Can mathematics survive as a school subject for "all?" Is mathematics a subject for "general education?" Has mathematics anything to say for anybody else but a mathematician or an immediate user of mathematics by profession? Or, will mathematics become a subject for the selected few who are to lead society by this mighty tool…

Is sociology a legitimate and worthwhile course of study at the secondary level? Sociology differs from other disciplines in its conceptual and abstract nature. Sociology is about organizations, systems, structures, processes, and relationships. It studies power, conflict, roles, and values. Grasping these abstractions is most difficult at the…

The norms of science define appropriate and inappropriate scholarly or research role performance. The four norms described in this study are (1) universalism: research is assessed on its merit, not particularistic criteria; (2) commonality: research must be made public and shared with the research community; (3) disinterestedness: research is…

The boundaries of the curriculum field are often confused with those of other fields in education. This paper proposes 10 recurring themes, called key concepts, that are unique to the curriculum field. The key concepts, identified from select curriculum textbooks, delineate the field's content, establish its boundaries, and permit a greater…

The choice of an academic career was investigated with 671 full-time faculty members at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Faculty respondents indicated their departmental and school affiliation, the point in their educational development at which they decided on a college faculty career, their age at the time of that decision, and whether…

The idea of making general psychology more accessible to and/or usable by the general public is considered (i.e., the idea of giving psychology away). A larger and related question is whether general psychology, as an academic course and as an orientation to psychology, should be approached as general studies. One impediment to giving psychology…

An outline of various approaches for the teaching of film. (CH)

Idiosyncratic studies illumintate the unique characteristics of a phenomenon, while generic studies create general statements based on the conformity of many phenomena. This document explicates Joseph Hayes' article, "Gayspeak," in terms of this distinction and seeks to define gay studies as a legitimate academic discipline. The way in which Hayes…

Certain basic characteristics of a discipline are a particular focus of attention, a unique body of knowledge, and a specific mode of inquiry. Although the field of leisure studies fails to measure up to the standards of a discipline, an interdisciplinary approach can be used to promote integration of knowledge, freedom of inquiry, and…

Carried out on a small sample, this study provides some clues as to why pupils in New Zealand secondary schools prefer various subjects. A questionnaire with lists of possible reasons for liking/disliking particular subjects was administered to 367 secondary school pupils in 16 classes in various cities throughout New Zealand. The sample was not…

Techniques were developed for designing instruction for discipline-based curriculum areas. The approach integrated aspects of previous work in behavioral objectives, the structure of knowledge, learning hierarchies, and information-processing psychology and made explicit their relations to instructional design. Three kinds of analysis were…

The task of social theory and especially of general social dynamics is to perceive patterns and regularities in our image of the four dimensional structure consisting of all human beings as they occupy three dimensions of space and one of time. Although the existing divisions of the social sciences exist for good historical reasons, there is a…

Geography, the "Mother of Sciences," antedates other disciplines and has its origins in antiquity when Greek scholars compiled descriptions of the earth in so-called "topographias." Since then, other sciences have branched out and geography has become the subject of much controversy. Taught in the United States in conjunction…