Institution-wide curriculum change is a costly, time-intensive and politically fraught undertaking. It is a challenge identifying who has responsibility for the curriculum and who is empowered to change it. The unbundling of the traditional tri-partite academic role of teaching, research and service leaves a gap of who in those communities decides…

This case study presents the development of a system that integrated two strands of SoTL research--Decoding the Disciplines and Students as Partners--into a secondary history teacher preparation program. This system simultaneously refined teaching in undergraduate history courses and provided authentic learning experiences for secondary education…

If today the departments of "cultural management" (in its broadest term) have been in existence for almost four decades, it is in part because of the existence of the "cultural industries". If this concept's founder and critical theorist, Theodore Adorno, indeed stigmatised cultural industries as "predominance of profit ……

This qualitative case study reports on an emerging four-stage process of support for curriculum change using reflective data which highlights three perspectives: that of the Academic Developer, the Head of Program, and the Discipline Leader. The aim of the change process was to enhance employment outcomes of Creative Arts students by aligning the…

Discusses the development and status of the speech communication field at the University of Virginia. (PD)

The programs that will become the chief medium for giving women's studies a permanent place in the academic world are those in which scholars with other intellectual affiliations and interests work simultaneously (1) to develop women's studies and (2) to integrate its materials into the long-established university department. (MLW)

Discusses the merger of Central Missouri State University's speech and mass communication departments. Describes the university administration's reasons for the merger and the departments' reactions. Examines the departments' involvement in planning for the change. Reports that the new department remains committed to academic and professional…

Argues that English departments are experiencing a crisis of identity that is economic, political, and psychological. (SRT)

The results of a study assessing departmental plans for hardware and software acquisitions, faculty development activities, and curricular modifications aimed at increasing student computer literacy at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) are reported. The study involved reviewing departmental definitions of computer literacy generated…

Maintains that the founding of the School of Music at the University of Illinois in 1892 was the result of a decade of effort by teachers, students, and administrators. Describes the history of music education at the University from the 1870s until the founding of the music school. Discusses the curriculum and music activities during the founding…

Describes the new general education program at James Madison University (Virginia) and the process by which it was developed. Indicates that the program is organized by five broad areas of knowledge that are defined by interdisciplinary clusters of learning objectives, which in turn were developed using input from every academic department on…

This paper presents remarks on the future of the physical education profession by William F. Stier (State University of New York, Brockport), Pamela A. Milchrist (California State University, Sacramento), and Sy Kleinman (Ohio State University). Stier presented the "conservative" view that the field was doing well, that only fine tuning…

A discussion on who should teach computer literacy in academe is presented. Computer science can be described as an experimental science with the computer as the laboratory but computer science is an interdisciplinary area. Defining a computer scientist is difficult. (MLW)

At North Shore Community College (NSCC), students in career programs comprise 70% of the student population. To counter the vocational-school effect of programs heavily emphasizing career training, interdisciplinary, team-taught courses were initiated. However, the time required in planning, scheduling, and grading along with other problems…

The National Institute of Education report, "Involvement in Learning: Realizing the Potential of American Higher Education," is discussed. The study group highlighted the outcomes of an undergraduate education--student learning and the implications of student learning--and concluded the appropriate source of curriculum reform is the…