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This article presents a grounded theory of ''integration of learning'' among traditional aged college students, which is characterized by the demonstrated ability to link various skills and knowledge learned in a variety of contexts. The author analyzed 194 interviews with students at liberal arts colleges to investigate empirically the ways undergraduates bring knowledge and experiences together so that educators might be able to more intentionally promote the integration of learning. Three distinct types of integration of learning emerged during analysis: (a) connection, the discovery of a similarity between ideas that themselves remain distinctive; (b) application, the use of knowledge from one context in another; and (c) synthesis, the creation of new knowledge by combining insights.T he ability to make connections among disparate elements of information, meaningfully synthesize concepts, and make ideas mobile from one context to another has been heralded as a necessary skill for success in the knowledge economy of the 21st century (

Two experiments are reported which question the value of training students in nonverbal microskills. The first compared the reactions of trained and untrained students to responsive and unresponsive interviewing behavior. Contrary to predictions, trained students were found to place a lower value on both responsiveness and unresponsiveness than untrained students did. The second experiment replicated this finding and also found that: (a) the reactions of untrained students are more accurate than those of trained students in predicting clients ' reactions, and (b) nonverbal behaviors of responsive interviewers are not valued more highly by clients than behaviors of nonresponsive interviewers,

Students integrate their learning experiences across contexts through a process of connecting, applying, and synthesizing information, knowledge, and skills.

ABSTRACT—Many national studies have identified types of experiences that are associated with enhancing college students’ learning. This study contributes to the small but growing body of research on transformative educational experiences that assist and enable college students to develop ways of understanding and being in the world that help them adapt and respond to life's complexities and prepare for future civic, occupational, and family roles. The focus of this exploratory study is on those experiences that had a positive impact on college students’ development toward self‐authorship (Baxter Magolda, 2001; Kegan, 1994). Using interview data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, we analyzed 300 selected experiences from 174 students. We found that students’ approaches to interpreting and understanding their experiences was the major student characteristic that affected their learning (the effect of the experience). We then mapped these findings onto a sequenced developmental curriculum designed to promote self‐authorship.