Fostering interdisciplinary learning in biology will require significant changes in the way one teaches science to K-12 students. The perspective on interdisciplinary biology teaching and learning in this essay is based on the author's experiences as a former research cell biologist, high school science teacher, and developer of secondary science…

In this essay, the authors argue that linked-course learning communities serve students at nonresidential metropolitan public universities by increasing their academic achievement, reducing their attrition, and engaging them in the project of public education. They use a winter 2004 research project to argue that linked courses create supportive…

Describes the NETwork for Excellent Teaching, an instructional development program at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) that uses a performance technology approach. NET program goals and representative projects are described; and goal achievement is evaluated through administrative acceptance, student learning, and…

Reviews the establishment, purposes, current status, problems, and prospects of middle schools. Identifies five goals generally accepted by middle school educators. Reports that middle schools' exemplary features include such components as interdisciplinary team organization, flexible schedules, and home base/individual counseling programs. (GEA)

Understanding U.S. culture is difficult, because the information explosion creates an increase in the number and complexity of various cultural relationships. American Studies is a valuable and unique discipline because it directly addresses this problem, the basic purposes of education, and the relationships that shape students' culture. This…

This paper discusses issues in instructional material development for rural gifted children in Australia. Issues include who should develop curriculum materials, what form should enrichment materials take, which theoretical frameworks are appropriate, and how should content be selected. Interdisciplinary materials used in developing a unit in…

Argues for a multifocused divisional unit versus the traditional single discipline communication department for institutions that are generally small (6 to 10 thousand students) and where enrollments overall have leveled off for both the institution and department. (KEH)

Maps area of information studies as basis for discussion and course development with other university departments. Diversity versus disparity, meaning of information, information professions, information as commodity and process, information management programs and course models, information science and technology, and relationships of…

The contact zones in teaching writing are connected in multiple ways. A principal concern is how students learn to write for the disciplines, but the focus is the relationship between composition specialists and their colleagues throughout the disciplines. In the early days of writing across the curriculum (WAC), writing was seen primarily as a…

The trend in many classrooms is to move away from using a single textbook in content area classrooms and move toward the use of various works of children's literature integrated with and related to a content-area topic. Instead of using a single discipline approach, teachers should use a multidisciplinary approach in which several subject areas…

Articles for developing an integrated secondary curriculum are presented in this book. The articles include: "Synthesis Versus Fragmentation: The Way Out of Curriculum Confusion," by Daniel Tanner; "The Interrelated Curriculum," by Steven S. Means; "Integrated Teaching and Learning in Essential Schools," by Richard Lear; "Interdisciplinary Teaming…

A pedagogy appropriate to college level courses and comprised of interdisciplinary content, multidisciplinary faculty, and students from diverse academic backgrounds and with varying levels of skills merits development. A taxonomy of some of the difficulties in the construction of such a course in Mexican American studies, for example, focuses on…

Discussion of the development of school policies for media education focuses on experiences in Scottish secondary schools. Theoretical approaches, curriculum models, and teaching practices are reviewed, the interdisciplinary nature of media studies is discussed, and implications for schools adding media studies to the curriculum are described.…

This paper describes a World Wide Web-based, generic, inter-disciplinary subject called computer-aided policymaking. It has been offered at Melbourne University (Australia) from the beginning of 2001. It has generated some salutary lessons in marketing and pedagogy, but overall it is concluded that Web-based teaching has a rosy future.…

This report addresses the question of what knowledge and skills should be taught to citizens whose judgement is the ultimate source of policy in a democratic nation. The report recommends the adoption of new goals for school programs, changes in curriculum offerings and in teacher education, creation of curriculum development centers, greater…