Possession of prior knowledge has been shown to critically influence students' learning in major courses. Yet the topic remains unexplored in the realm of general education in higher education. The study aims at investigating whether students lacking relevant high school knowledge background could benefit in the two courses, one inclined to…

In 1988, 11 faculty members at Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC), Michigan, taught a customized honors class at KVCC focussing on connections between disciplines. It soon became clear how little faculty members understood and appreciated their colleagues' fields and perspectives. Following the course, faculty participants concluded that…

Described is science content within an interdisciplinary core curriculum at the New School of Liberal Arts, Brooklyn College. The first two years of undergraduate work consist of art, literature, history, and science within a choice of five time periods. Also offered is a science and humanities course. (DS)

The report describes development of an alternative core curriculum of courses grounded equally in both mathematics/sciences and traditional humanities. The alternative core curriculum is based on the belief that mathematics, broadly defined, is the common language and basis for the contemporary revolutions in the physical sciences, social…

In 1989, Oakton Community College (OCC) in Des Plaines, Illinois, began developing an honors core seminar in the sciences. The course was to be an interdisciplinary, laboratory-based science and humanities seminar, designed to explore the nature, process, and methods of science and the place of science in society. Rather than mastering a body of…