Encouraging Integrative Learning through Current Events and Learning Portfolios

In this essay, an Art History professor frustrated by student indifference to ancient art develops a new course goal and class activity. The professor hoped to foster students’ appreciation of ancient cultures while they worked toward achieving deep, lasting learning. In the first version of the activity, students were asked to read current events and connect them to the course material as well as to their other classes and own lives. Although some students met some of the goal, the professor was not satisfied. The activity was revised, with students including their article responses in learning portfolios and reflecting upon them in a final portfolio essay. The portfolio reflection essays indicate that many students succeed in achieving integrative learning, while the essays themselves facilitate integrative scholarship and student appreciation of the subject matter.