Scientific research endeavors are increasingly collaborative in nature. As researchers work together in groups of increasing size to develop project goals and implement plans, traditional 1-1 single faculty-student mentor models are less relevant as students need input and guidance from the multiple faculty members contributing to the…

Drawing upon theory and prior research this article describes a comprehensive framework to enhance professional identity formation through the development of a health professions course involving multiple disciplines.

This chapter describes a pedagogy-first summer faculty development program designed to support faculty who want to add digital components to a course or academic program.

Interprofessional education (IPE) provides healthcare students with educational experiences that will prepare them for the evolving team-based approach to healthcare. With significant differences in training approaches, areas of expertise, commitment to IPE, and resources among disciplines, curricular developers must be strategic and deliberate to…

This chapter will discuss global awareness in five distinctive disciplines (Communications, Literature, Mathematics, Social Work, and Sociology). Comparisons between the pedagogies in the disciplines focus on academic settings other than study abroad.

In this chapter we describe the Decoding the Disciplines Faculty Learning Community at Mount Royal University and how Decoding has been used in new and multidisciplinary ways in the various teaching, curriculum, and research projects that are presented in detail in subsequent chapters.

When the University of North Dakota began working to improve general education, two concerns were recognized. The first issue, which faculty and administrators across campus found immediately engaging, was how to change general education so that it would be a better program, more likely to yield clear student learning benefits. A second concern,…

Student resistance to critical thinking emblematic of a liberal arts curriculum is often painfully obvious in freshman writing classes that impose a process-based approach to writing and thinking. Criminal justice students, like their peers in other majors with strong vocational orientations, often resist taking any more than the required liberal…

By tracing the historical roots of general education, we can make many of our current issues and problems in general education more understandable. This chapter is an overview of historical trends that have taken general education from the concept of a unified curriculum with no distinction between "specialized" and "general" education to the…

It has been suggested that growing interest in curriculum assessment and development in higher education is the result of a number of external and internal factors. External factors include increasing government interest in quality assurance, accessibility, and degree completion rates; growing recognition of the important role university graduates…

How does one develop and deliver the integrated core of a cross-disciplinary arts and sciences undergraduate degree when the degree program has no departmental or college home and no full-time faculty, but plenty of enthusiastic students who are looking for a unique educational experience? This article outlines how a formalized curriculum…

This article presents an interdisciplinary approach to course redesign that enhanced student learning across all six categories in Dee Fink's taxonomy. A meta-analysis of the results provides evidence that integrated course design produces significant learning. In this article, the authors tell four connected stories: (1) how Fink's book,…

Strategies for locating interdisciplinary knowledge and information for development of college curricula and instruction are outlined, including identification of existing curriculum models and syllabi (through publications, networking, and online searching) and finding literature on the concept of interdisciplinarity in the humanities, social…

The need and potential for networking among interdisciplinary organizations are analyzed. Issues to consider in establishing networks are identified and specific strategies for building and maintaining effective networks are offered. Networking both with undergraduate and general education organizations and with specialized organizations are…

Across the country, college faculty are redefining core knowledge and skills to include learning about pluralism in the United States and about world cultures. They are experimenting with new pedagogical approaches that engage cultural diversity in effective ways. Interdisciplinary collaboration, thematic curricula, and cooperative learning…