PROMOTING INTEGRATIVE LEARNING IN FIRST-YEAR SCIENCE

At University College Cork (UCC), prospective students apply to enter one of several broad science streams: Computer Science; Biological and Chemical Sciences; Environmental and  Earth System Sciences; Genetics; Chemical Sciences; Mathematical Sciences; or Physics and  Astrophysics. In Environmental and Earth Systems Sciences, the first-year programme is  presented as a set of eight discrete science modules delivered by six different departments.  Although we hope that first-year science students will gain a solid and broad foundation  across the sciences, coordinators report that students have difficulty transferring their knowledge and skills from one module to another. Indeed, assessment practices in the  modules lead students to believe that the courses are standalone and separate. In addition, students are encouraged to spend some time at another university.   In this potentially fragmented experience of modularisation and mobility, it is up to the  students to make the connections between modules if they can, and to make sense of the  information and concepts with which they are bombarded. Of course, some do better at this  than others. This chapter considers what can be done to help all students gain a more  integrated experience of first-year science, by framing its concerns in relation to the emergence of integrative learning as a theoretical issue and a classroom practice. The  chapter explores the challenges and benefits of integrative learning through a case study of first-year science at UCC.