Guidelines for Integrative Studies Proposals

(Draft)

March 21, 1997

Contact Gail Hackwith with any questions regarding Integrative Studies:

Office of Undergraduate Studies
201 Seaton Hall
(402) 472-1928
Fax: (402) 472-1910
ghackwith2@unl.edu

     

Whether you are teaching an Integrative Studies course for the first time or developing a new Integrative Studies proposal, this set of Guidelines is intended to help you. It explains the Comprehensive Education Program of which Integrative Studies is one component, and it provides an expanded list of learning objectives these courses are designed to develop.

Notice this document is labeled Draft, but it has not been made available online by mistake. It is a draft for two reasons. First, the Comprehensive Education Program is alive and, as such, we can expect it to grow and change. Consequently, we cannot finalize these Guidelines. Second, by offering this document as a draft, we intend to encourage your suggestions for its improvement. If you have suggestions, contact your University Curriculum Committee representative. He or she will bring your suggestions to the attention of the University Curriculum Committee.

The Evolution of Integrative Studies

The intention of the Comprehensive Education Program is to provide a coherent learning experience for our students, and the Integrative Studies component, specifically, was formulated to actively engage the students in their own intellectual development. The emphasis of an Integrative Studies course is not only on what students might know but also on what they "might profitably do to develop their intellectual skills." The anticipation has been that students will lay a common foundation for their continued intellectual growth through the Comprehensive Education Program by developing (1) their ability and desire to analyze, evaluate and communicate complex material and positions and (2) a context for the understanding the breadth of human endeavor. The anticipated learning experience over the course of a student's academic career, however, cannot be identical for each student. Learning styles, pedagogy and concentration in a discipline will create differing experiences. Likewise the Comprehensive Education Program itself, as actually practiced by faculty and students, is evolving.

As initially proposed by the UNL General Education Planning Committee, Integrative Studies courses were to be taught to enhance the following intellectual skills:

• Critical Thinking (objective and subjective), through a variety of approaches in which students investigate arguments, engage in research, gather data, perform qualitative and quantitative analysis, and assess conclusions.
• Writing (formal and informal), on which the instructor comments, used to explore substantial problems in the subject area and report the results of critical and creative thinking.
• Oral Expression in the classroom through discussion, group and individual reports, and other activities that provide students opportunities to share creative work, describe research, or explore important issues.
• Analysis of Controversies concerning the subject matter of the course in which students investigate concepts and hypotheses open to question.
• Exploration of Assumptions underlying beliefs and concepts relevant to course content and of processes for examining those assumptions, so that students understand and establish control over those ideas they bring to their study of the subject matter.
• Inquiry Through Course Content into the Origins, Bases, and Consequences of Intellectual Bias through which students will understand the particular perspective on the world employed in the academic discipline of the course.
• Consideration of Human Diversity appropriate to the subject matter of the course so that students can explore the way in which cultural differences shape conceptions about the subject matter and discern the intellectual and pragmatic effects on human groups of the subject matter and ideas related to it.

These seven teaching criteria were adopted by five of the nine undergraduate colleges. Four of the undergraduate colleges combined the criteria of Critical Thinking, Analysis of Controversies, Exploration of Assumptions and Inquiry Through Course Content Into the Origins, Bases and Consequences of Intellectual Bias. These three colleges are Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Engineering, and Fine & Performing Arts. Differences, such as these, should inform the thinking of faculty proposing or preparing to teach an Integrative Studies course (see the forms).

This original description of the Integrative Studies course criteria, while useful for adoption of the Comprehensive Education Program, have proven inadequate for further development of Integrative Studies courses and for the assessment of the outcomes of the Integrative Studies component. You will find a newly drafted set of learning objectives based on the original seven criteria listed above. Each of these criteria is preserved in the learning objectives, but all are reformulated into a new organizational pattern to reflect the adoption by the colleges and their subsequent development by the faculty through Integrative Studies proposals.

Teaching an Integrative Studies Course

By teaching an Integrative Studies courses, you have an opportunity to actively engage students in developing their ability (and hopefully their desire) to analyze, evaluate and communicate complex material and positions. Recognizing that a student's intellectual growth develops over a period of time and through a variety of intellectual experiences, faculty from every discipline are needed to teach Integrative Studies courses. While students' are required to take one Integrative Studies course at the 200 level and two Integrative Studies at the 300-400 level, they are encouraged to take half of their required Integrative Studies courses at the 100-200 level with their remaining required courses taken at the 300-400 level. If you teach these students an Integrative Studies course at the 300-400 level, you will have the opportunity to engage students after they have developed an intellectual foundation through their Essential and Integrative Studies at the 100-200 level. This foundation will permit you to engage them in a richer intellectual analysis. If you teach an Integrative Studies courses in a student's major or minor areas of study, you should find that students are able to add complexity and subtlety to their critical analysis, communication and consideration of human diversity (as appropriate to the subject matter).

A study of the 1995 entering class (the first class to which the Comprehensive Education Program applies) shows that students took 2-3 Integrative Studies courses in their freshman year and five of their required 9 courses in Essential Studies. The following percentage of students in that class completed their Essential Studies requirement during their first academic year:

95%     Communications (1 course)
41%     Math & Statistics (1 course)
76%     Human Behavior (2 courses)
97%     Science & Technology (1 course)
55%     Historical Studies (1 course)
30%     Humanities (1 course)
40%     Arts (1 course)
4%       Race/Ethnicity/Gender (1 course)

We expect that students will take a similar number of Integrative and Essential Studies courses in their sophomore year. If they do so, they will have completed their Essential Studies but will need five 300-400 courses in their majors and minors to complete their Integrative Studies requirement. Students transferring to the University will be in a similar situation as many of them will transfer courses which satisfy their Essential Studies requirement but, generally, will be required to take a minimum of five courses at the University to complete their Integrative Studies requirement.