This article explores the design and implementation of the curriculum for City Seminar, an integrated course in the first-year experience at a new community college. This interdisciplinary course focuses on a critical issue that provides content and context for quantitative reasoning (QR), reading, and writing (RW) to strengthen students'…

Community college graduation rates are low, and community colleges have been tasked with producing more graduates to meet workforce needs. Research has determined that engaged students remain at their institutions and complete their degrees. Service learning has been identified as a high-impact practice that engages students with their learning…

In recent years, mathematical and quantitative arguments have become prominent in the media as well as in politics, business, and science conversations. This has led to multiple calls for mathematics to be more accessible and meaningful to a wider range of the population (AMATYC, 2006; Cerrito, 1996; Cheney, 1989; Cohen, 1982; College Board, 1983;…

Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, is a leader in the learning community movement. The college, which has run learning communities for many years and has a long history of implementing innovative programs for its students, is one of six colleges participating in the National Center for Postsecondary Research's Learning…

Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, is a leader in the learning community movement. The college, which has run learning communities for many years and has a long history of implementing innovative programs for its students, is one of six colleges participating in the National Center for Postsecondary Research's Learning…

The transference of learning from one discipline to another creates new knowledge between subjects. Students can connect and apply what they learn in one subject to previously existing knowledge. Art expression is an integral part of human nature and has been a means of communication throughout history. Through the integration of art with science…

Community college leaders are using many strategies to improve their students' ability to complete their studies, particularly their academically underprepared students. In recent years, these strategies have included adaptations of an approach long used in four-year colleges known as "learning communities," in which groups of students…

Survey responses from 47 of 49 Illinois community colleges and interviews with 20 staff show that the predominant approach to academic-vocational integration is applied academics. Less evident are multidisciplinary courses, linked or cluster courses, and learning communities. Many barriers result from the long-standing separation of vocational and…

This paper describes the Orange Plan, a learning support system at Orange Coast College (California) which creates alternatives to traditional educational experiences. The Orange Plan is composed of four subsystems: (1) learning contracts, (2) information systems, (3) resource consultants, and (4) interdisciplinary studies courses. Each subsystem…

Established in 1966, in an era of educational creativity, Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) has consistently fostered innovation in instruction and programming and a student-centered approach to education. In 1976, in recognition of a need for change fostered by a switch in academic calendars, loss of vetarans enrollment, reduced state funding,…

Non-traditional courses recommended for the general education package at Los Medanos College are described. It is suggested that the core curriculum be six intra-disciplinary packages covering Behavioral Sciences, Social Sciences, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Language Arts, and Humanistic Studies. Each semester, students would be…

During the sixties, community college planners were conservative in their attitudes toward integrated humanities or interdisciplinary courses, but two-year college enrollments have changed and so have those attitudes. Examples of current approaches are described. (LBH)

This paper traces the development of disciplinarity in higher education, examines the arguments for and against interdisciplinarity, and identifies major issues in the development of interdisciplinary programs in general, particularly at community colleges. The following subjects are explored in detail: (1) relevant terminology, including…

Cross-curricular instruction, multi-disciplinary study, interdisciplinary learning, reading and writing across the curriculum, thematic instruction, integrated learning--are these just the latest buzz words, more education-speak, the latest trend? Or are they more than that? In Botetourt County at the Greenfield Education Center, these words have…

As a liberal education program, an interdisciplinary study of integrative topics encourages knowledge, clarifying judgments and broadening interests. At Lincoln College these values are reinforced with tutorials, panels, and projects to promote effective study habits and skills. (JMD)