Integrative Learning: Addressing the Complexities
Network for Academic Renewal Conference
October 22-24, 2009
Atlanta, Georgia - Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel
About the Conference
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Thurman Memorial
Credit: Morehouse College |
Developing students’ ability to integrate and apply learning is an important piece of what makes college education relevant for 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. Today’s world demands graduates who can contribute depth of knowledge and also use a variety of sources to seek new insights. The current context also requires graduates who are creative; who can anticipate the not-yet-known, and negotiate rapid technological, cultural, and global shifts.
Yet most students enter college unaccustomed to addressing the complexities inherent in disciplinary and cross-disciplinary learning, in applying their knowledge to novel circumstances, or in engaging diverse perspectives, either in day-to-day campus life or in broader social, political, and economic contexts. What can faculty, student affairs educators, and administrators do to build more authentic learning experiences that will help students develop integrative capacities over time?
This conference seeks to highlight the new importance of integrative learning ten years in to the new century. How have colleges and universities progressed in helping students think and work across discrete domains of knowledge? What types of activities allow students to apply their learning to new situations, in order to practice the skills and abilities necessary for today’s world? Where in the curriculum and cocurriculum are students undertaking moral and ethical “rehearsals” that will allow them to take seriously the perspectives of others and to make wise and informed decisions in the midst of competing values and complex situations? And what kinds of learning help students develop a sense of efficacy to tackle the deep and often entrenched problems facing us as individuals and both local and global communities?
Integrative Learning: Addressing the Complexities will focus on four major themes:
- Purposes. What are the hallmarks of integrative learning? What are the aims and purposes of integrative learning programs? How can integrating and applying their learning help students move past fragmentation and develop a sense of motivation and purpose in the world?
- Designs. What kinds of curricular, co-curricular, community-based, and pedagogical designs help to foster integrative learning?
- Reality Check. What kinds of institutional supports and incentives facilitate more integrative learning opportunities?
- Assessment. How are campuses documenting and deepening students’ integrative learning through assessment?
Visit the Call for Proposals to find out more about each theme.
New! Opportunity to Become a LEAP Featured Session
The Network for Academic Renewal seeks to spotlight the innovative work of colleges and universities that are members of the LEAP (Liberal Education and America’s Promise) Campus Action Network (CAN). If you are a LEAP CAN school, consider applying to present a LEAP Featured Session. These sessions should explicitly link campus innovations to AAC&U’s guiding vision, put forth in the LEAP initiative and its 2007 report, College Learning for the New Global Century. For more detail about this opportunity, see the Call for Proposals. To find out if your campus is a member of CAN, or for information about signing up, click here.
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