Coping with cognitive errors in adults’ assumptions: an approach of transformative learning with the lens of cognitive psychotherapy

Abstract

According to Transformative Learning Theory, people interpret, assimilate and transform new experiences based on their socially shaped, taken-for-granted assumptions. People tend to reflect on their assumptions when they face a disorienting dilemma that makes those assumptions dysfunctional. The adult educator’s role is to guide learners to a critical re-examination of their dysfunctional assumptions in order to adopt alternative points of view that will help them cope with that disorienting dilemma. That transformative process can be facilitated when the adult educator is able to recognize and handle several cognitive errors which are included in dysfunctional assumptions. A typology of cognitive errors in adults’ reasoning can be defined with the aim of Cognitive Psychotherapy. Using that typology in a transformative learning framework is not inexpedient since both Cognitive Psychotherapy and Transformative Learning Theory share some basic premises about the transformation of adults’ feelings and understanding of the world.