An integral approach to active learning in mathematics

In this chapter we examine the notion of "active learning" through Wilber's Integral AQAL Model and through two learning models based on AQAL. Our examination of Edwards' integral learning and Renert and Davis' five stages of mathematics, results in a multi-perspective, multi-level notion of "active learning". We demonstrate, through the development of a rubric to gauge students' "activeness", the complexity of what is involved in the teaching and learning process when one becomes mindful of the perspectives and levels (AQAL) that are present for every student. Several episodes of learning are used to show how each theoretical model applies, and an extended episode, which illustrates a student's repair strategy on a mathematically erroneous concept, is used to illustrate the analysis of the extent of active learning. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how the rubric of active learning, along with the four continua, can help teachers be mindful of the multiple perspectives that influence learning.