Three faculty and three students share stories of their STLR research experience on this roundtable. Students not only learned research experientially through the research process and reflection, they gained practical education through the implementation of research with an “a-ha” moment in mind (Mezirow 2000; 2009).

The panel will focus on the mentorship by three faculty: Drs. Teresa Pac in CFAD, Jicheng Fu in computer science and John Wood in political science. They partnered with their respective students, Michael Litzau, Marcus Ong, and Heather Barras, all of whom were transformed by their projects.

The unique faculty-student relationship built through research collaboration was transformative as it created authentic and trusting relationships (Taylor 2009) and empowered students (King 1997).

All three research teams have presented at conferences. Fu’s team even created a smartphone app and game platform based on their project.

Pac and Litzau researched and presented: “Examining Human Migration Trauma by Boat since the 1970s in the United States.” Fu and Ong researched, presented and produced: “Achieving Practical and Effective Assessment of Power Wheelchair Users’ Activity Levels,” and Wood and Barras researched and presented “Taxonomy of Perceptions of Human Nature: Operationalizing a Deep Structure in Public Administration.”

Three faculty and three students share stories of their STLR research experience on this roundtable. Students not only learned research experientially through the research process and reflection, they gained a practical education through the implementation of research with an “a-ha” moment in mind (Mezirow 2000; 2009).

The panel will focus on the mentorship by three faculty: Drs. Teresa Pac in CFAD, Jicheng Fu in computer science and John Wood in political science. They partnered with their respective students, Michael Litzau, Marcus Ong, and Heather Barras, all of whom were transformed by their projects.

The unique faculty-student relationship built through research collaboration was transformative as it created authentic and trusting relationships (Taylor 2009) and empowered students (King 1997).

All three research teams have presented at conferences. Fu’s team even created a smartphone app and game platform based on their project.

Pac and Litzau researched and presented: “Examining Human Migration Trauma by Boat since the 1970s in the United States.” Fu and Ong researched, presented and produced: “Achieving Practical and Effective Assessment of Power Wheelchair Users’ Activity Levels,” and Wood and Barras researched and presented “Taxonomy of Perceptions of Human Nature: Operationalizing a Deep Structure in Public Administration.”

Cranton, P. (1994). Understanding and promoting transformative learning: A guide for educators of adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Cranton, P. (1997). Transformative learning in action: Insights from practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

King, K. (1997). Examining activities that promote perspective transformation among adult learners in adult education. International Journal of University Adult Education, 36(3), 23-37.

Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning to think like an adult. In Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. San Francisco, CA: J.M. Associates.

Taylor, E. W. (2007). An update of transformative learning theory: a critical review of the empirical research (1999-2005). International Journal of Lifelong Education, 26(2), 173-191.

Taylor, E. (2009). Fostering transformative learning. In J. Mezirow, E. Taylor, &. Associates, Transformative learning in practice (pp. 3-17). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

30-Minute Roundtable Session

Communicating Transformative Learning