This paper describes an innovative teaching collaboration between two university professors to prepare undergraduate preservice teachers for planning, designing, and assessing interdisciplinary curriculum. Specifically, we were interested in whether deliberate efforts to integrate social studies and assessment methods courses would facilitate our…

Describes how one instructor used science education methodology in a language arts methods course. The purpose was to understand how preservice teachers might improve their science teaching through language arts methods. Discusses one preservice teacher and her use of the methodology in the science methods course in which she was currently…

Provides examples of collaboratively developed ideas prepared by undergraduate and post-baccalaureate English minors that reflect interest in English as well as their own subject major. (HOD)

Describes how several elementary teacher educators are learning to practice what they teach by integrating methods courses. This involves taking action to coordinate what occurs in each course and integrate what they do and how they do it, with a focus on interdisciplinary instruction. The process of learning to integrate methods courses involves…

To help students in school develop a flexible understanding of subject matter, teachers need to foster understanding of the relationships within and across disciplines, what specialists in a field do, how knowledge in a discipline is generated, tested, and revised, and how knowledge in the discipline relates to the learners' environment.…

The attempt to unite theory and practice in the education of English teachers has taken many forms: courses in which theoreticians attempt to illuminate the practice of professional teachers or student teachers; situations in which teacher-education faculty cooperate with teachers, student teachers, and the community, in order to make programs…

The materials developed by teachers in England for the Mathematics Teacher Education Project (MTEP) draw on such disciplines as philosophy, educational psychology, sociology, history, and curriculum studies. In the attempt to provide a coherent, well-rounded mathematics methods course for prospective teachers, MTEP can encourage interdisciplinary…

The effect of technological change on library users and its implication for library instruction are examined; two courses which provide library instruction for students enrolled in graduate methods history courses are described; and an annotated bibliography of materials which can be used in a course in bibliographic instruction is provided. (RM)

Describes the development of a seamless curriculum of four methods courses--literacy, math, social studies, and science--within a transdisciplinary framework, defining transdisciplinary teaching and learning as a context and conveyor for knowledge influenced by the synergy between learners and teachers, which embraces collaboration,…

Students in business education and English education methods (n=25), randomly assigned to 9 mixed teams, developed an integrated high school curriculum unit. Survey results showed that 92% would teach the unit and appreciated its interdisciplinary potential. The one team that would not use it had experience group conflict issues. (SK)

Four full days of classroom instruction, devoted to the modeling of effective curriculum integration, were designed for preservice elementary school teachers. The unit was the result of a conviction on the part of teacher educators that children learn best when learning is not separated into forty-minute periods of math, social studies, language…

Addresses a collaborative celebrations project that was assigned to a group of students enrolled in a course on educational methods focused on integrating the arts and social studies. Explains that this project contributed to an understanding of the family and community aspects of celebration. Considers the project outcomes. (CMK)

This 12-hour module of instruction is designed to help undergraduates in social studies methods courses integrate economics education into the elementary school social studies curriculum. The major purposes of the module are to (1) demonstrate how economics concepts can be integrated into social studies instruction, (2) reinforce or extend teacher…

This 12-hour module of instruction is designed to help undergraduates in social studies methods courses integrate economics education into the secondary school social studies curriculum. The major purposes of the module are to (1) reinforce or extend teacher education students' understanding of selected basic economic concepts, (2) develop an…

A study determined that an interdisciplinary social studies and science methods course favorably influences the curriculum constructs of elementary teacher education students when it is designed for deep personal meaning rather than surface skill acquisition. (JN)