This essay highlights a collaborative approach to teaching a university course on community-based research while working with a variety of community partners. As part of a broader research project, the course involved faculty from a range of disciplines as well as community sponsors from public and private sectors. Working with a complex array of…

A key capacity for engagement in the emerging field of ecohealth is the ability to work collaboratively. Between 2008 and 2010, the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health collectively designed and delivered three foundational, intensive, field courses. This paper presents findings derived from both quantitative and…

Collaboration in education is seen as a legal mandate, best practice in teacher practice, and necessary for the inclusion of children with special needs. Over the years, there have been a number of evolutionary incarnations of the collaborative model, each possessing various ingredients identified as important, if not essential, components of a…

This mini-article outlines a continuum of collaboration for faculty within a department of the same discipline. The goal of illustrating this continuum is showcase different stages of collaboration so that faculty members can assess where they are as a collective and consider steps to collaborate more. The separate points along a continuum of…

We investigated the hypothesis that interdisciplinarity is being explicitly taught behind the facade of traditional disciplines. We interviewed 14 academics (seven geographers and seven agricultural scientists) about their teaching in the inherently interdisciplinary field of natural resource management. Our teachers were generally well informed…

According to the author, the Modern Language Association's (MLA's) recent publication of the reports "Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World" and "Report to the Teagle Foundation on the Undergraduate Major in Language and Literature" concerning foreign language education has caused many of them to reexamine the…

Project-based learning (PBL) is a highly effective means of motivating students to learn independently. However, training or encouraging teachers to practice PBL in their classrooms is challenging, especially if the educational system does not accommodate creative teaching practices. In particular, in a test-driven educational system, time…

We report on a partnership between a librarian and two other community college teachers (a humanist and a social scientist) working to establish "networked courses" that use the model and techniques of collaborative teaching and learning in an interdisciplinary setting. In this partnership--and, in fact, in any interdisciplinary context--the role…

Provides an overview of an interdisciplinary unit on rivers which the author taught with other teachers. Discusses the role of literature in that unit, and surveys some adolescent river novels. (TB)

At Southegan High School, in Amherst, New Hampshire, all students, including those with physical and emotional disabilities, are fully included in nontracked, heterogeneously grouped classes. Full inclusion is possible because of three program components: collaborative planning time; curriculum design characterized by planning backward from final…

Teams are incompatible with the scientific management philosophy underlying traditional curricular and organizational theory. This article examines J. R. Hackman's book "Groups That Work (and Those That Don't): Creating Conditions for Effective Teamwork" (1990), as it illuminates the experience of teaching on a middle school…

Eight years ago, a new senior interdisciplinary science course called "Oceans: Past and Present" for the McCallie School in Tennessee was designed. The idea stemmed from the combination of a physics teacher's desire for a course based on a summer program at sea and a writing center director/teacher's longing for the ocean from the…

An interdisciplinary curriculum model facilitates the development of integrative thinking skills and enhances the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning in five ways. Benefits accrue to both faculty and students from the collaboration of faculty and the joining of disciplines to focus on specific themes or issues. (Author/MSE)

As middle school educators refine interdisciplinary teaming, numerous challenges have emerged, notably the development of interdisciplinary units and personality-compatible teams, design of instruction to challenge honor students while motivating low achievers, and integration of subject areas into thematic topics. As the New Kids pilot project…

Discusses ways to improve collaborative communication between core and exploratory curriculum teachers in interdisciplinary team-taught middle schools. Considers techniques of curriculum integration, homebase/advisory alliances, extended teams, core-exploratory liaisons, rotating team connections, exploratory teams, equalized assessment,…