Week 10

I have been reviewing my audience as a psychographic rather than demographic. These are the characteristics of the people I want to reach. They are defined by their financial habits and behaviours.

Audience – leaving home for the first time

• Lack self control
• Lack motivation
• Aren’t thinking about how their choices will affect their future self
• Just getting by – living pay check to pay check
• Spending money unnecessarily 
• Need to break their bad habits
• For people who don’t care about personal finance
• Bad financial decision making
• Social pressure to spend money
• Spend wastefully, accumulate more than they need and put off saving
• Treat yourself 
• Impulse buyer
• Don’t know how to fix their financial situation or make better decisions

I have also refined my central proposition:

Communication design can create tools that facilitate the education of financial literacy to improve personal money management in young adults leaving home for the first time who make poor financial decisions and need to build good habits.


Transformative learning information:

"Transformational learning involves changing existing beliefs and thought patterns through the use of discourse and critical reflection (Mezirow, 1991, 2000). Ideally, the learner develops an open and accommodating view of the topic or the world. Beyond transmitting content, transformative learning develops skills for ongoing autonomous thinking (Mezirow, 1997). Transformative learning can involve any combination of spiritual, political, emancipatory, or developmental components (Daloz, 1999; Dirkx, 1998; Dirkx et al., 2006; Esperat et al., 2008; Merriam et al., 2007). Transformational learning occurs in formal or informal learning environments and is facilitated by educators or is self-directed (Cranton, 2000; Daloz, 2000). Transformational education, like other types of education, seeks to transmit new knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking, but beyond transmission of instrumental knowledge, it serves to awaken the learner to a new manner of viewing and examining the world (Dirkx, 1998; Kitchenham, 2008)."41

"Transformative learning allows participants to engage in knowledge construction, acting with the facilitators to apply new information and broaden existing schemes of meaning (Dirkx, 1998). According to Mezirow (1991), this is accomplished through an eleven-phase process: a disorienting dilemma, self-examination, critical assessment of assumptions, recognition of discontent and identification with similar others, exploration of new options, planning, acquiring knowledge for plans, experimenting with new roles, building confidence, reintegration, and renegotiation of relationships (Kitchenham, 2008, p. 105; Mezirow, 1991). During these stages the learner uses critical reflection and discourse to evaluate information, skills, roles, and perspectives (Mezirow, 1991). Key components of Mezirow’s theories, including the disorienting dilemma, critical reflection, and discourse, will be explored in relation to transformative healthcare."41

Transformative Learning in Healthcare Julia Phillipi

"Transformative learning theory focuses on how people change through the educational process (Mezirow, 1991; Mezirow and Associates, 2000; Taylor, 1997, 2007). Rooted in constructivism, it reflects a view of learning where the learner is seen as an active participant, creating and interpreting knowledge in relationship to their rich life experience that plays a significant role in understanding the meaning-making process, e.g. of FLE. According to Mezirow and Associates (2000), this involves learning ‘how to negotiate and act upon our own purposes, values, feelings and meanings rather than those we have uncritically assimilated from others’ (p. 8). Often, we uncritically assimilate beliefs and attitudes from others. Transformative learning theory can be used to explain how people ascertain what their beliefs are and, through critical reflection on their underlying assumptions, can lead to a change in their perspective. This is where FLE can benefit from this theory: in its attention to developing more reliable teaching beliefs, exploring and validating their fidelity and making informed decisions that are fundamental to adult learning processes."532

"Research or programmes grounded in transformative learning theory would examine how FE actively engages learners in relation to their own lives as individuals, rather than as passive recipients of knowledge. Hence, such a framework makes visible what educators’ beliefs, values and assumptions are in developing curriculum and pedagogical strategies for working with adults".532

Teaching financial literacy: a survey of community-based educators Edward W. Taylor, Elizabeth J. Tisdell and Karin Sprow Forté

Transformative learning theory is a particular area of pedagogy that I am interested in using as my method for teaching financial literacy. These summaries have helped me test transformative learning theory on my audience to see if it works

Connor 21 year old worker – using transformative learning theory

1. Disorientation dilemma – wants to go on holiday to Thailand but realises if he doesn’t change his current spending habits he will be in debt because he spends money unnecessarily  
2. Self examination – realises his bad habits and feels guilty and shameful for buying a new phone that he didn’t really need and excessive spending on alcohol, food, clothes etc
3. Rational discourse - Recognises that close friends have been through a similar situation and are now in control of their bank account. I talked to him about my financial situation and what strategies I use to feel in control of my finances and he feels inspired and admires the self control I have. 
4. Exploration of new ideas – starts thinking of ideas and ways he can save money and what changes he can make that he will stick to and follow through on
5. Planning course of action – sets a budget for himself with realistic numbers he knows he can stick to , treat yourself money included
6. Acquiring knowledge – downloads a budgeting app that will help him keep track of how he is going. Realises he needs $90 for treat yourself because he knows with any less he will overspend and dive into the savings and the budget will go down the drain. 
7. Testing plans – he tries out the budget for a month and to start with found it a bit difficult and dives into his savings occasionally but by the end of the month he is following strictly. The end goal of a holiday helps him stay motivated. 
8. Building confidence/reintegration – now is feeling excited about how in control of his bank account he is and is optimistic because he can see results. Has even started budgeting for emergency situations like new tyres and car breaking down. He has realised the benefits of the budget and with his changed behaviour he will continue to use it for other goals and everyday life situations. 

Jade 21 year old 4th year student  – using transformative learning theory

1. Disorientation dilemma – wants to go on holiday to Japan but realises if she wont be able to save enough money without a job. 
2. Self examination – realises how much she spends on food weekly and feels guilty and shameful for treating herself to uber eats multiple times a week. 
3. Rational discourse – Watches her flatmates always cook at home and rarely eat out and feels inspired by how much money she saves on food weekly. 
4. Exploration of new ideas – I proposed some new ideas and ways she can save money on food and what changes she can make that she will stick to and follow through on
5. Planning course of action – sets a weekly food budget of $70 for herself and allows for one uber eats meal a week 
6. Acquiring knowledge – starts downloading cheap and easy recipes and offers to cook together with her flatmates so that she has someone to report to who can also help keep her on track 
7. Testing plans – she tries out the budget for a month and to start with found it a bit difficult to spend only $70 on groceries but by the end of the month she has found recipes she enjoys that stay within her budget and is finding cooking with her flatmate really enjoyable and takes the pressure off her a bit. 
8. Building confidence/reintegration – she has seen the difference in both her health and rising bank account and feels proud of herself for committing to the changes she has made. She is experimenting more and more with new recipes and only buys uber eats once a fortnight. She has started using techniques I suggested like buying in bulk, meal planning her week and cooking multiple servings to freeze for a later date. 

I have been observing my audience and testing if transformative learning theory can have a positive effect on money management and create a sustained behaviour change. Through conversations about their current money situation I have suggested budgeting advice and strategies for reaching a goal. 

I have discovered that my audience need a monetary goal in mind to motivate them to change behaviour such as an overseas holiday and they also enjoy having conversations about money with peers and learning about their financial situations both to motivate and inspire them and comfort them if they are in a similar situation. They need easy and efficient solutions that only make a small change in their lifestyle to work. After offering some advice, they decide a plan of action that will work best for them, in most cases this has been setting a realistic budget. Through testing it over several weeks they find out what’s working and what’s not and edit the budget accordingly. They all have realised the benefits of budgeting because they can see the change themselves and feel relieved that they are finally in control of their money. They then apply their new-found confidence and abilities to other areas of their money lives resulting in transformed behaviour and attitudes. It is too early to tell if this will have a lasting impact and if they will continue to use the strategies they have learned through out the rest of their adult lives but I am confident the habits they have changed makes them feel empowered to make their own smart financial decisions which will have a positive impact later in life.

I read a great article by Julia Phillipi of putting theory into action that focused on Transformative Learning in Healthcare. This helped me to apply this theory to everyday scenarios to test on my audience.

"Changing health behaviors and improving health outcomes are a priority in healthcare. However, the format of healthcare may not resonant with adult learners. Transformative learning theory, as outlined by Mezirow, suggests adult learning is spurred by a disorienting dilemma. Adults then use critical reflection and discourse prior to implementing new learning. Healthcare incited transformative learning has not been explored. This article explores the use of transformative learning principles in healthcare settings. Discourse and critical reflection are often absent from the moment of healthcare but group models show promise in meeting adult learning needs and encouraging positive behaviors."

The disorientating dilemma for my audience is leaving home and then realising they are struggling with their financial management.

The poster workshop was really helpful. I came up with a few ideas and then quickly mocked up what it could look like on photoshop and surveyed some young adults on the feelings they get from this. I need to figure out a way to add extra "long read" information somewhere on the poster too.

I wanted the first response to be like a slap in the face reality check that makes you feel a bit guilty and shameful for spending so much money unnecessarily and motivate the viewer to want to change their behaviour. I wanted it to realize that their spending habits are an issue and that they need to change.

I asked what they thought the topic was and how they felt looking at it. The responses I got was:

• shook
• it's about not being able to save and being a shopaholic
• hating on yourself
• guilty
• "oh god you're right I should be saving more"
• "what I feel when I look at my bank account"
• "its what I feel if I find an old receipt I'm like wtf why did I buy that"
• relatable 
• "makes me feel like there is money I could be saving instead of buying pointless things"
• gets my point across
• about wasting money
• about people who don't know how to manage money
• "relatable"
• "that's so me"

It was interesting that the shock factor motivated them to think about their own behaviour and want to change themselves, it also relates to transformative learning theory as I have presented a "disorientating dilemma" in front of them. I could channel this shock factor in my final outcome next semester but will have to explore it more. From the repsonses I collected I feel like this poster does a good job of strongly affecting the viewer in the way I want it to so will continue refining it.