The other side of the podium: student perspectives on learning integration.(Report)

Student perspectives on the transmission of integration in integrative programs were examined through a qualitative study. Participants in the study were 595 graduate and undergraduate students (305 women and 247 men) drawn from four Evangelical Christian institutions of higher education. Participants provided written data in response to three open-ended questions, inquiring about the exemplary and helpful aspects of their educational experiences with respect to integration. Post-hoc content analyses informed by grounded theory analytic processes were used to analyze the data, resulting in two overarching themes: Facilitating Integration, and Concepts of Integration, which respectively address how students learn integration, and how students conceptualize integration. The implications for the conceptualization of integration and for the pedagogy of facilitating integration are explored.

**********

In 1997, Sorenson pointed out that although programs in psychology emphasizing the integration of theology and psychology had existed for over 30 years, no empirical study had examined how such integration actually occurred. With that article, Sorenson launched what would be the first programmatic research in the educational communication of integration. The final report in that series (Sorenson, Derflinger, Bufford, & McMinn, 2004) concluded that all students learn integration the same way, and that this learning occurs "through relational attachments with mentors who model that integration for students personally" (p. 363).

The current study built on Sorensen's work on the influence of professors on the learning of integration. In his work, " integration," or more accurately, integration learning, was operationalized as "how exemplary and helpful the professor was for the student's own integration pilgrimage" (Sorensen, 1997, p. 8). These two characteristics, exemplary and helpful, were derived from student focus groups on how they evaluated faculty. The open-ended survey questions in the current study built on Sorensen's work in two ways. First, by leaving the questions open-ended rather than focusing on faculty, the questions allowed the researchers to discover whether students found factors other than the personal characteristics of the professors helpful to the learning of integration. Secondly, the questions helped to flesh out what students found "exemplary" and "helpful," both in the professors, and in other influences on learning integration.

METHOD

Participants

Participants in the study were 595 graduate and undergraduate students drawn fro, four Evangelical Christian institutions of higher education. participants consisted of 305 women and 247 men. Median age was in the 26-35 age range with almost half the participants in the 18-25 age range. The sample was largely homogenous ethnically; 72.6% identified themselves as Caucasian, 8.7% as African-American, 5.9%, as Asian American, 3% as Hispanic, >1% as Native American, and 1.5%, Other The majority of students, 88%, were full-time graduate students and 95% were on-campus as opposed to distance-learning students. Totals do not add to 100% due to some non-response to items. Disciplines represented include Law (37.5%), Counseling and psychology (25.5%), Communication (4.7%), Theology (2.4%), Business (1.8%), and Education (1.8%).