Abstract:
The study focused on the teacher as an adult learner
rather than an instructor. A sample of three hundred and
three elementary school teachers completed a two-part Likert
survey questionnaire. The instrument was developed by the
researcher in an attempt to operationalize Mezirow's Theory of
Perspective Transformation. The four sub-scales collected
information about teachers as they perceived themselves as
adult learners and the way they conceptualize critical SelfReflection,
Meaning perspectives and New Insights (Mezirow,
1978, 1981, 1989, 1990) within a framework of Mezirow's
concept of Transformative Learning. Survey research
methodology was used. Frequency distributions, means, and
standard deviation were calculated. Reliability analysis and
Pearson 'r' correlations established the internal consistency
of items It Cross tabulations to describe differences in
responses across demographic valuables were computed. The
survey results indicated that teachers perceived themselves as
self-directed learners. The findings support the need for a
better understanding of the teacher as an adult learner so
that teacher inservice programs and teacher supervision and
evaluation can provide a viable learning alternative to the
existing models used in practice.
