Transformative Learning and New Science

Dominant ways of teaching and learning are still firmly rooted in a Newtonian modernist paradigm, as our deeply held assumptions about learning stem from how we see the world. Deadening experiences of the banking model of education, in which learners are treated as depositories of information, highlight the need for learning to be grounded in the new science of our times. Learning should and can mimic what we know about the nature of our interconnected reality. The field of transformative learning has been moving toward embracing imaginative, intuitive, emotional, soul nurturing and relational understandings of learning and consciousness. Within a relational paradigm of interconnectedness, educators can take this further and learn how to facilitate transformative learning that honors key tenets of new science: Interconnectedness and wholeness; process; participation; a network of knowledge; approximate descriptions; and cooperation. Quantum science is showing that the way we have traditionally built and understood our teaching and learning is not what is actually happening at the energetic level where there is constant relationship, connection, and dynamic movement. This chapter explores, what if we could teach and learn from our shared essential natures of interconnectedness and wholeness?