Transforming Students through Integrative and Transformative Learning in a Field-Based Experience

Projects that consider integrative and transformative learning theories challenge students to consider their own biases and their place in a larger community.  A project like this has the potential to increase a student’s civic mindedness as they are taken to places outside of their comfort zone. This project and study involved twenty-one freshman, sophomore and junior-level students from a video production course at an urban Midwestern university.  The project design was posited in integrative and transformative learning theory and followed the Intercultural Competence model as students created a documentary interviewing incarcerated in multiple prison systems.  The purpose of doing so was to increase the students’ awareness of an unfamiliar, and oftentimes intimidating environment, providing them with a unique learning experience where they could develop their skills in video production and intercultural awareness.