Integrative Learning: International research and practice

Current teaching, learning and assessment practices can lead students to believe that courses within a programme are self-sufficient and separate. Integrative Learning explores this issue, and considers how intentional learning helps students become integrative thinkers who can see connections in seemingly disparate information, and draw on a wide range of knowledge to make decisions.

Written by international contributors who engaged reflectively with their teaching and their students’ learning, the book seeks to develop a shared language of integrative learning, encouraging students to adapt skills learned in one situation to problems encountered in another, and make autonomous connections across courses, between experiences, and throughout their lives. More informed teachers can help students develop the necessary attributes for intentional learning, which include having a sense of purpose, fitting fragmentary information into a ‘learning framework’, understanding something of their own learning processes, asking probing questions, reflecting on their own choices, and knowing when to ask for help.

Integrative Learning draws on international research and vast studies to provide the reader with the resources to ensure access to a unified learning experience. The book discusses conceptual and technical tools necessary for facilitating integrative learning across a range of disciplines as well as providing learning pedagogies and considers integrative learning in the context of the relevance of higher education in the complexity and uncertainty of the 21st century. It will appeal to academics and researchers in the field of higher education, as well as those generating higher education curriculums.

Daniel Blackshields is a Lecturer in the School of Economics and Teaching Fellow for Reflective Practice in University College Cork.

James G. R. Cronin is a learning resources officer and program co-ordinator in the School of History and Adult Continuing Education, University College Cork.

Bettie Higgs is a Senior Lecturer in Geology, and Co-Director of Ionad Bairre, The Teaching and Learning Centre, University College Cork.

Shane Kilcommins is a Professor of Law at University of Limerick.

Marian McCarthy is Co-Director of Ionad Bairre, The Teaching and Learning Centre in University College Cork.

Anthony Ryan is a Consultant Neonatologist at Cork University Maternity Hospital, HSE, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health at University College Cork.