Argues that the goal of synthesis, as literally understood, is inadequate when used as a defining characteristic of interdisciplinary studies since epistemological differences among disciplines can be irreconcilable. Proposes alternative objectives for interdisciplinary studies, such as broadening students' perspectives and showing limitations of…

Integration of knowledge is as critical to understanding as is new knowledge. Specialization requires new forms of integration. Graduate programs should teach future faculty to synthesize, seek new relationships between parts and whole, relate past to future and present, and find patterns of meaning not seen through traditional disciplinary…

After reviewing recent contributions to the field of motor development, suggests a pattern formation or dynamics approach to child development as an alternative to the conventional approaches emphasizing maturation (nativist), specific learning experiences (empiricist), cognitive stages (Piagetian), and strategies of encoding and retrieval…

Discussing concepts presented in "Philosophy and Education: Eightieth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education," the author suggests an approach to knowledge-building that would make educational philosophers the synthesizers of interdisciplinary knowledge in the social sciences. Problems with existing conceptual…

Advocates the addition of interdisciplinary humanities courses to the Canadian junior high school curriculum. The primary objective would be to increase student capacity to synthesize connections between diverse facts and ideas. (AM)

Argues that current practices for teaching integrative thinking skills are inadequate partly because no model exists to understand such efforts. Proposes a model for teaching integrative thinking based on existing models of creativity and synthesis. Discusses implications of the model for interdisciplinary studies. (32 citations) (AJL)

Promising instructional development perspectives are synthesized into a set of perspectives that might be discussed by the instructional technology profession to set some new directions for the field. An integrated set of criteria, "Configurational Inquiry Instructional Development Perspective" (CIIDP), is proposed. Configurational…