Betsy Barefoot John Gardner. Integrative Learning

Integrating In-Class and Out-of-Class Learning: A Model for Partnerships

Betsy BarefootJohn Gardner

Integrative Learning

An Important Avenue to Transforming What and How Students Learn

What Is Integrative Learning?

Integrative learning is the process of connecting academics and beyond-the-classroom experiences so that students can apply information and skills to novel and complex issues or challenges.

Integrative learning makes learning more relevant, more meaningful, more connected to the world in which our students live.

“Connecting disparate information and synthesizing concepts are necessary skills for success in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.” (* James Barber)

Why Integrative Learning? Why Today?

* In P. Eddy (Ed.), Connecting Learning Across the Institution. New Directions for Higher Education, #165, 2014.

But . . . integrative learning is nothing new. It has been

◦Dusted off.

◦Shined up.

◦Recast for today’s learning environment.

Old Wine in New Bottles

A study-abroad experience might change a student’s view of the world.

Participation as a student government officer might bring to life coursework in finance, sociology, philosophy (ethics).

Common Examples of How Integrative Learning Sometimes Happens (whether or not the institution is involved)

Did integrative learning happen for you? If so, how?

Institutions can (and should) take more responsibility for integrative learning.

Integrative learning requirespartnerships between facultyand student affairs.

Our Position:

Students find similarities between what they learn in class with what they experience out of class.

Students experience disequilibrium – what they learn in class does not inform what they experience out of class.

Integrative Learning Can Occur When . . .

Three major steps (not necessarily sequential)

◦ Connection: The discovery of a similarity between distinctive ideas

◦ Application: The use of knowledge from one context in another

◦ Synthesis: The creation of new knowledge by combining two or more insights (Student will often find this step difficult and will need the assistance of faculty and/or staff.)

How Does Integration of Learning Develop?

Student Readiness: David Kolb’s Cycle of Experiential Learning

Kolb, David A. 1984. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

How Institutions Make It Happen:High Impact Practices First-Year Seminars and Experiences Common Intellectual Experiences Learning Communities Writing (Communication)-Intensive Courses Collaborative Assignments and Projects Undergraduate Research Diversity/Global Learning Service-Learning, Community-Based Learning Internships Capstone Courses and Projects

Which of these high-impact practices are offered at your college or university?

Is integrative learning an explicit or implicit goal for any of them?

Each High Impact Practice Has the Potential to Integrate Learning

The role of faculty

The perpetual issues of comfort with this mode of learning, time, and the reward system

Potential Challenges to Integrative Learning

Communicating with “the other.”

Increasing everyone’s knowledge about others in the college or university community who focus on a different component of learning

Potential Challenges to Integrative Learning for Faculty and Staff

Involving large numbers of students

Keeping track of who does what

Involving transfer students

Potential Challenges to Integrative Learning

The work of AAC&U (Association of American College and Universities) The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Our national interest in “student engagement”Integrative learning as a pathway to engagement

Our national interest in student retention (and anything that might increase retention rates)

Current Catalysts for Our Interest in Integrative Learning

The desire of institutions to increase the real and perceived value of higher education.

Not just “pricey” but priceless!

A Final Catalyst

An Exemplary Model of Integrative Learning

http://www.sc.edu/uscconnect/

Engaging students

beyond the classroom

Global Learning

Internships

Peer Leadership

Community Service

ResearchDiscovery in

every discipline

Beyond the Classroom

Experiences

Integrative Learning

Graduation with

Leadership Distinction

Course work

How could your institution transform students

through integrative learning?