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Pedagogy
THE INTEGRATED SCIENCE PROGRAM’S EDUCATIONAL DELIVERY APPROACH
The Integrated Science Program’s (ISP) educational delivery approach is informed by the understanding that learning is a symbiotic development of new and meaningful knowledge built upon a base of existing knowledge. At ISP, teaching and learning are essentially interactive processes. In other words, we practice the art of creative transmission of knowledge with students as active participants. The enlightened integration of real life experiences with new and meaningful knowledge of science is a foundation of ISP’s pedagogy.
ISP’s delivery approach is also informed by the belief that meaningful knowledge enhances an indivudual's freedom and that constructing meaningful knowledge is a lifelong process towards freedom - the ease of movement in any environment, domain, or context. ISP’s pedagogy promotes a collaborative and interactive learning environment that is sensitive to different learning styles in order to cultivate in each student a sound desire to learn. Such a learning environment assists students in acquiring a powerful scaffold and understanding of the core of scientific knowledge both within and across disciplines. The main tenets of the ISP educational delivery approach are outlned below.
- Students receive on-line orientation materials before their first class which provide an overview of the scientific inquiry process and a large frame for the text of science, as well as a guide on how to optimally study and learn science.
- Classes are small in size (maximum 30 students) and intimate. Students proceed through the courses in a cohort that encourages collaborative learning. They are focused and immersed in one subject at a time and encouraged to form study groups that are supported by a sound web-based interface.
- Students are challenged to develop creativity, critical thinking and scientific reasoning through a pedagogy that helps them:
1) develop context for the text by asking simple questions about the topic at hand, and 2) relate topics and concepts to one another as the class proceeds.
- Socratic dialogue is a major classroom strategy for cultivation of a collaborative learning environment that promotes sharing of knowledge among students and faculty.
- Students are stimulated to develop an expansive assimilation of the sciences due to an intensive, weekend-based class format that cultivates a sound collaborative learning environment with students immersed in one subject at a time. A strong web-based interface allows students to both reinforce and deepen learning during the period between classes in a collaborative way.
- Laboratory exercises are efficiently prepped and designed to provide optimal hand-on experience with selected methods, phenomena, and objects of study. Laboratory reports are completed outside of class and submitted through the web.
- In each class students are given an independent study assignment designed to further deepen and integrate knowledge of the subject by developing different problem-solving skills and conceptual organization than those fostered in classroom and laboratory learning.
- Learning outcomes are evaluated on a continuous basis throughout the course, applying both formative and summative evaluations with multiple strategies.
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