Integrative Learning

An undergraduate's university experience is often fragmented, with courses, service opportunities, and extracurricular activities seemingly unconnected to one another. Providing students with the means to integrate their learning can be a challenge for university educators. Promoting an integrative learning approach, however, can assist students in putting the pieces of the university experience into a coherent whole that prepares them for their personal, professional, and civic life. Learning takes place in individual courses and disciplines, but integrative learning transcends academic boundaries, and encourages students to address real-world problems, to synthesize multiple areas of knowledge, and to consider issues from a variety of perspectives.

Tools and strategies commonly associated with Integrative Learning include PebblePad, Experiential Learning, High Impact Practices, WatCV, Student-Led Individually-Created Courses (SLICCs), and Problem-Based Learning. Learn more about each of these by clicking the relevant links.

Explore these strategies in action, as presented in the��Integrative and Experiential Learning Series.

Experiential learning

��ݮ��Ƶ ExL Symposium - Presentations from the concurrent sessions at the ��ݮ��Ƶ ExL Symposium��

��ݮ��Ƶ ExL Institute - Presentations shared at the Institute

- Queen's University Experiential Learning Hub

- Brock University

- Deakin University (four parts)

- McMaster Engineering Faculty Development Academy (Sirutis & Massi,2014).

Work integrated learning

– a resource for learners

- This guide is intended to serve as a resource to enhance student learning and development in higher education through structured work experience. Work-integrated learning is a pedagogical practice whereby students come to learn from the integration of experiences in educational and workplace settings (Billett, 2009).

Resources for reflection

P.E.A.R. model -��McRae, N. & Johnston, N. (2016). The development of a proposed global work-integrated learning framework. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 17(4), 337-348.

- Frameworks for reflection with associated prompts (What? So what? Now what?DEAL,��ICE,��4 Rs) as well as domains of reflection and associated prompts:��Professional Development,��𳾾��,��Personal Development,��Interpersonal Engagement,��Systems Engagement/Social Justice.��

: University of Edinburgh – a resource with support and information whether you are looking to reflect yourself or facilitate reflection in others.

CTE Tip Sheet: Critical Reflection

Reflective Prompts -��Reflective models to help students reflect on their learning.�� Reflective models include

STAR Model (Situation | Task | Action | Result | Learning)/transfer of learning)
Gibbs Reflective Cycle – Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion, Action Plan
DEAL Model -��Describe | Examine | Articulate Learning – can be used to examine personal growth, civic engagement and/or academic enhancement
What? So What? Now What?
Bain’s 5Rs -��Reporting & Responding | Relating | Reasoning | Reconstructing
The Integrated Reflective Cycle – experience, reflection on action, theory, preparation
The Four F’s of Active Reviewing - Facts | Feelings | Findings | Future
CARL Framework -��Context | Action | Results | Learning

Rubrics for assessing reflection

- The critical reflection rubric (adopted from Kember et al., 2008) provides a framework for evaluating reflection. This rubric can be used on its own or as a starting point upon which to layer course-specific expectations. Kember, D., McKay, J., Sinclair, K., Kam, F., & Wong, Y. (2008). A four-category scheme for coding and assessing the level of reflection in written work. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(4), 369-379.

-��An adaptation of work by Boud��D,��Keogh��R,��Walker��D.��Promoting Reflection in Learning: A Model. Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning.��London,��Kogan Page; New York, Nicols Pub;��1985:18-40.��, and Mezirow��J.��Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning.��San Francisco, CA:��Jossey-Bass;��1991.�� found in

See Appendix 1 for the prompts for the Reflective Statement outlined in the article above.

Employability skills

Report: -��Essential reading for those curious about the nature and trajectory of the perceived skills gaps that experiential learning opportunities can help to bridge.��Burning Glass: “THE HUMAN FACTOR,” BURNING GLASS TECHNOLOGIES ©2015��

Report: The New Foundational Skills -��This paper reports on a search for the New Foundational Skills of the digital economy. How and when do evolving skills change the job market? Which skills are in demand in both digitally intensive jobs, and more broadly? Which skills retain their value over time? If such a set of emergent, critical skills exists, how do the skills interact, and what do they mean for job seekers and incumbent employees, educators, and employers? Markow, W., Hughes, D., & Bundy, A. (2018). . Business-Higher Education Forum, Washington, District of Columbia.

WatCV (“U��ݮ��Ƶ curriculum vitae”) - The site contains resources designed to help students articulate the full range of their skills to prospective employers. WatCV provides skills-articulation templates recognized by employers worldwide. Using these templates, students create ePortfolios to showcase the wide variety of skills they are developing at university, focusing especially on how they would transfer these skills to new workplace situations. Tomasson Goodwin, J., & Lithgow, K. (2018). Eportfolio, Professional Identity, and Twenty-First Century Employability Skills.��Catalyst in Action: Case Studies of High-Impact EPortfolio Practice, 154-71. Tomasson Goodwin, J., Goh, J., Verkoeyen, S., & Lithgow, K. (2019). .��Education+ Training,��61(4), 445-460.

Additional Resources

��- A keynote presentation on micro-credentialling by Don Presant��

��discusses the Integrative Learning Sequence developed by the School of Accounting and Finance

��discusses the role of the Speech Communication course in the Integrative Learning Sequence

��talks about his experience as a student of the Integrative Learning Sequence��

��explains the use of concept maps to help her students integrate their learning��

��explains the use of simulations to replicate real-life situations��

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