What factors encourage and sustain enduring curriculum change at a typical North American university? Like many faculty members and groups working in teaching and learning centers, the authors have been concerned with understanding how curriculum change takes place in a university. Their group, the Centre for Leadership in Learning at McMaster…

Steps to improving introductory courses to keep the appropriate liberal education emphasis include: teach less, restructure testing, relate course content to problems in the outside world, pursue ethical issues, balance facts with other forms of knowledge, teach the arts of discussion and critical thinking, and help students develop wisdom. (MSE)

Introductory psychology courses are often designed as technical, preprofessional courses for majors, but they should instead offer a view of human nature. A Wesleyan University course was designed on the notion of the psychological human, and covered the functions of perception and memory, cognitive processes, the social dimension of human nature,…

Teaching the large introductory science course is a challenge, but when the objective is seen not as covering the field but uncovering part of it to illustrate principles common to the whole, the facts are no longer the end result but tools with which the disciplines can be further explored. (Author/MSE)

The Stockton Connection, voluntary summer seminars, focuses on bringing to middle and high school faculty continuing updates on the most recent developments in the various content areas--selected, summarized, and simplified with an eye to classroom use, and presented to students to develop higher-order thinking skills. (MLW)

Introductory courses in biology are often either designed for majors or watered-down versions for nonmajors that are not stimulating. A course developed for nonmajors emphasizes the relationship of biology to the human condition and focuses on five basic concepts while being flexible enough to adapt to new research and technology. (MSE)

A step-by-step guide to designing interdisciplinary courses is presented. Underlying theoretical rationales and expected educational outcomes are explored, and concrete suggestions and examples are offered. Steps include assembling an interdisciplinary team, selecting a topic, identifying disciplines for inclusion, developing the issues underlying…

A sophomore- or junior-level education course on social diversity in education is described, and techniques used to teach it are discussed. Content includes five subject areas: gender and sexism, race and racism, religious culture and anti-Semitism, sexual orientation and heterosexism, and physical or mental ability and ableism. (MSE)