transformative times; 2) design and implement courses that address the changing needs of the university and the non-traditional student; and 3) utilize research on innovative strategies with processes that promote organizational learning. The chapters profile the fluid nature of learning as it evolves in higher education and the workplace, often with a blurred line separating the two environments. Exciting ideas related to heutagogy, problem-based learning, innovative constructivist strategies, authentic learning and self-regulated learning all converge in this volume.

"Provocative and illuminating, this book is a must read for adult educators seeking to understand and facilitate transformational learning. It showcases a stellar group of authors who not only engage each other and the reader in constructive discourse, but who also model the heart of the transformational learning process." --Sharan B. Merriam, Department of Adult Education, University of Georgia This volume continues the landmark work begun by Jack Mezirow over twenty years ago--revealing the impact of transformative learning on the theory and practice of adult education. Top scholars and practitioners review the core principles of transformation theory, analyze the process of transformative learning, describe different types of learning and learners, suggest key conditions for socially responsible learning, explore group and organizational learning, and present revelations from the latest research. They also share real-world examples drawn from their own experiences and assess the evolution of transformative learning in practice and philosophy. Learning as Transformation presents an intimate portrait of a powerful learning concept and invites educators, researchers, and scholars to consider the implications of transformative learning in their own professional work.

The third edition of Patricia Cranton’s Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning brings a wealth of new insight from the tremendous growth in the field during the decade since the previous edition. As in the previous editions, the book helps adult educators understand what transformative learning is, distinguish it from other forms of learning, and foster it in their practice. The first part of the book is dedicated to clarifying transformative learning theory and relating it to other theoretical frameworks. The author examines transformative learning from the learner’s perspective, and discusses individual differences in how learners go through the process. In the second half of the book, the focus is squarely on strategies for promoting transformative learning in a wide variety of adult and higher education contexts. Practitioners will be able to take ideas from the text and apply them directly in their teaching.Since 1975, transformative learning has become a core theoretical perspective in adult and higher education, and research has proliferated. In the past decade, adult education and especially transformative learning grew into a noticeably larger field. The numbers of undergraduate and graduate programs in adult education have increased and continue to increase as more and more individuals are seeking the expertise, skills, and training necessary to work with adult learners in higher education, business, industry, government, health professions, non-profit organizations, and community development. In addition, the number of programs in higher education (both undergraduate and graduate) that include courses in transformative learning has grown dramatically. These academic audiences use the book to further their understanding of transformative learning theory and practice.Drawing on the latest research as well as the author’s own teaching experience in both online and face-to-face courses, this new edition will be a vital resource for members of the transformative learning community, as well as those encountering the topic for the first time.

Praise for Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education "Cockell and McArthur-Blair have crafted a meaningful story for educational leaders by weaving their personal experiences as Appreciative Inquiry facilitators together with a wide range of strength-based practices and positive change theory. The result is a magical book for applying Appreciative Inquiry in higher education." Diana Whitney, Ph.D., author, Appreciative Leadership and The Power of Appreciative Inquiry "Combining the history, philosophy, and principles of Appreciative Inquiry with detailed guidance for how it can be used in planning, leading, and teaching, Jeanie Cockell and Joan McArthur-Blair have tapped the depth and breadth of their substantive knowledge and skills to write a must-read text for administrators, faculty, staff, and students in higher education. Here is a book grounded in hope and many years of experience with a process that begins by recognizing what works, rather than what's missing a refreshing and rather radical perspective." Dr. Shauna Butterwick, associate professor, Adult Education Program Coordinator, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia "Cockell and McArthur-Blair have delightfully woven together how Appreciative Inquiry has been applied in all of higher education with stories of people and relationships illustrating how AI brings life to organizations. They provide guidance to AI practitioners in higher education on the depth and breadth of experiences that inspire those of us in this field." Kathy Becker, CEO, Company of Experts, Inc.; CEO, Center for Appreciative Inquiry "This book is an inspiring and expansive guide to developing appreciative practice in higher education. It will be an invaluable resource to anyone interested in leading their college into a 'positive' future." Judith Kamber, dean of professional development, Northern Essex Community College

This volume captures the spirit of collaboration and innovation that its authors bring into the classroom, as well as to groundbreaking undergraduate programs and initiatives. Coming from diverse points of view and twenty different disciplines, the contributors illuminate the often perplexing debates about what matters most in higher education today. Each chapter tells a unique story about creating vital pedagogical arenas that have the potential to transform teaching and learning for both faculty and students. These exploratory spaces include courses under construction, cross-college and interdisciplinary collaborations, general education reform initiatives, and fresh perspectives on student support services, faculty development, freshman learning communities, writing across the curriculum, on-line degree initiatives, and teaching and learning centers. All these spaces lend shape to an over-arching, system-wide project bringing together the often disconnected silos of undergraduate education at The City University of New York (CUNY), America’s largest urban public university system. Since 2003, the University’s Office of Undergraduate Education has sponsored coordinated efforts to study and improve teaching and learning for the system’s 260,000 undergraduates enrolled at 18 distinct colleges. The contributors to this volume present a broad spectrum of administrative and faculty perspectives that have informed the process of transforming the undergraduate experience. Combined, the voices in these chapters create a much-needed exploratory space for the interplay of ideas about how teaching and learning need to matter in evolving notions of higher education in the twenty-first century. In addition, the text has wider social relevance as an in-depth exploration of change and reform in a large public institution.

What does it mean to be authentic? Why should it matter whether or not we become more authentic? How might authenticity inform and enhance the social practice of the scholarship of university teaching and, by implication, the learning and development of students? Authenticity in and through Teaching introduces three distinct perspectives on authenticity, the existential, the critical and the communitarian, and shows what moving towards greater authenticity involves for teachers and students when viewed from each of these angles. In developing the notion of ‘the scholarship of teaching as an authentic practice', this book draws on several complementary ideas from social philosophy to explore the nature of this practice and the conditions under which it might qualify as 'authentic'. Other concepts guiding the analysis include ‘virtue’, 'being', ‘communicative action’, 'power', ‘critical reflection’ and ‘transformation’. Authenticity in and through Teaching also introduces a vision of the scholarship of teaching whose ultimate aim it is to serve the important interests of students. These important interests, it is argued, are the students’ own striving and development towards greater authenticity. Both teachers and students are thus implicated in a process of transformative learning, including objective and subjective reframing, redefinition and reconstruction, through critical reflection and critical self-reflection on assumptions. It is argued that, in important ways, this transformative process is intimately bound up with becoming more authentic. Rather than being concerned principally with rendering research evidence of ‘what works’, the scholarship of teaching emerges as a social practice that is equally concerned with the questions surrounding the value, desirability and emancipatory potential of what we do in teaching. The scholarship of teaching, therefore, also engages with the bigger questions of social justice and equality in and through higher education. The book combines Carolin Kreber's previous research on authenticity with earlier work on the scholarship of teaching, offering a provocative, fresh and timely perspective on the scholarship of university teaching and professional learning.

Much of higher education was originally designed to meet the needs of full time 18-22 year-old students who enter directly from high school. However, the New Majority of our students are older, likely to swirl among institutions, and have significant adult responsibilities outside of the classroom. The New Majority Student: Working from Within to Transform Higher Education is a call to transform colleges and universities to meet the academic and student experience needs of New Majority students and for adult educators to become advocates, allies, and resources for needed reforms. Book contributors, including faculty, staff and administrators at public, private and community colleges, provide insights for this transformation. The bookutilizes a business perspective to academic transformation, providing a guide to how universities can redefine and restructure their education product to meet student needs. Taking a Human Centered Design approach, the contributors provide frameworks and examples of how institutions can reallocate technology, effort (internal, external, student, faculty) and finances to reimagine programs and ensure long term institutional health.