In 2010, the University of Massachusetts Amherst implemented an upper-division general education requirement, the integrative experience (IE), designed to provide a structured context for students to reflect on their own learning and explore the connections between the broad exposure of general education and the more focused exposure of their major. Instructional development and formative assessment have been imbedded in the IE program from its inception, and in spring 2019, the General Education Council conducted its first full review of the IE program. The results of this review, in combination with evidence from the ongoing assessment conducted throughout the early years of the program, have generated important insights into how to advance and improve the campus’ efforts to foster reflective and integrative learning. These insights are informing formative feedback to departments, ongoing review processes, and instructional support. In this workshop, participants will draw from the results of the UMass Amherst experience, as well as their own and each other’s efforts, to identify methods to enhance their own campus initiatives to foster and assess reflective and integrative learning. We will focus on each of the following: defining reflective and integrative learning, curricular design and review processes, tools for assessment, and using results to design instructional development tools and opportunities.
Martha L. A. Stassen, Associate Provost and Director, Office of Academic Planning and Assessment; and
Rebecca Petitti, Doctoral Candidate and General Education Council Graduate Assistant; and
Claire Hamilton, Associate Provost and Director, Center for Teaching and Learning—all of the University of Massachusetts Amherst