Integrated Learning and Peru

Judy Sunderman recently has been talking to me about what she is calling “integrated learning.” A couple of her thoughts on this subject include: “Robert Kegan (1994) noted that most of us are in “over our heads” when it comes to modern problems. The way we have been taught to analyze and understand issues doesn’t prepare us for the disarray of complexities that characterize contemporary life. Our understanding is based on linear patterns within discipline-defined subjects which often elude innovative, nontraditional, and multilayered thinking.” And, “There are spotty and often isolated attempts by institutions to experiment with vehicles for learning that better support integrative thinkers and doers. These academic programs and experiences are aimed at providing students with sustained opportunities to explore a wide range of knowledge and make connections among seemingly disparate topics.”

I recently returned from a trip to Peru. We visited Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu, Puno and Lake Titikaka. Of course, Machu Picchu was the ultimate experience (I had to include a least one picture below). All-in-all the trip was very challenging in a number of ways, but in the end it was a trip of a lifetime.

Did I experience integrated learning during that trip? Lets consider the topic of altitude. Our trip experiences ranged from near sea-level (Lima) to over 13,000 feet (Lake Titikaka). Living in the flat-lands of central Illinois, not being in the best of shape, having some limited experiences skiing at higher elevations, and yes, getting older, all combined to make the issue of potential altitude sickness something of concern prior to the trip. Based on prior experience, I had only felt minor effects of skiing at higher altitudes, such as slight headaches, etc., so I did not expect to react too strongly. All the supporting information that I came across indicated that staying hydrated and taking it very easy initially would help. So, we created an approach to deal with the altitude that was consistent with those suggestions. And then landed in the Andes mountains to test our theories. Of course the best plans don’t always work. Travel fatigue and uncertain or modified schedules, along with the driving desire to make the most out of the opportunities of visiting these remarkable places (headache or not), combined to challenge our plans for thinking about how the altitude might affect us.

Here’s where the integration comes in. We continued learning as we experienced the altitude. We changed our behavior, slowing the speed of walking around and taking extra efforts to stay hydrated. We did undergo some limited metabolic adaptation in the short time we were in Peru. Each experience was associated with a different and new place that we had not previously visited, each one offering its own challenges. And most importantly, we survived the challenges, further cementing the relationship between what we thought we understood about altitude and how to avoid altitude sickness, the experiences encountered at the various altitudes, and the association of those experiences with other insights gained about the specific places we visited, such as its quite hot up on Machu Picchu in July in spite of it being their winter. We came away with an integrated knowledge where the theoretical was tempered through overcoming of personal challenges and was linked to meaningful individual experiences associated with unique environments. Theory integrated with individual experiences gained in special environments.

The challenge we face in the classroom is how to bring in opportunities that promote those individual experiences and those special environments to be integrated with the content that we feel is critical for our students. Given enough $$, can we take them all to visit a place like this?



No, but we should be able to do more in class than just lecture and show pretty pictures. Again, one of the goals that Ann Abbott has for her program this fall is to think about ways that we can integrate community perspectives, needs and goals into the classroom without having to send students physically out into the community. These in-class approaches should then complement the array of experiential learning opportunities that students may have for learning in an out-of-classroom environment. We should be able to, as Judy says, provide "students with sustained opportunities to explore a wide range of knowledge and make connections among seemingly disparate topics."