Background: It has been claimed that thematic or integrated approaches to curriculum delivery offer a range of advantages over subject-based modes of delivery including improved pupil motivation. Purpose: This study put claims regarding pupil motivation to the test, using the achievement goals framework. This contemporary approach to understanding…

"Drama at the Heart of the Secondary School" provides a rationale for the curricular centrality of drama together with rich and detailed examples of cross-phase thematic projects which are drama-led, but which promote learning across a wide range of curriculum areas, from the humanities and other arts, to English and literacy, science and PSHE.…

Intended for administrators and policy makers, as well as teachers, this digest examines the current state of humanities instruction and the evolving place of humanities in the high school English classroom. The digest first explores differing definitions of the humanities, and discusses reasons for the decline in emphasis on humanities…

The purpose of this study was threefold: to emphasize a need for humanities education in the secondary school today; to explore various types of programs in humanities education in respect to method of approach, content, teaching, and achievment; and to propose guidelines which may aid others in undertaking or implementing a humanities program in…

Humanities can be simplistically defined as a program, as a set of related or unrelated activities, or as human and humane interaction. The following assumptions are important in establishing humanities programs in the elementary school: programs must be reality oriented; there should be an emphasis on direct participation for the student;…

The humanities curriculum described in this book is designed as a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to learning. Chapter 1 discusses a definition of the humanities; the segmented curriculum; student expectations; teacher training and the importance of the faculty; the humanities and the sciences; organizing a humanities program; advantages of…

This study begins with an effort to place the secondary school humanities education movement in the context of the broad concern of educators with curriculum reform during the past decade. An examination of the instruction programs in secondary school humanities education revealed four major variants: Aesthetic Education, Cultural Epoch, Great…

This brief descriptive guide is a pilot social studies- language arts course at Haviland High School, Haviland, Kansas. The two-hour course is team taught and seeks to combine the junior year of U.S. history and the junior year of English in an interdisciplinary class. The project began in 1990 with the school's designation as a pilot school for…

This bulletin is designed to help teachers integrate the arts and humanities into the social studies curriculum. The volume includes three chapters. Chapter 1, "Learning Through the Arts," features the following sections: (1) "Integration"; (2) "Assessment"; and (3) "References and For Further Reading." Chapter 2, "Using Theater in the Classroom,"…

Paper delivered at the ADFL Summer Seminar for Chairmen, June 21-25, 1971 at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont. (DS)

As a result of the evaluation that many English and social studies courses inadequately prepare students for today's world, a humanities program was designed to deal with real social, ethical, and educational problems while retaining the essential skills and ideas of the traditional subjects. This syllabus, the first of three sequential humanities…

This study explores the problems of selection, developing, teaching, and evaluating a course that relates music, art, and literature. The specific unit presented deals with relating poetry to music and to painting with Yevgeny Yevtushenko as the central figure. The seven parts of the unit draw on Yevtushenko's poetry and life to develop the…

This paper describes how the University of Dayton, Ohio, has strengthened teacher education through the creation of two institutional general education initiatives that integrate general and professional education in a coherent learning experience. The first is a CORE program that is open to all students pursuing degree work in the elementary…

Describes interdisciplinary English programs in the following areas: reading, study, and communication skills; career exploration; humanities instruction; and social concerns. A bibliography is included. (DF)

The NEXA program at San Francisco State University seeks to span the gulf between the humanities and the sciences by offering interdisciplinary team-taught courses on concepts and issues in the liberal arts. Providing a rigorous and challenging curriculum for highly motivated students, the program is gradually finding a niche within the confines…