Pragmatics of Learning: The Integron Method

To enhance the process of learning and teaching at City University we have developed a new

instructional methodology that we have chosen to call Integron Teaching Methodology. This

methodology integrates a range of different techniques (e.g. accelerated learning methods;

experiential learning methods; problem based learning, life long learning, etc.) into a strategic learning process that significantly enhances students subject based learning, learning skills overall and their whole person development.

What is different about this methodology is not the individual elements, per se, but rather the way in which different aspects of the various methods for accelerating learning are fitted together to create the learners whole learning environment an environment that actuates natural learning potentials in people.

While there are a number of approaches to developing learning skills designed to aid whole

person development, generally as a means to enhance the process of acquiring subject-based

knowledge, we have reversed the order and used the process of acquiring a specific subject-based knowledge to aid the learners whole person development.

The Integron Methodology is thus a subtle but profound paradigm shift. The paradigmatic change results from a shift in emphasis vis–vis the totality of the learners learning experience. This particular shift relates to the conceptual model underlying the view of learning, which is seen as a natural organic process, and the nature of focus upon the learner. Learner interaction modules – Integrons – that make up the curriculum, naturally build learners knowledge, draw out learners understanding, and generate their meta-cognitive transformations.

In 1999 this methodology was tested in twenty eight contact hours with second year students

learning Human Computer Interface design (HCI). In testing the Integron Teaching Methodology we were able to achieve the following outcomes:

In final year exams, students exposed to the Integron methodology performed significantly

better than students from previous years. This increase came despite a one-third decrease in

teacher contact time.

Using a pre and post-test method of comparison, 15 percent of the students exposed to the

Integron Teaching Methodology were able to demonstrate a significant qualitative shift in

their thinking orientation towards the HCI course material. This compared with only a 3

percent shift in a different student cohort not exposed to the Integron Teaching Methodology.

There were also many obvious qualitative shifts.

The success of the Integron Teaching Methodology comes from: the way it optimizes learning by a holographic organization of learning stimuli that instruct at the level of the presupposed; attention to the relationship between unconscious and conscious processing of information; its multiple feedback loops; shared immersive experiences that ground abstract language symbols that it provides; and its carefully designed-in, subtle distortions of the familiar as the source of motivating, cognitive dissonance and thus as the basis for cognitive, creative leaps.

In this methodology CONTENT is seen as secondary to PROCESS, and the major goal is to get individuals fully engaged in their own learning. Once this has been achieved, content is acquired relatively easily.