At Tomball College, in Texas, an interdisciplinary course in gender issues was developed to examine the psychological and social realities of gender roles. The course was team taught by a psychologist and a sociologist and met twice a week for 80 minutes per session. The class covered the general areas of gender history; physical and cognitive…

This collection presents essays on contemporary issues facing community colleges written by fellows in Princeton University's Mid-Career Fellowship Program and dealing with such issues as critical thinking, faculty perceptions, educational technology, interdisciplinary courses, cooperative learning strategies, the college culture, faculty and…

Interdisciplinary programs at nine colleges and universities are described. An introductory essay, "Reflections from an Interdisciplinary Milieu," by Donald N. Levine discusses the benefits of an interdisciplinary emphasis for undergraduate education. The following programs are featured: Bowdoin College's environmental studies program;…

Although skill in mathematics will be a crucial human resource in the future, there is a national disaffection with and fear of mathematics. To reverse this situation, all teachers should be required to have inservice instruction in mathematics, focusing on how mathematics supports and relates to specific content areas. Teachers' avoidance of and…

Both students and faculty in social work education find field instruction to be both rewarding and puzzling. Unquestionably, much of the genius of social work education has been an intermingling of conceptual and experiential learning. These eleven papers cover experiences in a variety of graduate and undergraduate social work field settings. It…

The successful integration of ecology and social studies in this sixth grade program offers students a chance to become aware of themselves and their immediate surroundings, both in the classroom and in the community. This model and the suggested learning activities can be successfully adapted for use at any of the other elementary levels.…

Solano Community College (California) developed interdisciplinary, team-taught classes. The program included three classroom components administered in each of the six semesters to both program-supported integrated classes and to content area control class sections: a standardized reading test, an essay writing test, and a student survey. Subjects…

Discusses the pivotal role of the middle school principal in the success of collaborative teaching teams. Details team functions, selection, and stages of team development. Also discusses team meetings, reports, leader meetings, team competition, and team professional growth. (ET)

Asserts that music educators have special challenges and opportunities when considering an integrated or interdisciplinary curriculum. Discusses examples of interdisciplinary teams comprised of fine arts teachers working with teachers of social studies, literature, and other subjects. Includes illustrations of a thematic curriculum web and…

Growing student diversity, reports and government mandates, ninth-grade transition problems, and middle-school influences have produced new enthusiasm for high-school reorganization. Restructuring approaches such as block scheduling, differentiated instruction, academic teaming, house plans, career academies, heterogeneous grouping, and integrated…

Goals for undergraduate English courses typically include increasing students' critical reading, thinking, and research skills, providing literary-aesthetic experiences, and encouraging students to express themselves analytically on complex topics. Authors describe experiences in two advanced writing classes and a core literature course using…

Examined types of work completed by teachers on middle school interdisciplinary teams nationwide. Data from a sample of 159 teachers on 40 teams and their 40 principals indicated no significant differences between teachers' and administrators' perceptions on degree of teacher participation but revealed significant differences within 10 measured…

Efforts to achieve greater curriculum integration in schools of business have included team teaching, student group projects, multidisciplinary cases, and, more recently, the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Although these approaches are beneficial, they tend to be implemented on an ad hoc basis rather than through curriculum…

Examined how interdisciplinary team practices and classroom instructional practices affected student achievement in high poverty middle schools in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Found that when the combined effects of family poverty level, teaming and common planning time, and duration of teaming were considered, there was a relationship…

Interdisciplinary learning is most simply defined as the co-teaching of courses by at least two faculty members from different departments in the institution. Interdisciplinary learning in the United States began after World War II with the proposal of a core curriculum covering Western civilization, literary texts, science, and English…