Integrative Learning: Creating Opportunities to Connect
Conference Description, Program, and Resources
This conference took place October 20-22, 2005 in Denver Colorado. 300 conference participants joined this conversation on fostering students' abilities to integrate learning - across courses, across disciplines, over time, and between knowledge and practice. A variety of contexts from a wide range of institution types were included as participants examined
- conceptualizations about how students learn;
- signature pedagogies for nurturing habits of integrative learning;
- ways to advance integrative learning across and beyond the campus;
- and opportunities for discussions among leading campus scholars, researchers, and practitioners.
A Collaborative Approach
The conference was part of a three-year collaborative project of AAC&U and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to engage campuses in developing comprehensive approaches for providing students with purposeful, progressively more challenging, integrated educational experiences. Throughout the conference program you will find scholarly work from institutions identified by AAC&U and The Carnegie Foundation project as those that have already made significant progress in developing integrative learning strategies and that continue to deepen that work.
Academic Partners for the conference included Association for Integrative Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies, NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Sponsors included University of Denver, Regis University, and Naropa University.
The full conference schedule appears below with links to many of the presentations and resources from the conference.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
1:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Pre-conference Campus Visit
Curricula in “Contemplative Education”
A special invitation by President Thomas B. Coburn to tour Naropa University
President Coburn invites conference participants to visit Naropa University, now in its 31st year of offering curricula in “contemplative education” at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools since 1986, the university offers a wide range of programs in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Over the past two years, we have made new and concerted efforts to share what we have learned with the broader higher education community, especially as the place of spirituality and religion in student lives has received fresh attention in the academy. Participants will tour Naropa’s campus, visit with select faculty, students, and staff, and see first-hand the venue for this new vision of higher education that crafts a novel integration of the West’s liberal arts tradition with the contemplative traditions of Asia. The campus visit will culminate in a roundtable discussion over refreshments.
2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Pre-conference Workshops
Workshop 1: Integrating Liberal and Professional Education
Using Babson College as a model, this pre-conference workshop will focus on the design and delivery of an integrated liberal and professional education.Employing a highly interactive format, participants will explore and receive planning tools for both curricular and cocurricular organizational frameworks. The desired outcomes of this approach are integrative and interdisciplinary learning.The frameworks will be examined from multiple perspectives, including faculty, staff, administrators, and students.
Patricia G. Greene, Dean, Undergraduate School, President's Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship, Babson College
Workshop 2: Creating a Cumulative Curriculum for Integrative Learning
King's College has successfully developedstrategies tocreate acumulative curriculum featuring an integrated plan for learning from the first to the senior year. In this workshop, participants will explore the implementation of a core curriculum including the transferable skills of liberal learning (i.e. critical thinking) and learn how departments can build upon the core in major programs throughout the remaining curriculum. The workshop will include many examples of these strategies along with activities to apply these strategies to participants’ own teaching and learning contexts.
Jean O’Brien, Professor of Psychology, King’s College
Workshop 3: Integrative Learning Across Disciplines
This interactive workshop on approaches to interdisciplinarity and integration is offered by the Association for Integrative Studies (AIS). Through collaborative course and program design activities, participants will explore interdisciplinary contributions to teaching and learning, the importance of interdisciplinary theory to developing integrative practices—in pedagogy, scholarship, and partnerships—and the unique elements of administration of interdisciplinary and integrative approaches. AIS Board members will share resources on program guidelines, administration, assessment, exemplary syllabi, faculty development, and publication outlets.
Cheryl Jacobsen, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Loras College; Rick Szostak, Professor of Economics and Associate Dean of Arts (Interdisciplinary and International Studies), University of Alberta; Francine Navakas, Bramsen Professor in the Humanities, and Associate Academic Dean, Office of Integrative Programs, North Central College; and William H. Newell, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Miami University
Sponsored by the Association for Integrative Studies
Workshop 4: Integrative Thinking About Assessing Integrative Learning
For most colleges and universities integrative learning is not assessable. Often institutions do not even know where to start. For many the definitions of integrative learning are unclear if they exist at all. This workshop will take an integrative, cooperative, and active approach to the assessment of integrative learning. It will explore various approaches to integrative learning, including exemplars both for integrative learning experiences and the assessment of integrative learning. Participants are expected to bring with them at least one example of integrative learning to share with the workshop participants. Participants are also expected to be familiar with Our Student’s Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission and Greater Expectations.
David Sill, Associate Provost, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Welcome Remarks
Carol Geary Schneider, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities
Keynote: Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity: A Model for Integrative Learning
Dr. Sternberg will address how to nurture analytical, creative, and practical thinking across an integrated curriculum. He will share his theory of successful intelligence and his research on how conventional notions and tests of intelligence miss important kinds of intellectual talent.
Robert J. Sternberg, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University
8:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Posters and Welcome Reception
Sponsored by Regis University and the University of Denver's Living and Learning Communities and Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement
Teaching Integration: Examples of Synthesis Projects and Integrative Portfolios
The capacity for integration can be taught through specific assignments that require students to connect aspects of their education to their out of class learning and their personal lives. From the introductory course to the capstone, reflection and integrative learning are essential elements of a Liberal Studies program. This poster session will demonstrate Synthesis Projects from a first year introductory level course, Introduction to Liberal Education, as well as Integrative Portfolios from the Senior Seminar.
Judy Whipps, Chair, Liberal Studies Department and Associate Professor, Philosophy Department, and Christine Drewel, Affiliate Professor, Liberal Studies Department, Grand Valley State University
Critical Goals in the Redesign of a Humanities Core Curriculum
Penn State Harrisburg recently redesigned its interdisciplinary Humanities Core Curriculum. Formerly, it was a three-semester Western Civilization survey; now it encourages faculty to design theme, topic, or period-based interdisciplinary courses that are more selective and focused. Each course in the two-course sequence has unique content, but the first course is always writing intensive, and both courses have a common emphasis on helping students understand the importance and use of critical approaches (feminism, new historicism, etc.). This poster will present an overview of the core design as well as teaching materials and student projects.
Troy Thomas, Associate Professor, Humanities and Art History, Penn State Harrisburg
Letras y Arte: Literacy and Art
This service learning collaborative, designed by Education and Fine Arts faculty and students, integrates expertise in literacy, arts, and technology to benefit diverse children from low-income homes. Drawing upon this Jesuit University’s commitment to social justice, faculty and students link theory and practice to instruct children in bookmaking, document learning, and co-authoring a journal article. Photographs, sample lessons, rubrics, and children’s original books will be available to exemplify the successes and challenges of integrative learning.
Joan Armon, Assistant Professor, and Tony Ortega, Assistant Professor, Regis University
Mind-Body-Spirit as a Model for Integrative Learning
This poster will highlight a mind-body connections course that incorporates traditional content in nursing and psychology and packages it as a new, more integrative experience for students from all disciplines. Through this course, students are encouraged to explore their own spiritual development and to share their music, theater, scientific, or story-telling talents with the class. Knowledge developed through journals and various cultural practices will be part of the discussion.
Susan Diemert Moch, Professor, and Robert S. Tomlinson, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Integrated Learning about Liberal Education: The Construction of an Internal Coping Model of Selfhood
This study examined deep learning about liberal education in a learning community that integrated curriculum from a required first-year general education seminar into a public speaking course. Using theory analysis of speeches, the presenters examined the ways students expanded their understanding about liberal learning, and how deeply students internalized those concepts. The analysis revealed that students constructed the perspective that independent thinking is acquired through liberal learning, thus implicitly creating an internal coping model of selfhood.
Sandra L. Mahoney, Assistant Director Retention Services, and Jon F. Schamber, Professor Communication, University of the Pacific
Drawing As Interpretation: Exploring the Imaginary Boundaries of Verbal and Visual Art
Drawing as Interpretation is an interdisciplinary course that integrates literature analysis and creative writing as well as art analysis and drawing. Students examine the nature of good and evil, the role of imagination, and utopian visions through readings of Dante's Inferno, Blake, Coleridge, and Calvino. This poster will present an exploration of the question “Can students develop stronger interpretive skills and creative abilities when we ask them to engage in drawing and writing side by side?”
Nancy A. Chikaraishi, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Drury University
Intersecting Pathways in Contemporary Art: Christo’s and Jeanne-Claude’s Oeuvre
This poster will demonstrate how the contemporary artist-couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s oeuvre presents a case study for a multidisciplinary approach in teaching that integrates artistic, historical, legal, sociological, political, economic, cultural, and environmental realms. Through readings and activities, the students learn to appreciate the necessity of analyzing a complex phenomenon like these artists’ work by drawing from a number of different disciplines: art history, philosophy, anthropology, and technological studies.
Alessandro Giovannelli, Assistant Professor, and Gisella Gisolo, Visiting Assistant Professor, Grand Valley State University
Curricular and Cocurricular Integration in Environmental Studies and Public Policy
This poster will demonstrate an integrative program in environmental studies and public policy that Alma College uses to engage students in interdisciplinary coursework, laboratory studies, and community service in the context of solving real-world problems. It will provide an opportunity to discuss how to implement such a program, ways of assessing its effectiveness, and how to increase diverse participation.
Melissa M. Strait, Professor of Chemistry, Murray C. Borrello, Instructor of Geology, and Mark Oemke, Assistant Professor of Biology, Alma College
Reaching across Disciplines and into the Community
Reaching across disciplines into the community, two courses from Drury University’s School of Architecture and College of Graduate/Continuing Studies designed, built, and promoted a Farmers’ Market. Architecture students joined non-traditional communication students to design and build this pavilion for a farmers market that serves WIC (Women Infants & Children) and FMNP (Farmers Market Nutrition Program) recipients in an underserved area. This poster will demonstrate how working together, students, clients, and the community built both a pavilion and an appreciation for collaboration, perspective, and community.
Traci D. Sooter, Assistant Professor, and Myra E. Miller, Adjunct Faculty, College of Graduate and Continuing Studies, Drury University
Integrating Physics and History in a First-Year Learning Community
This display reflects the experiences of three faculty members and their students working across disciplinary boundaries to construct a broad, academically acculturative first-year learning experience that emphasizes the interconnectivity of history, the development of technology, and the evolution of science and society.
Paul A. Townend, Assistant Professor, and Claudia Stack, Academic Advisor, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Friday, October 21, 2005
8:00 - 8:45 a.m.
Roundtable Discussions
Curricular and Cocurricular Integration in Environmental Studies and Public Policy
Alma College has used integrative and interdisciplinary programs in environmental studies and public policy as virtual laboratories for experimentation in integrative pedagogy and program development. These programs have been highly successful in promoting interdisciplinary study, field-based investigation, and community involvement to address real-world problems. Following brief descriptions of the programs, roundtable discussion will focus on implementation strategies, assessment issues, and possibilities for transforming relationships among disciplines and between institutions and communities.
Edward C. Lorenz, Director of Public Affairs Institute, and Michael Vickery, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication, Alma College
The Praxis of Integrative Education at the Graduate Level
Participants will discuss curricular and course designs that support integrative learning. To initiate conversations, the facilitators will share different models for integrative education along with detailed examples drawn from capstone and portfolio projects and a new degree program in Integrative Health Studies.
Judie Wexler, Academic Vice President, Matthew Bronson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Director of Academic Assessment, and Julia Zarcone, Assistant Director, Integrative Health Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies
Sponsored by the California Institute for Integral Studies
Integrating Honors
Integrating Honors invites participants to discuss the challenges associated with adopting a consciously integrated curriculum. The facilitators will draw on their experience revising the honors curriculum at Regis University as a starting point for the conversation.
Thomas G. Bowie, Director of Honors Program, and Daryl Palmer, Associate Professor of English, Regis University
The Integration of Justice, Service and Diversity for Transformation in Community-Based Learning
This discussion is designed for those engaged in Service/Community-Based Learning (CBL) and deeply interested in discussing how to integrate elements of service, justice, and diversity into the curriculum for student and community transformation. A brief presentation of the ways to integrate CBL across a variety of disciplines will be provided, highlighting specific examples. The group will explore its own promising practices in combining curricular community-based experiences and reflection for student, faculty, and community transformation.
Melissa A. Nix, Co-Director, Center for Service Learning, and Paul Burson, Coordinator of Student Development and Community Partnerships, Regis University
Teaching About Integration
This roundtable will address how material regarding interdisciplinarity can be integrated into diverse curricula and how to engage students in the full range of phenomena, data, theories, methods, and practices that can help them explore and answer complex questions. Participants will receive background materials.
Rick Szostak, Professor, University of Alberta
Sponsored by the Association for Integrative Studies
Negotiating Integrated Learning and Discipline Specific Instruction among an Ethnically Diverse Student Body
This discussion will examine pedagogical negotiation between integrative learning and traditional majors in a liberal arts setting among an ethnically diverse student body, many of whom are the first members of their family to attend college. Participants will discuss how to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum. They will also examine the challenges of establishing a learning community that is willing to engage a curriculum that transcends conventional academic boundaries among students drawn to the orthodoxy of discipline specific instruction.
Ian Watson, Professor of Theatre and Chair, Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey Newark Campus
Improving Health Literacy for the Rural Elderly through Interdisciplinary Work
Health Enhancement for the Rural Elderly (HERE) is a three-year interdisciplinary grant project designed to educate and empower the rural elderly in Kentucky in the use of the health care system. Western Kentucky University faculty and students from the departments of nursing, social work, and public health work together to educate on health related issues and facilitate student interdisciplinary learning experiences. This roundtable will discuss the program and lessons learned.
Serena Merry Britt, MSW Student and HERE Graduate Assistant, and Janelle A. Peeler, Instructor in the Department of Social Work, Western Kentucky University
Integration and Cultural Competence: The Craft of Living in Tension
Integrative learning is the craft of living in tension. Participants will discuss a case study on building cultural competence to explore the components of integrative learning that include but also must go beyond institutional structures. Participant discussions will lead to an integrated learning navigational tool for institutions to tailor to their unique campus environments.
Kristin E. Mattson, Associate Professor, and Ginny R. Curley, Coordinator of Integrated Learning/Assistant Professor, Nebraska Methodist College
Discussion with AAC&U President
Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is AAC&U’s new campus-action and advocacy initiative to engage the public with what really matters in college. This session will introduce participants to the initiative’s goals and activities. It will provide participants with an overview and introduction to the resources the initiative is developing, and the principles and practices guiding the campus action component of the campaign. Participants will discuss how their own institutions can get involved and use the campaign and the emerging national consensus around important liberal education outcomes to guide educational planning and practice on their own campuses.
Carol Geary Schneider, President, AAC&U
9:00 – 10:15 a.m.
Plenary Address
Building Habits – and Habitats – for Integrative Learning
This plenary will examine the characteristics of settings most likely to develop habits of integrative learning and survey some of the “habitats” that campuses are creating to promote connection-making. Special emphasis will focus on the role of assessment and self-assessment in helping students integrate their learning across the college years and beyond graduation.
Patricia Hutchings, Vice President, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Mary Taylor Huber’s and Pat Hutchings’ newly released publication, The Advancement of Learning Building the Teaching Commons, will be available for sale and signing during this refreshment break. A publication of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, this important resource is filled with illustrative examples of the scholarship of teaching and learning from a wide-range of fields and settings. The book explores what it takes for faculty to become engaged in such work, and details the structures and policies that campuses need to develop in order to support faculty engagement with the teaching commons.
10:45 a.m. – Noon
Concurrent Sessions
Interdisciplinary Roots of Integrative Learning
This session will update “The Promise of Integrative Learning” in light of recent developments in interdisciplinary theory. The discussion will focus on the implications of a theory-based conception of integrative learning for student experiences that bridges not only academic disciplines, but the liberal arts and professions, general education and majors, classroom and residence halls, conflicting student sub-cultures, campus and study abroad, cognitive and experiential learning, college and community, and the academy and society. An underlying theme will be the potential complementarities among diversity, community, and interdisciplinarity. By examining the conceptual foundation of integrative learning in interdisciplinary theory, participants can develop a coherent approach to diverse integrative learning activities that has a transformative effect on students.
William H. Newell, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Miami University
Sponsored by the Association for Integrative Studies
Deepening Integrative Learning through Reflective Practice
Three institutions will share reflective practices used to deepen and assess student learning. Different reflective assignments from service learning courses, learning communities, general education, study abroad, and career planning will give participants transferable models used to make connections across curricular and co-curricular experiences and to create meaning within and among classes and across levels of curriculum. Participants will discuss practical examples drawn from classroom practices and electronic portfolios.
Terrel L. Rhodes, Vice Provost for Curriculum, Portland State University; Bret Eynon, Assistant Dean, Center for Teaching and Learning/Academic Affairs, LaGuardia Community College; and Kelly Funk, Director of Assessment, Michigan State University
Sponsored by the Integrative Learning collaborative project of AAC&U and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Integrating Culture, Business, and Work Experiences
Integration of language and cultural studies, business courses, overseas study, and work provides a powerful learning environment. In this highly integrated program on international business, students study language and culture, along with their business courses to prepare for nine to twelve months of study and work abroad at a partner university. Once abroad, students spend the first semester taking regularly scheduled business courses at the partner university. During the second semester, they obtain a paying job in a business organization. This program integrates study in the humanities and social sciences with study in business. This seminar will outline the work done to prepare students for this intensive year abroad, to support students while they are overseas studying and working, and to build on their experiences when they return for their final year. The facilitators will talk about the challenges faced in creating and running this highly integrated global program.
Coleen C. Pantalone, Associate Professor, and Peggy Fletcher, Associate Dean, Northeastern University
Designing and Assessing Integrative Learning in the Sciences
The most recent NSF survey of the American public shows that we are becoming less and less scientifically literate. It also shows that education in the sciences has positive effects. The Integrative Studies Program at Otterbein College fosters integrative learning in the sciences through a uniquely designed interdisciplinary, team-taught, and topic-based course for sophomores. This seminar will engage participants in discussing how to develop integrative learning through courses, academic and student affairs departments, community involvement, and institutional goals. Seminar participants will practice designing and assessing aspects of integrative learning in the sciences. They will also learn how the Integrative Studies Program has fostered new integrative multi-disciplinary courses.
Lyle T. Barkhymer, Chair, Integrative Studies, Simon Lawrence, Professor of Life Science, and David Robertson, Assistant Professor of Physics, Otterbein College
Challenges and Strategies for Integrated Teaching and Learning in the Humanities
This seminar will examine some of the challenges associated with designing team-taught interdisciplinary courses, and different strategies for addressing them. Particular challenges to be addressed include 1) topical focus for the course, 2) structuring a course to meet the needs of several disciplines and interdisciplinarity, 3) “behind-the-scene” requirements for successful team-teaching, 4) reorienting students (and faculty) to the different outcomes of interdisciplinary courses, and 5) the importance of team familiarity and chemistry for successful teaching.
Karen C. Adkins, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Mark Bruhn, Associate Professor, English, and Dan Clayton, Associate Professor, History, Regis University
Intentional Connections: The Center for Teaching Excellence as Fulcrum for Integration
Centers for Teaching Excellence are ideal structures for spearheading initiatives and creating opportunities for connections among disciplines, colleges, and administrative offices. Participants will examine such a model and the ways it has become instrumental. They will leave the session with ideas for mobilizing their campuses to consider integrative approaches to both pedagogy and administrative services. Participants will receive handouts of models, sample activities, and Website information.
Nancy Ritze, Associate Dean for Institutional Research and Planning, and Harriet Shenkman, Professor of Education and Center for Teaching Excellent Director, City University of New York Bronx Community College
Articulating Liberal Arts Goals: A Process and Product to Integrate Student Learning
This seminar will highlight the importance of the institution “walking the walk” before students can be expected to integrate their own learning. To help students discern connections within their own learning experiences, the College of St. Catherine initiated the project "Claiming a Community of Connection." Founded on the conviction that the college itself must articulate goals for liberal arts education that connect the work of the curriculum and cocurriculum, the process provides a model of campus change through effective community organization and leadership involving both academic and student affairs. The project is providing the basis for the next phases of renewal in advising, learning communities, infrastructure, and curricular revision. Join in the conversation to examine how this project has affected student learning and how it might transfer to other campuses.
Marla Martin Hanley, Associate Professor, and Martha M. Phillips, Associate Professor, College of St. Catherine
Integrative Learning and the Culminating Senior Experience at Comprehensive Universities
Integrative learning at small colleges frequently includes a senior capstone experience. Culminating experiences encourage students to draw upon information, skills, and perspectives from a variety of sources; usually involve faculty mentoring; and allow for assessment of student achievement. This session will address the question “If these experiences are to extend beyond small undergraduate institutions, how might they be applied at larger institutions?” Session facilitators will offer effective, transferable teaching and assessment strategies.
Douglas J. Eder, Director, Undergraduate Assessment and Program Review, and Mark G. Bolyard, Associate Professor, Southern Illlinois University Edwardsville
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Integrating Campus Reforms: Setting Priorities – Developing Plans
What happens when a campus tries to integrate various contemporary reform efforts; e.g., learning communities, service-learning, competency-based education, across the curriculum movements (writing, technology, and undergraduate research)? This seminar will explore an integrative curriculum with a focus on learning goals, staff and student collaborations, and institutional culture. Participants will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the New Century College model and the implications for application to their own work. Individuals will work through an audit of their campus resources using a template provided in the session. The seminar will conclude with participants setting priorities and developing plans for greater integration of campus reform.
John S. O'Connor, Professor of Integrative Studies, George Mason University
From Integrative Structures to Integrative Learning in the First Year Experience
First year students at Philadelphia University examine the city’s public murals from different disciplinary perspectives and through experiential learning. How well do they connect these integrative experiences, and how can we assess their learning? This session will introduce participants to the Philadelphia murals project and to the efforts to assess student integrative learning in the first year within an overall program that builds connections between the core liberal education curriculum, professional education, and co-curricular programming.
Marion W. Roydhouse, Dean, School of Liberal Arts, Valerie L Hanson, Assistant Professor of Writing, and Carol A. Hermann, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Philadelphia University
Sponsored by the Integrative Learning collaborative project of AAC&U and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Like Oil and Water? Disciplines and Integration in General Education
At the University of Illinois at Springfield, a four-semester sequence of interdisciplinary general education courses in the Capital Scholars Honors Program provides a laboratory for the integration of disciplinary insights. These courses practice broad interdisciplinarity across the humanities and social sciences. Faculty and students work on ways to maintain disciplinary integrity while working towards synthesis. The session offers participants the opportunity to examine assumptions about and explore methods for interdisciplinary integration.
Karen R. Moranski, Director, Capital Scholars Program, and Ryan Morrison, M.A. Student in English, University of Illinois at Springfield
Sponsored by the Association of Integrative Studies
Transformative Learning within a Campus Mission of Citizen Leadership
Using Longwood as a case study, this session will provide examples of the collaborative engagement of Longwood faculty, staff, and students at multiple scales (e.g., within disciplinary coursework, in courses that seek to integrate learning across disciplines, in collaborations between academic and student affairs, and across the curriculum under the theme of citizen leadership). Additionally, participants will discuss how to develop integrative learning in other institutional contexts through courses, academic and student affairs departments, student life, community involvement, and institutional goals.
Suggested resources
Laura A. Bayless, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, and Alix D. Fink, Assistant Professor of Biology, Longwood University
Examining Institutional Conditions for Integrative Learning
Dickinson College has a strong record of integrative learning models that effectively engage students in curricular, cocurricular, and service-learning projects. In this session, administrators and faculty will draw from their direct experiences with these academic initiatives to pose the larger institutional questions about the conditions and strategies which support faculty, student life staff, and administrators’ roles in integrative learning experiences both on-campus and in the larger community. Session facilitators will invite participants to discuss these conditions, strategies, and programs in relation to their home institutions.
Shalom D. Staub, Academic Affairs Fellow, Joyce A. Bylander, Associate Provost for Campus Academic Life, and Susan D. Rose, Professor of Sociology, Dickinson College
Ignatian Pedagogy as a Tool for Integrative Learning
The Ingnatian Residential College, is designed to examine the questions of purpose and vocation for students living in a unique residential learning setting. The program asks students to consider the questions “Who am I? Whose am I? Who am I called to be?” The program offers academic courses, mentor groups, retreats, lectures, and cultural events with the goal of helping students learn more about themselves and insights about what their particular call or vocation might be. This presentation will demonstrate the use of Ignatian pedagogy, in and out of the classroom, as a tool for integrative learning, institutional mission, and reshaping the campus culture. Participants will examine the methodology of Ignatian pedagogy and the ways in which it engages students, faculty, and administrators in these questions.
Joseph DeFeo, Associate Director, and James Mayzik, Director, Ignatian Residential College, Fairfield University
Integrating the Campus: Articulating a Shared Vision Across New Initiatives
This session will describe the conceptual model behind two successful initiatives to integrate interdisciplinary study and participation in research into the core mission of undergraduate education at the University of Texas at Austin. Facilitators will discuss the ways in which a centralized unit such as the Provost’s office can provide a campus-wide vision and structure to support faculty and departmental collaborations across disciplines, to integrate existing initiatives, and to encourage the development of new initiatives.
Lucia Albino Gilbert, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, Minette Drumwright, Associate Professor of Advertising, and Paige Schilt, Coordinator, Bridging Disciplines Programs, University of Texas at Austin
Using Qualitative Research to Assess Integrative Learning
Hampshire College has recently completed an assessment of its new first-year program, using a multi-dimensional assessment strategy that emphasizes qualitative research. In this seminar, the facilitators will report on their assessment of two aspects of the first-year program that focus on integrative learning: the tutorials (which integrate advising and teaching) and the 100-level curriculum (which integrates student-initiated independent work into the classroom). They will engage in a discussion with participants about the strategies for incorporating qualitative methodologies into curricular assessment.
Steven E. Weisler, Dean of Academic Development, and Carol Trosset, Director of Institutional Research, Hampshire College
3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Inquiry as Pedagogy for Integrative Learning
You have them in your classes from time to time -- students who ask thought-provoking questions that lead to real insight. Why are students like that so rare? Perhaps it is because we do not intentionally teach students to become better questioners. In this seminar, participants will explore research on the development of inquiry skills and use exercises that help identify characteristics of novice and expert questions. Participants will also modify assignments and create assessment tools that develop questioning skills.
Laura E. Greene, Associate Professor of English, and Dara L. Wegman-Geedey, Associate Professor of Biology, Augustana College
Framing Intercultural Learning for Students and Faculty
The Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates (GIEU) includes a course for first and second year students, a faculty seminar, and sends diverse teams of 8-12 undergraduates with University of Michigan faculty members to culturally rich sites both domestically and abroad. Program leaders seek to ensure that during the one year that faculty and participants are in the program, the learning and the habits of thinking associated extend to the field and come back to campus in rich and multifaceted ways. Facilitators of this session will share many of the methods used in the GIEU to bring experiential learning in an ethic of reciprocity both to first and second year students and to faculty members. Participants will engage in simulations done with students and faculty; learn about the variety of assessment techniques and data; and discuss the implications of projects developed by students and faculty as offshoots of the program.
A.T. Miller, Coordinator of Multicultural Teaching and Learning, University of Michigan
Integrated Projects Curriculum
The Integrated Projects Curriculum (IPC) draws on service learning pedagogy to provide students with credit-bearing opportunities to engage the knowledge content of their academic disciplines in the context of a specific problem, and to reflect on the experience in view of their Christian faith. The IPC develops a service learning component within the Bachelor of Science Engineering curriculum through several objectives that include increasing student engagement in learning; connecting the scholarship of educators to teaching; and enriching mentor relationships between educators and students. Participants will explore the results of the program’s first year and learn the details of the full IPC program.
Carl A. Erikson, Jr., Chair, Department of Engineering, Messiah College
Promoting Integrative Learning through Curricular Innovation and Community Building
Participants in this seminar will explore the innovative approaches of Kean University’s Epsilon Corps to integrate curricular and cocurricular activities of students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and to use existing general education course structures as mechanisms to enhance STEM recruitment. They will also discuss lessons for using community building and peer motivation to promote integrative learning. The context of the conversation will reflect Kean’s student population, most of which are first-generation college attendees or come from low-to-middle income socioeconomic backgrounds; and many are commuters and have financial obligations to support themselves and/or their families. To enhance the recruitment and retention for STEM programs, the University has launched Epsilon Corps in which students interact with each other by integrating curricular activities with co-curricular activities, and in which professors interact with students in the multiple capacity of teachers, mentors, and Epsilon Corps faculty leaders.
John Dobosiewicz, Assistant Professor, Kean University
Integrative Learning in the First-Year Seminar: Freshman and Institutional Change
According to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, today’s first-year students are less interested in academics than at any time over its 39-year history. The University of Colorado has experienced continuing success with its interdisciplinary Freshman Seminar Program, taught by 40 faculty and student affairs professionals from 25 different disciplines across five colleges. One of the distinct benefits of the Program is the extent to which faculty integrate these teaching strategies into their discipline based courses and the extent to which the Program has helped to change the culture of the campus. This session will focus on integrative learning in the first-year seminar and engage participants in exercises from the author’s research and experiences. Handouts will provide practical materials for participants to use in their classrooms or in faculty programs for enhancing first-year teaching. This session will be useful to faculty who teach introductory courses or to faculty and administrators who lead or plan to initiate a First-Year Seminar.
Constance Staley, Professor of Communication and Director, Freshman Seminar Program, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Constructing and Assessing an Integrative Learning Culture
The University of Charleston (UC) has, over the last nine years, implemented many of the practices of the Greater Expectations New Academy. Using UC as a case study, session facilitators will ask participants to consider: (1) What moves an institution to embrace the practices of the New Academy? (2) What are the key levers that are currently in play to support the practices of the New Academy? (3) How do we identify the short term and the longer-term consequences of such strategies?
Meg A. Malmberg, Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Alan R. Belcher, Assistant to the Provost, and Karen M. Merriman, Assistant to the Provost, University of Charleston
Sponsored by the Integrative Learning collaborative project of AAC&U and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Interdisciplinary Arts in the General Education Curriculum: Current Practice and Assessment
In recent years, interdisciplinary arts courses have been included in the general education curriculum—courses which explore the role of the arts in society without being restricted to a single artistic discipline. This session will present course offerings at the University of North Carolina–Asheville and Ohio University that exemplify this pedagogical reorientation towards interdisciplinary arts. Presenters will also examine strategies to assess student interdisciplinary understanding and cognitive advancement within these courses. The facilitators will present examples of student work in addition to results from current assessment.
Michael Murawski, Doctoral Student, American University; Scott Walters, Assistant Professor of Drama, Director of the Arts and Ideas Program, University of North Carolina, Asheville; and Elizabeth Jones, Doctoral Student, Instructor, Ohio University
Sponsored by the Association for Integrative Studies
4:45 – 5:30 p.m.
Facilitated Reflection and Discussion Sessions
National leaders with expertise in developing integrative learning experiences will facilitate informal discussions where participants can examine insights gleaned throughout the conference. Participants may choose to engage in any of the seven topical discussions below.
Clarifying Goals
William H. Newell, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Miami University
Pedagogical Approaches
Pat Hutchings, Vice President, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Curricular Practices
Paul Ewald, Academic Dean, Regis College
Assessment of Student Learning
Carolyn Haynes, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Miami University
Reinforcing integrative Learning across the Curriculum
Elizabeth Ciner, Associate Dean of the College, Carleton College
Developmental Dimensions
Sheila Wright, Executive Director, Learning Communities and Civic Engagement, University of Denver
Building Advanced-level Integrative Skills Over Time
Mary Huber, Senior Scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Saturday, October 22, 2005
8:00 – 8:45 a.m.
Continental Breakfast, Roundtable Discussions by Institution Type
Pathways to College Network Discussion
The Pathways to College Network is a collaborative of organizations and foundations whose mission is to focus research and resources on improving college preparation, access, and success for underserved populations. AAC&U staff will discuss AAC&U’s role as the lead partner in gathering research and promising practices tocreate tools that help campuses improve these students’ learning outcomes.
Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Vice President, Office of Education and Institutional Renewal, AAC&U
9:00 – 10:15 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Tools for Thought: Using Math and English to Explore Contemporary Issues
“Tools for Thought,” a learning community designed and taught by the presenters, links an intermediate algebra class with freshman composition. The goal is to integrate the quantitative skills addressed in the mathematics class with the reading and writing skills developed in the composition course. To accomplish this integration, course units focus on real-world human and environmental issues. The seminar will present an overview of the structure of the class, assignments, assessment tools, and student work.
Jean Mach, Professor of English, and Michael Burke, Professor of Mathematics, College of San Mateo
Sponsored by the Integrative Learning collaborative project of AAC&U and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Integrative Community – University Learning Partnerships
This seminar will explore the reciprocal educational benefits of “integrative community-university learning partnerships” and examine a curriculum model for problem-based, applied experiential learning that has been evolving at Drury University over the past 20-years. A discussion of the development, management, and assessment issues of integrative community-university learning partnerships will be facilitated to assist educators interested in the development or refinement of integrative, community-based, interdisciplinary educational opportunities.
Jay G. Garrott, AIA, Director and Professor, Center for Community Studies, Hammons School of Architecture, and James Murrow, Associate Professor, Breech School of Business, Drury University; and Ralph Rognstad, Director, Department of Planning and Development, City of Springfield
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts
Students in the living-learning communities at the University of Denver persist at a higher rate than their peers, rate their learning as more engaged than their peers on the National Survey of Student Engagement, and have fewer residential or judicial violations than other cohorts. This seminar will focus on the curricular and cocurricular activities that lead to the high rate of success and persistence of students in the University of Denver’s living-learning communities.
Sheila Wright, Executive Director, Learning Communities and Civic Engagement, and Annmarie Vaccaro, Director of the Living and Learning Communities, University of Denver
Multiplying the Impacts of Interdisciplinary Learning
Integrative teaching challenges students to make connections among concepts and principles beyond those set forth in more directed pedagogical strategies. Interdisciplinary collaborations among faculty pose those challenges to the faculty members themselves even as they, as teachers, challenge their students. This seminar will engage participants in discussion of these two levels of integrative work, with discussion catalyzed by course portfolio examples from a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project at the University of Michigan. The facilitator will present data that focus on integrative learning specifically in collaborative teaching contexts, responding to the questions: “What are the students learning?” “What are the faculty learning?” and “How do you know?”
Crisca Bierwert, Assistant Director, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan
Faculty and Staff Development as an Integrative Learning Curriculum
When faculty and staff development are essential components of institutional culture, disseminated in decentralized ways, and rooted in the outcomes faculty desire for themselves and their students, they can become a mechanism for pedagogical and curricular innovations such as integrative learning. In this session, faculty and administrators will present specific examples of how these processes work using a double helix conceptual model. The backbones of the helix are Institutional Values and Feedback, which surround and support base pairs made up of Teaching, Student Performance, Assessment, Faculty Development, Curriculum, and Learning Outcomes.
Jacqulyn Lauer-Glebov, Assistant Director of Institutional Research, Elizabeth Ciner, Associate Dean of the College, and Carol Rutz, Director of the College Writing Program, Carleton College
Sponsored by the Integrative Learning collaborative project of AAC&U and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Campus Conversations Provide Leadership for an Integrative Curriculum
An interdisciplinary curriculum is essential for fostering higher levels of critical thinking, ways of knowing, and self-authorship. To achieve this, faculty in an interdisciplinary program must be able to explore common ground. A seminar series, A Campus Conversation Examining the Human Condition: Support for the Development of Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum in Human Biology, provides a venue for the faculty and student voice in the development of this integrative curriculum. Central to this initiative is the understanding that there are key ideas, philosophies, and pedagogies that are inherently necessary for the type of student learning that fosters critical thinking and self-authorship. The facilitator will share lessons learned from this method of engaging a campus in integrative curricular development and discuss components of the model that may be transferable. Lastly, the facilitator will address current development methods that have been instrumental to the process.
Whitney M. Schlegel, Director Human Biology, Indiana University at Bloomington
Student Voices: Assessing Integrative Learning in Interdisciplinary Studies
Guided by Marcia Baxter Magolda’s theoretical framework of self-authorship, this longitudinal study explores students’ cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal dimensions of interdisciplinary learning. The researchers have completed the third year of bi-annual, in-depth interviews with ten undergraduate interdisciplinary studies students. A preliminary analysis of these interview data illuminates how students experience an intentionally interdisciplinary academic experience and provides evidence of integrative learning. Presenters will engage participants in a data interpretation exercise and protocol revision.
Carolyn Haynes, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Director for Honors and Scholars, and Special Assistant to Provost for Strategic Planning, Miami University; and Jeannie Brown Leonard, Doctoral Student, University of Maryland College Park
Sponsored by the Association for Integrative Studies
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Integrating Liberal Arts and Business Education: Meaningful Connections for Student Learning
This session will analyze a course designed by faculty from the arts, sciences, and business that integrates or “blends” the learning goals, content and pedagogies from these various domains. Classic and contemporary literature, theories, and concepts from the social and natural sciences provide the content for the course. Fundamental learning outcomes from this integrative learning experience include: oral and written communication skills; critical thinking and analysis; breadth of perspective shaped from multiple points of view; understanding of one’s own values; and the ability to understand time, place, and culture from a global perspective. This session will allow participants to explore how to integrate liberal arts content and values that enables students to connect the meaning and relevancy of such to their professional education.E. Byron Chew, Monaghan Professor of Management, Birmingham-Southern College; and Cecilia V. McInnis-Bowers, Professor of International Business, Rollins College
I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Intercultural Competencies for the 21st Century
This seminar will draw on the pedagogies used in the Cross-Cultural Studies course “I’m a Stranger Here Myself” to introduce theories and models of intercultural transition. The video and booklet “Coming and Going: Intercultural Transitions for College Students” (funded by Global Partners/Mellon Foundation) produced at Carleton College and literary excerpts will demonstrate the intersections between cognitive and experiential learning through exercises and group work paralleling the skills used in inter-ethnic or inter-national cultural situations.
Petra E Crosby, Director of International Student Programs, Lecturer in Cross-Cultural Studies, and Éva Pósfay, Professor of French, Carleton College
Sponsored by the Integrative Learning collaborative project of AAC&U and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Examining Core Assumptions: Critical Reflection across the Disciplines
This seminar will demonstrate strategies for encouraging critical reflection across the disciplines. Session facilitators will model an experiential assignment that helps students to deepen their critical thinking skills. Controversial topics in the arts and sciences, such as homeopathy, facilitated communication, the Mozart Effect, and Reiki, can serve as a means for students to examine their core assumptions. Twelve years of practice have demonstrated that this assignment promotes the understanding and analysis of the knower’s assumptions and invisible paradigms, as well as a reflective assessment on the part of the student investigator. A dynamic aspect of this process is that it spans the disciplines and challenges students to discover how to ground their work in a specific or multiple discipline(s). Seminar participants will work together on topics that resist typical academic inquiry.
Frank Trocco, Associate Professor, and Judith Beth Cohen, Professor, Lesley University
Contemplative Education at Naropa University
At the forefront of the inquiry into the relationship between spirituality and liberal education, faculty at Naropa University integrate non-sectarian, ecumenical spiritual values with intellectual knowledge. In this session, faculty from three disciplines will illustrate ways in which they use contemplative practices such as “deep listening” and meditation to enhance learning in the classroom. Seminar facilitators will demonstrate how to use academic pursuits in the core program as a way to practice compassionate civic engagement within the community at large.
Angie Waszkiewicz, Assistant Dean, Father Alan Hartway, Core Faculty and Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies, Eric Fretz, Core Faculty and Director, Community Studies Center, and Candace Walworth, Core Faculty, Naropa University.
Growing the Integrative Capacities of Learners
Integrative learning should foster the learners’ inner, integrative capacities to see through a literal reality to that which profoundly connects them to existence and to others. This seminar will begin with a brief presentation of an original and developing frame that attempts to map the cyclical nature of knowing. Participants will discuss whether this frame helps them to understand better their curricula’s tacit integrative intentions and perhaps its unexamined approaches to integrative learning. The seminar will close with an example and discussion of one transformative learning course that uses a learning community format.
Joanne Gozawa, Professor, California Institute of Integral Studies
Sponsored by the California Institute of Integral Studies
Advancing Mission-Focused Integrative Learning through Community-Based Pedagogies
This seminar will examine one strategy for advancing a mission focused initiative integrating community-based learning and civic engagement across the curricula of the university. This strategy emphasizes convening faculty from disparate academic divisions with co-educators from student affairs, students, and representatives from community-based organizations and schools. Participants will analyze the research and conceptual framework that informed the process used to advance the development of integrative pedagogies. They will discuss the challenge of assessing integrative, community-based pedagogies and envisioning strategies for broader institutionalization, including recognition and reward for faculty, administrators, and community members engaged in this work.
Nicholas R. Santilli, Director of Planning and Assessment, and Mark C. Falbo, Director for Community Service, John Carroll University; and Allison Wallace, Executive Director of Goodrich-Gannett Neighborhood Center
Systematic Reflection on Institutional Integration
The goal of this seminar is to promote reflection and continued action toward increasing the amount and variety of integration within academic institutions. The facilitators will share the participatory action research framework from their institution to promote reflection about integration successes and possibilities. The facilitators will share the “percolation” process used at their institution to encourage reflection on the facilitation of, successes with, and barriers to integration. The conversations intend to raise consciousness and promote thinking in ways that expand integrative opportunities.
Susan D. Moch, Professor of Nursing, Jennifer Shaddock, Associate Professor of English, Vicki Funne Reed, Associate Director of Recreation, Damian Obrien, Admissions Counselor, Student Services, Robert S. Tomlinson, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Learning from Student Involvement in Classroom Assessments
Embedding appropriate classroom assessment techniques into a course can foster student feedback about their own learning and generate an atmosphere of collaborative teaching and learning. This session, led by a faculty and student team, will overview assessment strategies used to create changes in courses to advance student learning. Participants will examine ways in which students are instrumental in the implementation of these assessment activities.
Cathy R. Santanello, Program Director, Excellence in Learning and Teaching, Elizabeth F. Stygar, Liberal Studies Student, and Erin E. Vonnahme, Student (English major), Southern IL University Edwardsville
Noon – 1:30 p.m.
Luncheon Plenary
Advancing a Culture of Integrative Learning
Three national leaders for innovation in integrative teaching and learning will address key elements for making integrative learning a central part of every student’s undergraduate education. After sharing their own insights into the “What, Why, and How” of integrative learning based on years of research and practice, they will engage the audience in conversations about the challenges to advancing a culture of integrative learning and strategies for addressing those issues when they return to campus.
Thomas L. Purce, President, The Evergreen State College; Mary Taylor Huber, Senior Scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; and Carolyn Haynes, Director, Honors and Scholars Program, Miami University
Moderator: Andrea Leskes, Vice President, Office of Educational Quality Initiatives
1:45 – 2:30 p.m.
Closing Session
Continuing the Conversation: Applying Integrative Learning to Campus Realities
This closing session is an opportunity for those who would like to continue to explore with colleagues and the luncheon panelists how to use new insights into integrative learning, to address what is actually happening on individual campuses. What are the implications of integrative learning for new programs and curricular change? How might assessment be used to strengthen student integrative learning? What will your next steps be when you return to campus? This discussion will help you refine your thoughts for innovation as you consider the many models and strategies for integrative learning presented throughout the conference.
Andrea Leskes, Vice President, Office of Educational Quality Initiatives and Mary Taylor Huber, Senior Scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
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