Generative Dialogue as a Transformative Learning Practice in Adult and Higher Education Settings

Abstract

This article explores Scharmer's account of generative dialogue, which followed from Bohmian dialogue in the 1980s and Isaacs' research with the MIT Dialogue Project in the early 1990s. It presents the author's view that generative dialogue offers a useful theoretical framework and effective means for facilitating transformative learning processes within adult and higher education group settings. Specifically, this article examines four distinctions between generative dialogue and conventional perspectives of dialogue, and how generative dialogue can support transformative learning processes within collaborative learning contexts such as cohorts and classrooms.