In the age of standardized testing, science and social studies are not given the same priority as mathematics and reading in the curriculum of United States schools. High stakes testing is viewed as having heavily biased schools toward teaching tested subjects and away from less frequently tested subjects. This paper is premised on the notion that…

Since 2002 the authors have offered an undergraduate major in Mathematical Biology at Harvey Mudd College. The major was developed and is administered jointly by the mathematics and biology faculty. In this paper the authors describe the major, courses, and faculty and student research and discuss some of the challenges and opportunities they have…

Funded by innovative programs at the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Richmond faculty in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer science teamed up to offer first- and second-year students the opportunity to contribute to vibrant, interdisciplinary research projects. The result was…

Technology in every form has become an important part of everyday life. In business, it is a necessity for success and survival. Many authors (Kotrlik & Redmann, 2009; Ma & Runyon (2004), among others) in the arena of higher education have pointed out the need for truly integrated business and technology programs at the graduate level, but…

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has reformed its undergraduate curriculum to create connections across disciplines and advance efforts to internationalize its campus. As a result, global issues, experiential learning, study abroad, and international course clusters have become an integral part of a curriculum that emphasizes…

Policymakers and industry leaders are calling for a 21st century education that is more interdisciplinary in nature, including the ability to solve problems and think creatively. Traditional teaching practices that present subjects as separate and distinct disciplines do not encourage students to make connections between subjects in school and in…

A team-taught interdisciplinary undergraduate unit in Sustainable Development has been developed and run over the past two years at the University of Bristol. This has been a unique initiative for this university to take. As in most other research-intensive higher education institutions, teaching generally follows rather traditional disciplinary…

One reason we have difficulty finding sustainable solutions is in part because we are unable to see the bigger picture. Capra (2000) argues, "To become ecologically literate we must learn to think systemically--in terms of connectedness, context and processes" (p. 270). We have attempted to structure connected learning experiences through our…

The study of the history of the English language can help students become aware of major issues in several academic fields, including history, literature, political science, anthropology, communication, economics, the Arts, and, of course, languages and linguistics. Even though instructors may not have an especially broad background in the…

The question explored here is this: Is curriculum for the 21st century best organized around the traditional disciplines, or is there a more promising alternative? The answered offered is that our best option is to stretch the disciplines from within, push back the boundaries now separating them, and ask how each of the expanded subjects can be…

This document describes a variety of curriculum integration options ranging from concurrent teaching of related subjects to fusion of curriculum focus to residential study focusing on daily living; from 2-week units to year-long courses. Suggestions are offered for choosing proper criteria for successful curriculum integration, dealing with the…

This report discusses some of the characteristics and benefits of an interdisciplinary curriculum, as well as practical considerations involving the introduction of such a curriculum in elementary and secondary schools. To successfully introduce an interdisciplinary curriculum, teachers and administrators need to: (1) integrate the curriculum; (2)…

This book addresses issues relevant to the development of a coherent curriculum. A "coherent" curriculum is one whose parts are unified and connected by a sense of the whole. Following the foreword by Arthur W. Steller and the prologue by James A. Beane, the introduction (1) by James A. Beane raises a number of questions related to the search for…

Whether or not environmental concerns provide a visable and continuing basis of university organization is the situation scrutinized in this speech. Apparently part of the problem has been the generation of some theme or model around which a core of interested faculty and students could work. It is implied that some conceptual organization of an…