Integrative Learning in
Practice: Ninth Annual
Innovative Pedagogy & Course
Redesign Conference
June 2009
Larry Miners, Kathy Nantz, Roben Torosyan
Center for Academic Excellence
Fairfield University (CT)
Goals tonight:
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Meet new colleagues
Think outside the box about integrative
learning (not economics needs
accounting, but learn economics by
sailing, for example)
Start brainstorming ways to design an
entire integrative course, or to make a
course or project of your own more
integrative
6/17
Names
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On your name-tent, write:
– Name
– One thing unique to them
Integrative Learning in Practice:
Let’s Connect
Lost at Sea
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1,000 miles south-southwest of nearest land
Contents of everyone’s pockets: 15 items
Which items do you rank most important to
your survival?
Rank them 1 being most important, 15 being
least
6/17
Lost at Sea
____
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____
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____
____
____
____
____
____
____
____
Sextant
Shaving mirror
5 gallon can of water
Mosquito netting
1 case of U.S. Army C rations
Maps of the Pacific Ocean
Seat cushion (Coast Guard approved flotation device)
2 gallon can of oil-gas mixture
Small transistor radio
Shark repellent
20 square feet of opaque plastic
1 quart of 100-proof Puerto Rican rum
15 feet of nylon rope
2 boxes of chocolate bars
Fishing kit
6/17
Lost at Sea:
Your priorities
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____
Sextant
Shaving mirror
5 gallon can of water
Mosquito netting
1 case of U.S. Army C rations
Maps of the Pacific Ocean
Seat cushion (Coast Guard approved flotation device)
2 gallon can of oil-gas mixture
Small transistor radio
Shark repellent
20 square feet of opaque plastic
1 quart of 100-proof Puerto Rican rum
15 feet of nylon rope
2 boxes of chocolate bars
Fishing kit
6/17
Lost at Sea:
Your priorities
*****____ 5 gallon can of water
****____ 1 case of U.S. Army C rations
****____ 20 square feet of opaque plastic
***____ Shaving mirror
**____ 15 feet of nylon rope
*____ Mosquito netting
*____ Seat cushion (Coast Guard approved flotation device)
*____ 2 gallon can of oil-gas mixture
*____ Small transistor radio
*____ 1 quart of 100-proof Puerto Rican rum
*____ 2 boxes of chocolate bars
*____ Fishing kit
____ Maps of the Pacific Ocean
____ Shark repellent
____ Sextant
6/17
Lost at Sea: US Coast Guard’s
priorities
Type here
6/17
Integrative Learning: Meanings
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connecting skills and knowledge from
multiple sources and experiences
applying theory to practice in various
settings
utilizing diverse and even contradictory
points of view
understanding issues and positions
contextually
(Huber & Hutchings, Integrative Learning, 2004)
6/17
One kind of integration:
Interdisciplinary Understanding
A definition: “the capacity to integrate
knowledge and modes of thinking in two
or more disciplines or established areas
of expertise to produce a cognitive
advancement—such as explaining a
phenomenon, solving a problem, or
creating a product—in ways that would
have been impossible or unlikely through
single disciplinary means” (Boix Mansilla & Dawes
Duraising, Journal of Higher Education, 2007, p. 219)
6/17
Integrative Learning
Outcomes
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Begin approaching a new topic or problem by
drawing on prior learning
Take different perspectives on an issue
Combine academic and community-based
work
Take advantage of new opportunities
Practice critical reflection and document it
Cf. Huber & Hutchings, Integrative Learning: Mapping the Terrain,
2004
Teaming up
1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9, 10-11-12, 13-14-15,
16-17-18, 19-20-21, 22-23-24,
25-26-27, 28-29-30, 31-32-33,
34-35-36, 37-38-39, 40-41-42,
43-44-45, 46-47-48, 49-50-51,
52-53-54, 55-56-57, 58-59-60,
61-62-63, 64-65-66, 67-68-69
While adrift:
Course design
Each one of you MUST be involved in the
development of the syllabus and have
something to contribute to the teaching of
the course.
1.
Name of course you will teach?
2.
Three goals: What do you want your
students to know, to do, and/or to care
about?
3.
Three activities, exercises, in or out of
class experiences, etc. to help students
achieve these goals.
Integrative Courses
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Survival (No Pre-wrecks!)
Marketing, Sustainability & A Green
Economy: meaning, audits, living
Lost: Analyzing behaviors of
disorientation: an ethno-discursive-
mathematical-anthropological
analysis; relationships under stress;
interdependence with others
Integrative Courses
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Sustaining your not-for-profit
organization: manage finances,
comply w/ regs., become sustainable
without grants.
Academic lego. How would you Use
objects to solve problems in real
world.
Integrative Courses
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Type here
Connecting: Take-aways
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What skills did you use?
What unexpected connections did
you make?
What will you use when you go
home, to inform your teaching or
other professional practice?
Connecting: Take-aways
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Start by agreeing on goals rather
than readings, focuses on learning
Meld.
Teamwork is fun.
Icebreakers as teaching tools.
Connecting: Take-aways
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Type here
Connecting: Take-aways
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Type here
Lost at Sea: priorities according
to the U.S. Coast Guard
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Shaving mirror: to signal (#1 priority for rescue)
2 gallon can of oil-gas mixture: signal by burning
5 gallon can of water: replenish fluids
1 case of U.S. Army C rations: food
20 square feet of opaque plastic: collect rain water & as shelter
2 boxes of chocolate bars: reserve food supply
Fishing kit: to get food, although ready food is more important
15 feet of nylon rope: lash people or equipment together
Seat cushion (Coast Guard approved flotation device): life preserver
Shark repellent: enough said
1 quart of 100-proof Puerto Rican rum: 80% alc. = antiseptic
Small transistor radio: out of range of radio station
Maps of the Pacific Ocean: worthless without navigation equipment
Mosquito netting: no mosquitos in mid-Pacific; to fish, use the kit
Sextant: useless without relevant tables and a chronometer
6/17
Dream Learning Goals
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Imagine you could design your dream
course or learning experience for
students. If a student reached your
dream learning goals, what would
change?
Write: Five years later, they would:
– Know…
– Do…
– Value…
A common visual “text”
View clip:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdo
wn/view/
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Imagine using this clip to reach one or more of
your dream goals. (Factors include the
psychology, power politics, media influence on
behavior, imagery, history, communication
patterns, you name it)
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Circle share: one goal and the clip’s relevance
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A common visual “text”
Brainstorm individually:
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How could other disciplinary theories, findings,
examples, methods, validation criteria, genres, or
forms of communication help ground student
understanding?
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How could other disciplinary insights be integrated
to advance understanding—that is, using integrative
devices such as conceptual frameworks, graphic
representations, models, metaphors, complex
explanations, or solutions that results in more
complex, effective, empirically grounded, or
comprehensive accounts or products?
(Boix Mansilla & Dawes Duraising, Journal of Higher Education,
2007, p. 222)
Connecting Across Disciplines
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Connect with one concept mentioned
during circle share:
– I think ---- concept in my discipline may
relate to ---- concept in ---- discipline,
maybe in ------ way
– Here’s a real world problem, and it
requires understanding ---- concepts from
---- disciplines
Examples Across Disciplines
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Self-awareness: Come up w/ probing questions (we
and students do!) to push students to the next level
of understanding themselves.
Lifelong learning: Ability to generalize, see concept
in their own lives, and apply them.
Social justice / service: See consequences of their
actions. Not just aware, but get practice taking that
to make a difference in community.
Quantitative literacy, how to interpret statistics, is
essential to so many problems. Not just skills but
what the purpose of the skills is.
Recognize what you don’t know as much as what
you do know.
Integrative Cartoons:
Capturing Visual Analogs
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Take 60 seconds to doodle, creating
an image—use icons, lines, shapres,
drawings, cartoons, symbols, stick
figures or logos—to represent one
concept that required more than one
discipline
Label the cartoon or doodle
Connecting Across Disciplines
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What’s shared? (concepts, ideas,
concerns, pedagogies/teaching methods)
What’s different?
Given your conversations, might you
teach any differently in the future? If so,
how?