Teaching for Transformative Experiences in Science: An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Two Instructional Elements

By Kevin J. Pugh. Teachers College Record, 2002

108 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This small-scale, exploratory study examines the effectiveness of two teaching elements (the artistic crafting of content and the modeling and scaffolding of perception and value) at fostering transformative experiences. The construct of a transformative experience was derived from Dewey's work and is defined as an expansion of perception and value resulting from active use of a concept. The elements were used in teaching a unit on adaptation and evolution in a high school zoology class. Student outcomes were compared with those of students in a roughly equivalent (as determined by a preintervention survey) class in which the same unit was taught using a case-based model of instruction. Results indicate that a significantly greater percentage of students in the experimental class (52.9%) than students in the control class (22.7%) engaged in some degree of transformative experience. Further, it was found that students from both classes who engaged in at least some form of transformative experience scored significantly higher than other students on a follow-up assessment of understanding but not on a postintervention assessment of understanding.

Subfields: Education, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b32c4ce19fcd285ad89a37949549c375dc965308

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Citations in the corpus

An update of transformative learning theory: a critical review of the empirical research (1999–2005) (2007, background): “Pugh (2002) goes even further in a study examining the effectiveness of teaching elements (e.g. reanimation, apprenticeship) on fostering transformative learning in a high school zoology class by using Dewey’s (1988) conception of a transformative experience to frame the study.”
Beyond Control and Rationality: Dewey, Aesthetics, Motivation, and Educative Experiences (2007, background): “If learning is an aesthetic experience, then the teacher’s task is to “artistically craft” a compelling experience (Pugh, 2002).”
Science, Art, and Experience: Constructing a Science Pedagogy From Dewey’s Aesthetics (2007, methodology): “Based on the work of Dewey described above, Pugh (2002) developed the construct of transformative experience and used it as an analytic tool for studying engagement in science students.”
HEAD, HEART AND HANDS MODEL FOR TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING: PLACE AS CONTEXT FOR CHANGING SUSTAINABILITY VALUES (2015, background): “Pugh’s (2002) construct offers an analytic tool for measuring transformational experiences through expanded perception, expanded value and proactive use of environmental concepts.”
Motivation Interventions in Education (2016, background): “For example, several interventions were imbedded within the context of week-long curricula (e.g., Feng & Tuan, 2005; Pugh, 2002), whereas other interventions were independent activities requiring as little as 20 minutes for students to complete (e.”
Social Influences on Interest (2016, background): “As an example of transformative experience, Pugh (2002) described a high school student who studied evolution and adaptation.”
Engaging Students to Learn Through the Affective Domain: A new Framework for Teaching in the Geosciences (2011, background): “In helping our students to understand how to engage in the content and value what they are learning, it is important to model that behavior (Chi et al., 1981) and then scaffold the process for our students through specific opportunities to reflect on their own affective response (Pugh, 2002).”