Integrating modern world tax issues into the classroom.

• Author: Nellen, Annette

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CHANGES IN WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS AND a global focus on environmental concerns raise a variety of tax issues likely to be of great interest to today's college students. Students may have more knowledge of and experience with many of these issues than their professors have. Bringing these topics into tax courses can introduce students to the types of issues they will face after graduation and that they can help solve. Discussion of these modern world concerns also supports integrative learning to give students a deeper level of understanding of the issues.

This column reviews the benefits of interdisciplinary and integrated coursework, suggests three aspects of the modern world that should engage students and draw on their knowledge gained outside the classroom, and suggests ways to incorporate the topics into a tax course. The issues suggested for possible integration into a tax course are:

* Virtual worlds;

* Digital goods; and

* Climate change.

Importance of Interdisciplinary and Integrated Coursework

Integrated Learning

In recent years, emphasis has been placed on the importance of integrated learning to help students get the most out of their college experience. Students must be able to go beyond seeing discrete information from one textbook or lecture as being useful only as isolated knowledge. They also need knowledge gained from integrating information that then expands their understanding. This broader perspective is useful in identifying and solving problems and in finding new areas to explore. Integrated learning not only broadens the student's knowledge, it can also motivate and enable students to engage in lifelong learning.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has been leading the charge to reinvigorate higher education to ensure that it delivers the learning students need in today's global society. The association suggests that students must become "integrative thinkers who can see connections in seemingly disparate information and draw on a wide range of knowledge to make decisions." Such thinkers "adapt the skills learned in one situation to problems encountered in another" (AAC&U National Panel Report, "Greater Expectations" 21 (AAC&U 2002), www.greaterexpectations.org/pdf/ gex.final.pdf).

Integrated learning helps students become better problem solvers. They can see how they can use ideas and knowledge in multiple areas to better understand issues and derive solutions. "Learning that helps develop integrative capacities is important because it builds habits of mind that prepare students to make informed judgments in the conduct of personal, professional, and civic life" (Huber and Hutchings, Integrative Learning: Mapping the Terrain 1 (AAC&U 2004), www.carnegie foundation.org/dynamic/publications/ mapping-terrain.pdf).

Interdisciplinary Studies

Integrated learning goes hand in hand with interdisciplinary studies. Despite the importance of integrated learning across disciplines, universities are not usually structured to support this well. The discipline-based department structure tends to reinforce the belief and practice that knowledge falls into discrete, narrow topics. However, many of the issues students will deal with in their careers and personal lives do not fall neatly into discrete topics. One of the "modern issues" discussed in this column is climate change. This topic needs to be understood and addressed in interdisciplinary ways because it involves science, geography, intergovernmental relations, finance, economics, and more.

Huber and...