Engaged learning seeks to cultivate integrative approaches that require students to use multiple points of view or approaches in their coursework. Similarly, civically engaged courses ask students to consider public problems that involve multiple stakeholders, institutions, and policies. We are interested in whether courses designed to meet civic…

Humanity is in a tight race between planetary catastrophe and enlightenment. It is not clear which will prevail. The old paradigm, that of materialism, individualism, and fierce competition, is failing at all levels--economic, social, political, and environmental--and bringing life as we know it to the edge of a precipice. At the same time, a…

This article explains how to build an interdisciplinary course about global problem-solving that is anchored in business law yet draws substantially from many other fields. In 2020, Liz Brown developed and led a teaching team composed of fourteen faculty members and learning center leaders from across Bentley University to deliver a pilot course…

As the world faces increasingly complex issues, there is a recognition in many disciplines that the existing paradigm of reductionist and linear thinking is not enough to address these issues. The agriculture, food, and natural resources fields are facing a host of issues that defy solutions in part because of the level of complexity. Systems…

This article draws from a keynote address presented at the 2019 Doctoral Education Forum sponsored by the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU). A review of the literature reveals growth in doctoral education in the United States and the proliferation of types of doctoral degrees. The article describes an increase in the variety…

Purpose: This study aims to understand if geographers, who teach in a new sustainability program, are conveying new knowledge, understanding, skills and competence about the integrated and holistic concept of "sustainability", rather than individual human-environmental issues to the students. In other words, are geography professors…

Advertising and public relations are complex practices, and it is challenging for educators to find instructors who can fulfill expertise across disciplines, particularly in creative applications involving technology. Team teaching is one approach to provide multiple proficiencies. This paper describes how two co-taught courses, Design for…

Universities are increasingly recognising the need to broaden the experience and understanding of their students beyond a single disciplinary approach, to produce graduates more capable of solving the problems of a multidisciplinary world. At the University of Tasmania, a "breadth unit" programme is underway with the dual purpose of…

Use of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) has been advocated to highlight student accomplishments as well as to document program and course outcomes. This use of ePortfolios incorporates information technology, thus aligning the educational process in degree programs to twenty-first-century teaching, learning, and information literacy. Here we…

The notion of interdisciplinarity in higher education raises significant questions about the very nature of knowledge and knowing. Are there fundamental knowledge bases associated with particular disciplines that cannot be understood through interdisciplinary teaching and learning? Or is there a common knowledge base across the disciplines that…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the experiences of professors participating in an institution-wide effort to educate students for engaged citizenship at Drake University, a Midwestern private institution that explicitly claims to prepare students for citizenship as part of the university mission statement. The…

The author's specialization as a Christian theologian is in the combined area of morality and spirituality. The focus of his teaching and research has been in the areas of bioethics; the theology of sexuality, marriage, and the family; and Christian spirituality. In his research he came across several authors who advocated some positions different…

College and university educators seek to increase student engagement in learning content, skills, and applications. To achieve this goal, we used transformative teaching techniques in the design of a World Challenge: a two-week, group-based, reflective course for sophomores leading their own learning in developing creative solutions to the problem…

In his seminal work connecting composition studies and sustainability, Derek Owens (2001: 8,6) notes that "learning how to live sustainably ought to be our primary cultural concern and, as such, must play a central role in our curricula". Within composition studies, Owens suggests that sustainability might begin with the study of the environment,…

The University Seminars at Columbia University demonstrate how faculty members can enrich their intellectual lives through contact with colleagues from other fields and institutions and with nonacademic researchers. The development of the program at Columbia and similar programs at other institutions are described. (MLW)