Theorizing WPA expertise as problem-oriented, stakeholder-inclusive practice, we apply the twenty-first-century paradigm of transdisciplinarity to a campus WID Initiative to read and argue that data-driven research capturing transdisciplinary WPA methods in action will allow us to better understand, represent, and leverage…

We present a novel assessment tool for measuring biology students' values and experiences across their undergraduate degree program. Our Survey of Teaching Beliefs and Practices for Undergraduates (STEP-U) assesses the extent to which students value skills needed for the workplace (e.g., ability to work in groups) and their experiences with…

As educators we are facing an unprecedented challenge to prepare our students not only for traditional careers but also for future careers that don't exist today. Many of these careers will require a firm grounding in disciplines such as physics, along with multidisciplinary, Global, and systems thinking skill sets. Our Multidisciplinary…

Professionals in the environmental domain require cognitive interdisciplinary skills to be able to develop sustainable solutions to environmental problems. We demonstrate that education in environmental systems analysis allows for the development of these skills. We identify three components of cognitive interdisciplinary skills: (1) the ability…

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the elementary grades. Teachers are increasingly looking for ways to help their students integrate literacy instruction with content area learning. This article highlights some of the similarities between reading comprehension and mathematical…

Shares observations made by a third-grade teacher who experimented with a variety of strategies to improve her students' abilities to write about mathematics. Notes that this gave the teacher a greater understanding of how students approached solving math problems and helped students practice writing in a meaningful way. (SR)

This book is designed to provide teachers with numerous ideas about how to infuse mathematics and writing into their classroom in creative and challenging ways and to encourage students to visualize, speak, and write about math. The activities described here can help students communicate mathematically and realize that there is more to math than…

The writing done in a biology class has a great deal in common with the writing done in the humanities and the social sciences. Because the scientific method of investigation requires the student to examine and understand the physical world by asking questions and then answering them through empirical investigation, clear and concise writing is…

Describes a method of teaching geology and scientific writing to nonscience students that combines active integration of lecture, reading, and laboratory materials with field observations into a writing assignment on a real scientific problem. The writing assignment is completed in stages: a prospectus, a detailed report outline, a bibliography, a…

Critical thinking skills were taught to students in a lower-track freshman English class through the use of cross-disciplinary subject matter. Given a set of three transmission electron micrographs, or photographs of magnified tissue used in histology and pathology, students were asked to support their conclusions on which two of micrographs A, B,…

Both curricular reformers and writing specialists believe a connection exists between critical thinking and writing, however two obstacles have prevented any conclusion from emerging. One is that there is no established shared understanding of what "critical thinking" means. The other is that no one knows how to measure it, even though…

At a time when many public school teachers and administrators are limiting instructional goals to the lower level objectives found on standardized tests, there is a need for classroom activities derived from higher purposes. Conceptual analysis, which relates abstract concepts to the lives of students, meets this need. While focusing primarily on…

Practical ways in which writing was used in a college level introductory social psychology course are described. Rather than being used almost exclusively as a tool for evaluation, the process of writing was also used as a tool for problem solving and for producing creative and analytical thinking. Writing was integrated into the course in three…

Describes one unit on analyzing and writing mystery stories in a problem-solving seminar for seventh graders that incorporates the use of television, cooperative learning, and reading and writing in the mathematics class. Provides a sample activity sheet and examples of seventh-grade mystery stories. (Contains 14 references.) (MDH)

One of the best ways to give students the background knowledge they need to understand math concepts is to teach them the vocabulary and comprehension skills that are essential to understanding math. So here's a book that explains how to do that and provides teachers with lots of classroom-proven ways to prepare students to be successful math…