Public health has constituted itself as a distinct academic discipline. The present paper attempts to understand ontology of this discipline. A study has recently been carried out which concerns, first, conceptualization of ontology of public health, secondly, nature of public health, and thirdly, curriculum development. Ontology is a…

It has become increasingly apparent that no single method for teaching anatomy is able to provide supremacy over another. In an effort to consolidate and enhance learning, a modernized anatomy curriculum was devised by attempting to take advantage of and maximize the benefits from different teaching methods. Both the more traditional approaches to…

Leisure Studies, an emerging field of study in higher education struggling for academic legitimacy, is examined. An interdisciplinary and metaphysical approach is urged, and a commentary on the state of the field and its research in Canada is provided. (Author/MSE)

Four ways in which legal studies can enhance the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum are discussed: the interdisciplinary legal studies course, radical revisions of the liberal arts curriculum, supplementary courses with a practical emphasis, and the legal studies program or department. (MSE)

The renewed interest in interdisciplinary studies is producing different instructional approaches that are providing an important corrective to the limited and fragmented perspectives of the individual academic disciplines. Since they are in the curricular mainstream as requirements for all students, interdisciplinary offerings may have more…

Four papers on science instruction are presented: "Science as a Human Activity" (Harmon Dunathan); "Science as a Historical Process" (Robert Proctor); "Science as a Creative Process" (Robert Pollack); and "Making Science Assessible" (Walter E. Massey). (MSE)

In working to integrate liberal and professional education in the undergraduate curriculum, the various faculties must begin to have systematic conversations with each other to discover their common ground and the potential for working together. (MSE)

In the future, colleges should educate students broadly, so that they will be knowledgeable and flexible enough to live in a society that will demand adaptability. Interdisciplinary and integrated curricula, rather than narrow specialized studies, are needed to prepare such students. (PP)

A discussion is presented on eliminating the current fragmentation of the undergraduate liberal education curriculum and developing a curriculum by building curricular areas not around disciplines but around questions, problems, and enduring ideas for constructive social change. A description is given of three exemplary projects developed to…

The widespread emergence of organized programs of environmental studies in American universities is discussed. Drawing on a national overview, the major problems and opportunities of these academic units and the diversity of their styles and organizational patterns are examined, and speculations about the future of environmental studies are…

Examines the 1997 "Handbook of the Undergraduate Curriculum," a 34-chapter "operating manual and desk reference" to the college curriculum. Assert that, while the dominant trend in higher education in the 20th century has been specialization and proliferation of programs and courses, a historic reversal of this trend is occurring, with…

Five leading feminist scholars assess the nature and extent of the contemporary women's movement in this collaborative book that focuses on the dual disciplinary-interdisciplinary character of feminist research. The five collaborators are Ellen Carol DuBois, Gail Paradise Kelly, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, Carolyn W. Korsmeyer, and Lillian S.…

Presents an annotated bibliography of ERIC materials on critical thinking instruction, focusing on general approaches, and critical thinking approaches linked to developmental education, writing instruction, and other disciplines. (DMM)

Literature on college curriculum has been declining since the early 1990s, representing under 5 percent of the literature added to the ERIC database in 1996. One reason seems to be the emphasis on instruction; another is that information on curricular movements are often addressed in the literature on instructional change. Trends in 1996 in the…

Based on information from professional organizations and individual colleges, this report examines strategies for strengthening the humanities within occupational curricula. The first part of the paper examines the fallacy in the belief that a philosophical antithesis exists between the humanities and other disciplines and discusses the decline of…