Teaching Integratively:Five Dimensions of

Transformation

Roben Torosyan, Ph.D.Center for Academic Excellence

Curriculum & Instruction, Philosophy

Fairfield University

Session Goals

• Show patterns that connect disciplines, learning styles and frameworks

• Identify what you find most important for students to know, do and value

• Provide takeaway tools (matrix, assignment and rubric)

Background

• “Integrative education” (since 1940’s) and interdisciplinary studies (Klein, 1990)

• AAC&U Integrative Learning conference (Huber & Hutchings, 2004)

• Transformative learning: reframe problem or orientation (Mezirow, 2000)

Big Picture Conceptions

• Metaphors we live by: argument, time (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003)

• Images of organization: machine, organism, brain (Morgan, 2007)

• Big timelines of history: many, few, one world (Christian, 2004)

The Problem with Grand Narratives

• “The final belief is to believe in a fiction, which you know to be a fiction, there being nothing else. The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it willingly.” – Wallace Stevens “Adagia,” in Opus Posthumous, Ed.

posthumously by Milton J. Bates. Orig. 1957. New edition 1989. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 189.

Life from 1 to 3 Dimensions

• Flatland (Abbott, 1885/2002)– http://

www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/dimensions.html

• Push beyond habitual ways of seeing

• Create disorienting dilemmas

Developmental Models

• Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

• Student development (Perry, 1968/1999; Baxter Magolda, 2004)

• Integral education, not “turn mind off” but all quadrants, all levels (Wilber, 2000)

Student Development / Maturity

W. P

erry

(1999/1970)

Dualism:

Right/wrong

Multiplicity:

Right way to answers, the process called for

Relativism:

No certainty; use supportive evidence

Contextual Relativism: No absolute truth, but right/wrong in context

M. B

. Baxter-M

ago

lda

(1999)

Absolute: women “receive” knowledge; men “master” what authority says

Transitional: women construct knowledge through dialogue; men often debate

Independent: women think individually but also value exchange; men value mostly individual thinking

Contextual: share responsibility constructing knowledge, peers and professors as colleagues

Five Dimensions of Transformation

PEDA: Perceive, Evaluate, Decide, Act (Lauer, 1996-97)

Sensory Categorical Relational Meta Integral

Observe, see, hear, feel, desire

Take sensation and categorize, sort and standarize

Take categories and standards and test,

theorize, transform

Change models, patterns by which we test, theorize, transform

Overcome separation, unify, notice inter-penetration

Beyond the 3rd Dimension

A New Picture of Gravity:Einstein's success in explaining gravity as warps and curves in the fabric of space and time set him on a quest to unify gravity with electricity and magnetism.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

(chap. 3, The Elegant Universe)

Relativity and Transformation

At every dimension, the prior dimension to which one was subject becomes object for consideration.

At every transformation, that to which one was subject becomes object for consideration.

Facts Relationships, structures

Tell what need to know Develop thinking beyond any discipline

Singularities Multiple views, contexts

Grade, assess Coach, comment

Complete assignment Ask questions, reflect, create

Do, achieve, results Be, ask why, enjoy process

Get it right Make mistakes

Teaching Integratively

What’s most important for people to:

• know?

• do?

• value?

Sample assignments / tasks

• How do you know people know, do or value as you intended? (How measure or evaluate?)– E.G. Letter to a philosophy novice;

rubric: opposing view, real life example (see sample in handouts)

• Post yours

Gallery Walk to Find Themes

• Ask for explanations as needed

• Move like with like

• Where you see a theme, label it

Gallery Walk to Find Themes

• Building community• Developing persistence• Back & forth between positions• Function of literature• Function of language• Nature/universe• Data• Value process of field & interdependence

Integrative Exercises• Writing:

– Free writing– Write, pair, share first– Add, Switch, Transform

• Dialogue devices:– Write, pass all the cards, discuss– Debate: sayback opposing view– Role play

• Creative captures:– Haiku– Symbol– Skit– Found object

Uses & Limits

• Uses:– Knowing what others value in courses– That you can make themes– Linearity makes more clear– 5th dimension symbol of yin/yang is nonlinear– People talking, rearranging, w/ language

• Limits:– Suggesting everything must integrate/fit– Linear model, draw more fluidly

Summary

• Attend to big picture concepts and applying them in specific contexts– Ask always “What’s the point”?

• Make that which is subject become object for transformation

• Make transparent what mean by better, richer, success

Evaluation & ReferencesAbbott, E. A., & Stewart, I. (2002). The annotated flatland : A romance of many dimensions.

Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus. Anderson, L. W. & D. R. Krathwohl (Eds.). (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and

Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Baxter Magolda, M. B., & King, P. M. (2004). Learning partnerships: Theory and models of practice to

educate for self-authorship (1st ed.). Sterling, Va.: Stylus. Christian, D. (2004). Maps of time : An introduction to big history. Berkeley: University of California. Huber, M. T., & Hutchings, P. (2004). Integrative learning: Mapping the terrain. Klein, J. T. (1990). Interdisciplinarity: History, theory, and practice. Detroit: Wayne State University. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lauer, R. M. (1996-97). A meta curriculum based upon critical thinking. ETC., 53(4), 374-387. Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (1st ed.).

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Morgan, G. (2007). Images of organization (Updated ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Perry, W. G. (1968/1999). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years. (L. L.

Knefelkamp, Intro.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Torbert, W. R., et al. (2004). Action inquiry: The secret of timely and transforming leadership. San

Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler. Torosyan, R. (2001, Fall). Motivating students: Evoking transformative learning and growth. ETC. 58

(3): 311-328. Volk, T. (1995). Metapatterns across space, time, and mind. New York: Columbia University. Wilber, K. (2000). Sex, ecology, spirituality : The spirit of evolution (2nd, rev. ed.). Boston:

Shambhala.