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The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No.32, Summer 2012 19
perspective to problem solving, and coaches
must recognize the individual meaning systems
that adults use as they navigate through various
learning situations. Drago-Severson (2011)
reminds us that
we need a variety of pedagogical
practices in any professional learning in
order to adequately support and
challenge adult learners who have
different ways of understanding their
experiences. What feels like a good fit
pedagogically for one learner might feel
overly challenging for another, so paying
careful attention to differentiating the
structures we create and the expectations
we convey in designing learning can
make a big difference for educators and
for our schools. (p.11)
An increase in informational learning can
bring about changes in adults‟ attitudes, skills,
and competencies (Drago-Severson, 2009), and
all are needed and have a critical purpose in
their ways learning as knowledge bases expand.
Expanded knowledge is often insufficient as
teachers face the many challenges and
complexities of working in the 21st century
classrooms with the demands of digital literacy
and critical thinking, for example. Managing
these complexities requires a different kind of
learning that transforms an individual‟s
perspective. This learning is transformational
learning - changing how a person knows.
Individuals who have changed through
transformational learning are able to take a
broader perspective of themselves and others
around them. This change is what Kegan
(1994) calls constructive-developmental view
of adult growth and development.
Adults Learning in “Holding Environments”
The constructive-developmental view
evolves in an environment. Kegan (1994)
describes these environments and contexts as
“holding environments” - the contexts in which
individuals grow, challenge, and transform new
ways of understanding and knowing. The
holding environment is organic and changes
with the individual. The environment is not
stagnant, rather it serves three functions as
learners progress: the environment must “hold
well,” “let go,” and “stick around” (Drago-
Severson, 2004, p. 34). The concept of the
holding environment provides the
organizational framework for this article; the
authors provide practical applications to
strengthen adults‟ ways of knowing and
developing and to sustain the community of
learners.
“Holding Well” Environments. Holding
well is accomplished by “meeting people where
they are and by honoring how they are making
sense of their experiences” (Drago-Severson,
2004, p. 34). The adult learning professional
development setting functions as a holding
environment in which adult learners operate.
As literacy coaches begin working with
individuals, they must find the personal levels
of knowledge that each brings to the school
setting. Coaches provide an environment that
holds well by supporting and responding to
individual differences since adults vary in the
amount of time and support needed. In
particular, the individual whose way of
knowing is “instrumental,” can flourish in the
“holding well” environment that recognizes
current levels of understanding; through
instructional activities that often are an integral
component of professional development
sessions, personal development is fostered as
the individual begins to consider others‟ views.
Intentionally using instructional activities
that uncover and confront beliefs in the
supportive holding environment scaffolds
learners from where they are to their next levels
of understanding. Adult learners bring a
plethora of lived experiences that shape current
beliefs and understandings (Knowles, 1980).
Changing beliefs in adults is rare unless there is
a conversion from one authority to another. In
fact, individuals tend to hold on to beliefs based
on incorrect or incomplete knowledge even
when correct explanations are provided