A developmental constructivist examination of meaning making capacity among peer instructors in Learning in Retirement Programs.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In <italic>Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress</italic> (Mezirow, 2000), Kegan (2000) wrote of the two dimensions of epistemology or “our way of knowing” (p. 52): meaning forming and re-forming our meaning forming. He suggested that <excerpt>These two processes inherent in epistemology are actually at the heart of two lines of social-scientific thought that should be in much closer conversations with each other: the educational line of thought is transformational learning; the psychological line of thought is constructive developmentalism. (p. 53)</excerpt>.
This study attempted to begin that conversation by building on the precedents established in Perry's work, which suggest that how an individual knows the experience of learning will be influenced by his or her current developmental level of meaning making.
Perry (1999) demonstrated that differences in the ways students talked about learning suggested developmental differences and capabilities in how they make sense of experiences, signaling differences in <italic>how</italic> they know the experience of learning, not just <italic>what</italic> they know. <italic>How</italic> they know the experience changed their engagement of the process of learning.
Study participants were peer instructors, ages 57–79 years, in three Learning in Retirement Programs. The Subject-Object Interview (Lahey, Souvaine, Kegan, Goodman, & Felix, 1988) was used to determine the meaning making order of each peer instructors. The interview transcripts were also analyzed for evidence of Mezirow's 10 phases of meaning leading to a perspective transformation.
It was found that 35 percent of the peer instructors were constructing meaning from the third-order socialized self and 65 percent were constructing meaning from the fourth-order self-authorized self. Meaning making orders may be neither a deterrent nor predictor of an individual's entry or persistence in a learning environment. Evidence of Mezirow's phases of meaning leading to a perspective transformation was found in the interview transcripts, but only after broadening the definitions of the phases. The results suggest that individuals may engage the phases of meaning consistent with their current order of meaning making. A reforming of the phases of meaning leading to a perspective transformation consistent with the meaning making capacity of Kegan's developing epistemologies is described.