Extra credit assignments are often viewed with disdain by educators as opportunities to earn points for students that lack the study skills to do well on exams and quizzes. However, these assignments can serve as a platform for students to apply the course material to their own lives, optimizing their strengths and creativity, and encouraging them…

Using an expanded version of Alexander's (2008) theory of dialogic teaching developed by RojasDrummond, Torreblanca, Pedraza, Vélez, and Guzmán (2013), this case study explored how instructors and students in a hybrid graduate course engaged in the process of dialogic teaching and learning (DTL). In particular, we examined the ways in which…

Many engineering programs stress the importance of technological innovation by offering entrepreneurship electives and programs. Integration of entrepreneurship into the required engineering curriculum has predominantly focused on senior capstone design courses. This paper describes a strategy for integrating entrepreneurship into a…

The authors of this article are two teacher educators who worked collaboratively to co-teach an interdisciplinary English and US history class to eleventh-grade students in an urban high school. They wanted to ensure the methods they were teaching preservice teachers were current and effective. The article discusses the foundational beliefs that…

The classroom exercise outlined here is a self-directed assignment that connects students to the environmental contamination problem surrounding the DePue Superfund site. By connecting chemistry knowledge gained in the classroom with a real-world problem, students are encouraged to personally connect with the problem while simultaneously…

The advent of integrated multidisciplinary research has given rise to some of the most important breakthroughs of our time, but has also set significant challenges to the current educational paradigm. Current academic education often limits cross-discipline discussion, depends on close-ended problems, and restricts utilization of interdisciplinary…

This volume offers the first comprehensive guide to how high-impact practices (HIPs) are being implemented in online environments and how they can be adjusted to meet the needs of online learners. This multi-disciplinary approach will assist faculty and administrators to effectively implement HIPs in distance education courses and online programs.…

Empathy and interdisciplinarity are both concepts that are current and relevant--across professions, in research, and in academia. This paper describes a large, interdisciplinary, project-based assignment, the Empathy Project, which allows students to delve into and increase comfort and skill with interdisciplinary thinking and collaborative…

This newsletter of best practices in implementing the High Schools That Work (HSTW), Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW) and Technology Centers That Work (TCTW) school improvement models is based on presentations at the 27th Annual HSTW Staff Development Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the summer of 2013. The newsletter is divided up into…

Virtual environments can resolve many practical and pedagogical challenges within higher education. Economic considerations, accessibility issues, and safety concerns can all be somewhat alleviated by creating learning activities in a virtual space. Because of the removal of real-world physical limitations like gravity, durability and scope,…

Senior seminars established at St. Mary's College (Maryland) as capstone courses for majors are intended to offer an interdisciplinary perspective and enable students to demonstrate mastery of skills. Assignments typically include writing a major paper, conducting a research project, or leading a class discussion. (MSE)

An overview of a program which coordinates ninth-grade academic English and world history courses is presented along with teaching material for the courses. The classes are taught separately, but the subject matter and major assignments are coordinated by historical period. Teaching materials include: goals and objectives of the program, 13 ideas…

The purpose of this article is to describe the attempts of faculty members in one teacher education program to foster integration of content and skills across courses, prepare teachers for the diverse classrooms they will encounter, and connect course content to real life experiences. This paper describes the design of a cross-curricular video…