Learning through transformation: A collaborative learning strategy

This article describes how art and design students within a higher education institution in South Africa are able to learn through transformation during the periods leading up to, and eventually writing, year-end examinations. The description is related through data generated by means of a focus group interview with five purposefully selected participants which was then followed up by one individual interview with a sixth participant. These interviews essentially adopted a qualitative research paradigm from which the contextual phenomenon embodied in an end-of-year examination could be investigated. The data collected yielded that participants felt that the most effective learning strategy involved group or collaborative learning. Collaborative learning as described in this paper can provide supportive structures that not only facilitate learning but go a long way to help realise personal transformations. More importantly, collaborative learning was explored as being a critical marker in determining that Transformative Learning (TL) had indeed occurred, even though TL as a pedagogical tool had never been applied.