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‘Developing students’ ability to integrate and apply learning in different contexts is an important piece of what makes higher education relevant to today’s world. On any given day newspaper headlines point to the need for graduates who are sophisticated in their thinking, able to discern complexity in situations, and motivated to continuously seek better, more responsible, solutions to problems encountered in work, in life and in society… The current context also requires graduates who are creative; who can anticipate the not-yet-known, and negotiate rapid technological, cultural, and global shifts.’Association of American Colleges and Universities (2009)
Curriculum Challenge: How can we improve students’ ability to integrate, apply and adapt their learning in different contexts?
One solution: Create an Award that will value integrative learning and encourage students to show how they are integrating and using their learning in a range of contexts across the whole of their experience while they are at university.
Fostering students’ abilities to integrate learning—across courses, over time, and between campus and community life—is one of the most important goals andchallenges of higher education.The undergraduate experience can be a fragmented landscape of general education courses, preparation for the major, co-curricular activities, and “the real world” beyond the campus. But an emphasis on integrative learning can help undergraduates put the pieces together and develop habits of mind that prepare them to make informed judgments in the conduct of personal, professional, and civic life.
Integrative learning comes in many varieties: connecting skills and knowledge from multiple sources and experiences; applying theory to practice in various settings; utilizing diverse and even contradictory points of view; and, understanding issues and positions contextually. Significant knowledge within individual disciplines serves as the foundation, but integrative learning goes beyond academic boundaries. Indeed, integrative experiences often occur as learners address real-world problems, unscripted and sufficiently broad to require multiple areas of knowledge and multiple modes of inquiry, offering multiple solutions and benefiting from multiple perspectives.
Integrative learning does not just happen, although it may come more easily for some students than for others. Whether one is talking about making connections within a major, between fields, between curriculum and co-curriculum, or between academic knowledge and practice, integrative learning requires work. Of course, students must play the most important role in making this happen, but their success depends in large part on commitment and creativity from professors, staff, and administration.
Four brief essays explore ways in which colleges and universities can foster integrative learning through curriculum, assessment, pedagogy, and faculty development, using examples from campuses participating in the Integrative Learning Project.
Editors Mary Taylor Huber, Cheryl Brown, Pat Hutchings, Richard Gale, Ross Miller, and Molly Breen (January 2007).Integrative Learning: Opportunities to Connect.Public Report of the Integrative Learning Project sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Edited by Mary Taylor Huber, Cheryl Brown, Pat Hutchings, Richard Gale, Ross Miller, and Molly Breen. Stanford, CA. Includes sections that refer to projects at Carleton (Carleton's Integrative Learning TeamandTrish Ferrett's integrative seminar pedagogy).
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