Focuses on the history of the organization of chemical principles in chemistry textbooks. Describes a higher-order organizing principle, based in chemical logic and understanding, from which topics and order of presentation are derived. Provides an example of a biochemistry curriculum developed using this organizing principle. (DDR)

Focuses on the effects of the lack of coordination in the teaching of introductory subjects in chemistry, biology, and physics. Argues that some of the more interesting topics in these fields lie on the border with another field. For example, biochemistry topics may be more interesting to students than chemistry or biology topics. (DDR)

Since the Crick Report, active citizenship has been promoted as a vehicle for enhancing community involvement and political literacy among school and higher education students. This ostensibly progressive educational and social goal is beset with a number of tensions and contradictions, notably around the nature of participation and between…

In the technological world of the Twenty-first Century, students must be information literate. They must have the skills to access, evaluate, and utilize information needed in their undergraduate experience and in their future endeavors. It is important for Geography majors to acquire these skills as part of their undergraduate education. At an…

In this report, the Commission on General Education in the 21st Century--a panel of University of California faculty and administrators--issues a call for renewed attention to general education in research universities, highlighting specific reforms for University of California campuses. In addition to analyzing the historical, institutional, and…

Calls for institutional accountability and curricular coherence suggest that faculty must collaborate more than they have in the recent past to achieve significant and ongoing curricular improvements. In the study reported here, the author and her colleagues asked members of academic departments with a reputation for ongoing curricular renewal to…

Addressing the need to prepare college graduates for careers in book publishing, this report examines the necessity and structure of a book publishing curriculum at the undergraduate level at Loyola College in Maryland. A 1977 bulletin by the American Association of Publishers (AAP) cited a lack of awareness of publishing as a possible career, and…

A global survey was conducted to: (1) determine what universities have ocean engineering curricula; (2) obtain information on the nature of these curricula; and (3) determine the similarity of curricula by noting the frequence of occurrence of specific courses or subjects. Results indicate that at least 97 academic institutions in 19 countries…

Based on the Carnegie Foundation study of baccalaureate programs, which found that many colleges are confused as to their mission and are fragmenting the disciplines into smaller and smaller pieces, a case is made for revising the higher education curriculum. Coursework is fragmented because of the growth of specialized fields within the…

Linguistics is on the verge of becoming an experimental discipline; an undergraduate major tailored to reflect this can attract a wider range of students, relate linguistics subject matter to the real world in a more exciting way, challenge students to address more deeply the problems of philosophy and philosophy of science than in some other…

Linguistics can make major contributions to the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum, as exemplified in the relationship between linguistics and the English curriculum. The major points of contact between English and linguistics are the areas of stylistics and poetics. In the study of English, linguistics can enrich descriptions of texture…

Views from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era are traced concerning the role of faculty in collegiate education, the curriculum, and desired learning outcomes. Previous educational thought concerning faculty, curricula, and mission provides a historical paradigm in which the ideological orientation of the 1985 Association of American Colleges'…

Perspectives on the 1985 Association of American Colleges' report, "Integrity in the College Curriculum," are presented, with attention to connections between the report and ideas from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Using quotes from philosophers and scholars, attention is directed to: why the report was written and what it is…

The proceedings of the Eighth Conference on Computers in Undergraduate Curricula include 54 technical reports on the use of computer technology in various areas of undergraduate curricula, including the biological sciences, business, economics, education, humanities, mathematics, physics, psychology, chemistry, engineering, social science, and…

Reports how a communications perspective and visual materials have been utilized to revitalize introductory area anthropology courses. Discusses what might be done to incorporate a contextual understanding of mass media into classroom instruction. (Author/JM)