2020 Transformative Learning Conference

Engaging with Transformative Learning Research

The purpose of this study is to examine the predictors of home-school dissonance among college students, specifically examining their impact on psychological factors that impact learning to produce transformation among college students. These predictor variables of home-school dissonance include personal achievement goals of performance and mastery, a sense of classroom community examined from the mission, reciprocal responsibility and disharmony subscales, self-reported GPA, and coping strategies. Coping strategies were studied from a positive, projective, denial and non-coping perspective. The sample consisted of 243 college students studying at a Midwestern comprehensive university. The study sample included 63% females and 37% males from varying ethnic backgrounds and over 90% of the students were of traditional age. Multiple regression analysis was utilized for data analysis and the regression equation was statistically significant accounting for 27% of shared variability. Findings reveal that college students experience home-school dissonance which significantly impacts psychological aspect of learning. Psychologically learning leading to transformation by students requires evaluating the school context and often denying any dissonance and disharmony existing within the classroom and the school while aggressively pursuing their individual educational goals focusing on mastery of content and avoiding personal performance. For students to be successful in college, psychological evaluation of the learning environment is critical to result in psychological transformative learning.