Faculty members also struggled somewhat to define the terms integrated learning
and experiential learning. For example, Jennifer Johnson, when asked about the concepts,
replied that the terminology used “could be experiential, could be first-hand, we just keep
85
inventing different buzz-words.” Jane Fields, who also referred to the concepts as
“buzzwords” noted,
I can tell you that the goals that, the faculty’s goals now – it just changed
yesterday – the mission of the college just changed yesterday, this why we’re a
little cynical about it. It was integrative learning. It is now experiential learning
and it is also, depending on what day you ask, about educating the whole person
or it’s about freedom with purpose.
Her comments seem to imply that, regardless of the terminology, there is an underlying
developmental goal. Todd Collins in discussing the change from integrated to
experiential, observed,
I think we had a lot of different perceptions on what integrative learning meant.
There was no very good definition. And, as that was phased out and we’ve now
decided to focus on experiential learning, that type of learning is an engaged
learning, active learning experience combined with reflection, in my mind.