Learning as Transformation: Resourcefulness and Renewal in Higher Education

Abstract

Liberal education is both emancipatory and transformative. Learning that changes the mind also changes the micro-anatomy and function of the brain. Students learn as whole people-the mind is never separate from the brain and the learner-and they learn always and everywhere. The whole campus is, then, a learning community, and campuses should be resourceful in depending on and preparing both teaching faculty and professional staff to support and inspire learning. Transformative learning inspires both inquiry and change; good teachers of all kinds encourage students to reflect, question themselves, and tolerate the discomfort of new ideas. ____________________________________________________________________________ he promise of transformation differentiates the purposes of liberal education from those of more mundane-and commonly overrated-cognitive activities such as memorizing, out-of-time and therefore just-in-time studying, and cramming to pass exams. Embedded deeply in the idea of college as a learning experience is the belief that the person who graduates should be somehow different from the one who first matriculated-and different in more ways than merely having a degree, or, for that matter, a job. No institution of higher education that is conscious of its own potential would write a mission statement that said its purpose is to graduate students or grant degrees. The point of controlling access to a valued (even if no longer scarce) credential such as a baccalaureate degree is that the credential must be earned, because it represents something that cannot-and should not-be simply purchased. Even universities that have suffered (and, unfortunately, encouraged) the assaults of a consumerist view of higher education would dispute any assertion that their degree is a product, the eventual ownership of which is guaranteed through the timely payment of tuition and fees.