integrative thinking
The 3 guiding principles of the Liberal & Civic Studies Program are breadth, depth, and integration. Breadth is achieved through the wide range of courses required in the Program; depth, through concentration in a minor field. Integration or integrative thinking is achieved throughout the Collegiate Seminars, all of the L&CS courses (Forum 1, Forum 2, Assessment & Portfolio, and Senior Forum), and the field experience course. Integrative thinking is a form of critical thinking that involves bringing parts together to form a whole.
There are 4 ways that integration occurs in the Liberal & Civic Studies Program. 1 way is between theory and experience, as with service-learning. A second way is the synthesis of ideas from a wide variety of texts, as in the Collegiate Seminar Program, where students experience how texts speak to each other through time. A third way is the relating of ideas and information between classes and fields, such as between art and anthropology. The fourth way involves the students' independent, ongoing integration of ideas into their personal value system — i.e., into their way of perceiving the world, making decisions, relating to other people and to the Creator, and planning a career.
Examples of integrative thinking in the Liberal & Civic Studies Program include the following:
- All Saint Mary's students are encouraged to make connections between different kinds and genres of texts (poetry, drama, history, philosophy, essays, narrative) in their Collegiate Seminar courses. The Forum courses ask Liberal & Civic Studies students to seek connections between courses in different fields — anthropology and psychology, mathematics and religious studies, science and literature. In examining various issues and writing about them in journals and papers, students consider how different subject fields (disciplines) view the same phenomena and how themes such as diversity or community transcend individual disciplines. In Senior Forum students see how the multiple perspectives of different disciplines must be brought into play to effectively address pressing social issues, and to engage in sound problem solving that leads to effective solutions.
- In the field-based course, Liberal & Civic Studies students are expected to relate their academic work to their work in the field. For instance, in Education 122, students draw on their knowledge of human development and theories about learning in order to understand what they observe in the classroom and to interact effectively with children.
The same kinds of connections are sought in Forum 1 when students are asked to relate assigned readings to their service-learning projects and to draw from those projects in interpreting the readings. Similar connections between action and reflection are built into the .25-credit Praxis courses (Community Service, the Arts, and Public Policy). - Finally, Liberal & Civic Studies students are required to engage in integrative thinking throughout the self-assessment process (see Section V), particularly during preparation for the interview component of Assessment & Portfolio. Student enrolled in this course write a 5-7 page self-assessment paper analyzing their growth and development since beginning college. In this paper, they are expected to show how they integrated their various college experiences and other aspects of their lives into a holistic perspective. Also, they are expected to explain this integration further when they share their portfolio with, and are interviewed by, a panel of Liberal & Civic Studies advisors.
