Making connections between experiences inside the classroom and out is one of the most important aspects of education.

A workshop on this topic, “More Than the Sum of the Parts: Fostering Integrative Learning,” will be presented by Pat Hutchings, vice president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, from 1 to 3 p.m. today in the Grand Ballroom in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Registration for the workshop is required.

The main goal of the integrative learning process is to help undergraduates piece together all aspects of their experiences – general education, concentration, electives, co-curricular activities and the real world – to help prepare them for the world and their lives beyond campus.

The Carnegie Foundation defines integrative learning as “fostering students’ abilities to integrate learning – over time, across courses, and between academic, personal and community life.”

The workshop will focus on the meaning of integrative learning in academic settings and examine strategies to promote integration across courses, among disciplines, between schools and the community, life and work.

Hutchings, who will discuss ways to help students make educational connections, said participants will learn about the various approaches toward integrative learning.

“Session participants will learn about promising steps toward this kind of more ‘connected learning’ that have been tried in other settings, and will have the opportunity to talk together about how to adapt these approaches to the EIU context,” Hutchings said. “We will also talk about creating a campus culture in which integrative learning can thrive.”

Mildred Pearson, the director of faculty development, said that although Eastern is in its early stages of implementing integrative learning across campus, steps are being discussed to move toward a more connected form of learning.

“While we have senior seminars that enable our students to incorporate the skills and knowledge developed in their individual courses, a form of integrative learning, I have had several conversations with the deans that detail how integrative learning will necessarily look different across colleges and across disciplines,” Pearson said.

Bonnie Irwin, the current dean of the Honors College and the next dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, said she is looking forward to hearing Hutchings’ discussion on curriculum design and learning how to incorporate integrative methods into classes while still retaining rigorous content.

“In my experience, students learn more when they can connect what they learn in class to their lives outside of class,” Irwin said. “Also, by connecting the various classes together, integrative learning helps a student make sense of their education. Integrative learning makes education more meaningful for students.”

Irwin said learning is more meaningful when it can be connected to other things.

“When students connect their learning to their lives, they enjoy their classes more and the learn more,” Irwin said. “Integrative learning asks students to reflect on what they learn and how they learn; this reflection makes them better students, and the better they get at learning, the more they will learn.”

Pearson said that integrative learning is an ongoing process that does not end in the classroom.

“It’s great when we begin to see what we’re doing in residential life,” Pearson said. “It’s important to have discussions with students about how to learn to live, and live to learn.”

Emily Reid can be reached at 581-7942 or at ejreid@eiu.edu