This is something that I adapted from Dee's course. I teach advanced pedagogy classes to grad students and one of the challenges we have (and according to the literature, this seems to be a challenge of these types of programs in general) is that the students don't always apply what they are learning to their own classrooms - they don't make those connections. Reflection seems to be of paramount importance, but from my own experiences as both a student and instructor, the reflections often seemed forced. What I'm going to try this year is have them Tweet "connections" - the description from my syllabus is this:
Twitter Reflections/Connections

Each week, each student will post at least one “connection” to Twitter. This assignment is designed to promote immediate reflection and to encourage you to look for connections between what we are learning and discussing in our class, how this relates to your practice as an instructor, your ideas about teaching and learning, and your experiences in life in general. Did you do something new with your students today as a result of something discussed in our class? Did you overhear students on the bus talking about study strategies that we know are less than effective? The “connections” assignment, however, is not restricted to school alone – sometimes it is the outside world that gives us those “ah ha!” moments. Did you hear a story on NPR that related to a class topic? Did you have a discussion with friends over dinner about what good teaching looks like? We will spend some time each class looking over the Twitter feed and discussing our connections.

My hope is they this will become a dynamic discussion between class meetings, where the students become more aware of the connections around them, thanks in part to the ability to instantly share those "ah ha" moments as soon as they happen. (I'd welcome advice if anyone has tried this type of thing before).  

Denise

~~~
Denise Pinette Domizi, Ph.D.
Associate Coordinator of Faculty and TA Development
Center for Teaching and Learning, North Instructional Plaza
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 - (706) 542-6572
http://www.ctl.uga.edu/

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dee Fink <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: June 22, 2010 11:45:13 AM EDT
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Developing Integration Skills
> Reply-To: Dee Fink <[log in to unmask]>
> 
> Peter,
> 
> Glad to hear those ideas were helpful.
> 
> As to your question on how to develop skills around Integration, the key concept in that idea, for me, is "making connections."
>       Then there are various kinds of connections that you might want students to learn how to make.  
> 
> Types of Connections
> First, there can be connections between/among ideas within a course. For example, in a Psychology course, one might want students identify similarities and differences among various theorists, e.g., Freud, Skinner, and Rogers.
>        Or you might want students to make connections between what they are learning in your course and other courses they have taken (or might take), e.g., between geography (a subject I once taught) and history, economics, political science, etc.
>       Or you might want students to make connections between what they are learning in this course and other parts of their life, e.g., between what they are learning about leadership in the Business School and what they see happening in organizations they are part of or what they are trying to do in any organization of which they have been a part or are currently a part.
> 
> How you get that to happen
> To help students make connections of any kind, they basically need to practice making such connections multiple times and getting frequent, immediate feedback.  This will happen usually through a combination of individual reflection, writing, and small group or whole group discussion. 
>       The key, I think, is to give them multiple opportunities to do this and to get feedback every time they do it.  Gradually, if all goes well, they get better at it.
> 
> Hope that gives you some ideas on this task that will be helpful!
> 
> My Best,   Dee
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 2:44 AM, Peter Smith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi again Dee,
> 
> Thanks for taking time to respond ... you prompted me to start thinking about the things that weren't there (from your taxonomy): Integrating, Caring, and Foundational knowledge.
> 
> It seems to me that there are possibly skills that we need to address in those categories. For example, in the foundational knowledge I suspect that many students struggle with finding effective ways to understand and remember the ideas to which they are exposed. i wonder if, for many students, the rate of knowledge acquisition they are meant to achieve comes as a 'shock to the system'. We probably could do something about that---even if it is something as basic effective note-taking and how to read (and find) a scholarly article.
> 
> I can see how we might assist students develop skills around Caring, but I'm struggling to see how one might develop skills in Integration. No doubt the answer is that I need to read more of your work :)
> 
> I still worry that I have been somewhat myopic in the skills list developed thus far. Of course it's contingent on our New Zealand context, but I still hope that others might proffer some suggests. 
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Peter Smith
> 
> Department of Management and International Business
> The University of Auckland Business School, Private Bag 92019, AUCKLAND
> Email: [log in to unmask], Phone: +64 9 923 7178
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 22:28, Dee Fink <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Peter,
>  
> What a wonderful task and related question.
>  
> I will leave the door open to others, to address your question of which of these learning goals might have the largest impact.   What I can't resist is the opportunity to note two things about your list of possible learning goals.
>     
> First, if you had not mentioned that the course was mainly about Management and Marketing, I could have read that list as a good list of learning goals for "Leadership in Any Kind of Organization" - churches, schools, the military, university department chairs, non-profits, etc.
>  
> Second, when I read your list of desired kinds of learning and relate them to my taxonomy of significant learning, they seem to relate to three of the categories of significant learning:
> Application:
> A. Skills
>         Communication
>         Writing
>         Presentation
>         Project Management
>         IT Management
> 
> B. Thinking
>         Critical thinking
>         Problem solving
>         Creativity
> Human Dimension:
> A.  Learning about ONESELF:
>         Managing oneself
>  
> B.  Learning how to INTERACT WITH OTHERS
>         Giving and receiving feedback
>         Negotiating
>         Managing Others
>         Teamwork
> Learning How to Learn
>        Lifelong Learning
> Thanks for the quick posting!  I assume others will have more to say about your question.
>  
> Dee
>  
>  
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 3:47 AM, Peter Smith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I, and two colleagues, have been tasked with developing, introducing, and delivering a new core (aka compulsory) courses for our 1st year, undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Commerce).The 'content' of the course is largely based on Management and Marketing.
> 
> Aside from the 'content', there are explicit goals around the delivery of soft skills. our starting list of soft skills is rather long (more than we can possibly do). Our partial list includes:
> 
> Communication skills
> Writing skills
> Giving and receiving feedback
> Presentation skills
> Project management skills
> Negotiation skills
> Managing self
> Managing others
> Teamwork
> IT Management and Technology
> Critical thinking
> Problem Solving
> Creativity
> Lifelong learning
> 
> 
> I wonder what people have found that, in their experience, are the three or four soft skills that would have the largest positive impact on students  (I'm leaving things rather vague here, so people can interpret the question in a variety of ways).
> 
> 
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Peter Smith
> 
> Department of Management and International Business
> The University of Auckland Business School, Private Bag 92019, AUCKLAND
> Email: [log in to unmask], Phone: +64 9 923 7178
> Wave: [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> ***********************
> L. Dee Fink          
> 234 Foreman Ave.
> Norman, OK  73069
> Phone/FAX:  405-364-6464
> Email:  [log in to unmask]
> Website:  www.finkconsulting.info 
> 
> **National Project Director:  Teaching & Curriculum Improvement (TCI) Project
> **Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
> **Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences
> **Former President of the POD Network in Higher Education (2004-2005) 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> ***********************
> L. Dee Fink          
> 234 Foreman Ave.
> Norman, OK  73069
> Phone/FAX:  405-364-6464
> Email:  [log in to unmask]
> Website:  www.finkconsulting.info 
> 
> **National Project Director:  Teaching & Curriculum Improvement (TCI) Project
> **Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
> **Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences
> **Former President of the POD Network in Higher Education (2004-2005)