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& Muth (2008), has discovered bene ts in competencies that have workplace relevance such as collaborative learning and self-re ection (Burnett, 1999; Leithwood, Jantzi & Cof n, 1995; Norton, 1995), enhanced interpersonal skills (Browne- Ferrigno & Muth, 2003; Horn, 2001), increased professional networks (Muth & Barnett, 2001), and degree completion (Dorn et al., 1995).
5. TEaM-BasEDLEaRning
One of the key educational strategies common to all programs at RRU is the emphasis on team-based learning. Since
its inception, RRU has been a leader in developing innovative and high-quality instructional approaches that facilitate team- based learning. The applied, professional focus of the programs at RRU underscores the importance of teaching effective team skills that have direct application in the workplace. Furthermore, team-based learning extends our learning community
model by facilitating the generation of innovative strategies
and solutions by groups of students who bring their own experiences and perspectives to bear on the problem or issue under study.
According to Fink (2002), most authors agree that the key purpose of team learning is to enhance students’ opportunities to engage in active and enhanced learning. As well, Fink notes that effective team learning is an intentional instructional strategy that encourages the development of high-performing learning teams engaged in speci c and signi cant learning tasks. Several researchers have concluded that by interacting with
one another, team members share knowledge and skills which leads to increased ef ciency and effectiveness of the collective learning process (van Woerkom & Croon, 2009: Ellis et al., 2003; van Offenbeek, 2001 ). Furthermore, there is a signi cant body
of research that has established a positive link between team learning and team performance (Chan et al., 2003; Edmondson,
1999; Edmondson et al., 2001a; van der Vegt and Bunderson, 2005; van Offenbeek, 2001; Zellmer-Bruhn and Gibson, 2006). Other researchers have determined positive relationships between team learning and increased innovation (Bunderson and Sutcliffe, 2003; Edmondson et al., 2001b.)
Team-based learning takes many forms at RRU from engagement in formalized, authentic activities like case competitions, leadership challenges, and action research inquiry labs,
to less formal, smaller-scale activities like online discussions
and collaborative papers.
6. sUPPORTing inTEgRaTivE LEaRning
Ackoff and Greenberg (2008) observe that our predominant approach to educating both children and adults in Western society is highly dependent on a compartmentalized
curriculum in which the solving of problems is approached
from a disciplinary perspective. They contend that this is an out- moded approach that limits creativity and innovation in learning and that a different approach is required which needs to start many years prior to students entering university but is still required at the post-secondary level:
There is no longer the slightest justi cation for introducing children to the idea that human thought is a collection
of fragmented “disciplines” and making that idea the centre-
pin of the educational experience for students in schools.
As a historical curio, this idea might make for an amusing aside in a general discussion of the evolution of human thought,
but as a notion that is productive and useful for developing minds it is, at the very least, counterproductive. Children grow up seeing the world as a whole. Their greatest challenge – one that continues to be the central task of every person throughout life – is to form a worldview that makes sense of the multitude of their experiences. Indeed, human sanity depends on the integrated
24 Learning and Teaching Model Royal Roads University