The University and its Disciplines
The University and its Disciplines

Author: Carolin Kreber

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-07-15

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 113589034X

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University teaching and learning take place within ever more specialized disciplinary settings, each characterized by its unique traditions, concepts, practices and procedures. It is now widely recognized that support for teaching and learning needs to take this discipline-specificity into account. However, in a world characterized by rapid change, complexity and uncertainty, problems do not present themselves as distinct subjects but increasingly within trans-disciplinary contexts calling for graduate outcomes that go beyond specialized knowledge and skills. This ground-breaking book highlights the important interplay between context-specific and context-transcendent aspects of teaching, learning and assessment. It explores critical questions, such as: What are the ‘ways of thinking and practicing’ characteristic of particular disciplines? How can students be supported in becoming participants of particular disciplinary discourse communities? Can the diversity in teaching, learning and assessment practices that we observe across departments be attributed exclusively to disciplinary structure? To what extent do the disciplines prepare students for the complexities and uncertainties that characterize their later professional, civic and personal lives? Written for university teachers, educational developers as well as new and experienced researchers of Higher Education, this highly-anticipated first edition offers innovative perspectives from leading Canadian, US and UK scholars on how academic learning within particular disciplines can help students acquire the skills, abilities and dispositions they need to succeed academically and also post graduation. Carolin Kreber is Professor of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and the Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment at the University of Edinburgh

Disciplines of Education
Disciplines of Education

Author: John Furlong

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-09-13

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1136917993

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Is there a ‘crisis’ in the disciplines of education? In this book, leading scholars explore how the changing epistemological and political debates of the last 20 years have resulted in the progressive demise of the disciplines in relation to the study of education. Finally the book asks whether the disciplines have a place in education in the 21st century.

In Defense of Disciplines
In Defense of Disciplines

Author: Jerry A. Jacobs

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2014-02-05

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 022606946X

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Calls for closer connections among disciplines can be heard throughout the world of scholarly research, from major universities to the National Institutes of Health. In Defense of Disciplines presents a fresh and daring analysis of the argument surrounding interdisciplinarity. Challenging the belief that blurring the boundaries between traditional academic fields promotes more integrated research and effective teaching, Jerry Jacobs contends that the promise of interdisciplinarity is illusory and that critiques of established disciplines are often overstated and misplaced. Drawing on diverse sources of data, Jacobs offers a new theory of liberal arts disciplines such as biology, economics, and history that identifies the organizational sources of their dynamism and breadth. Illustrating his thesis with a wide range of case studies including the diffusion of ideas between fields, the creation of interdisciplinary scholarly journals, and the rise of new fields that spin off from existing ones, Jacobs turns many of the criticisms of disciplines on their heads to mount a powerful defense of the enduring value of liberal arts disciplines. This will become one of the anchors of the case against interdisciplinarity for years to come.

Transverse Disciplines
Transverse Disciplines

Author: Simone Pfleger

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2022-08-31

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 1487538278

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For at least a decade, university foreign language programs have been in decline throughout the English-speaking world. As programs close or are merged into large multi-language departments, disciplines such as German studies find themselves struggling to survive. Transverse Disciplines offers an overview of the current research on the humanities and the academy at large and proposes creative and courageous ideas for the university of the future. Using German studies as a case study, the book examines localized academic work in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States in order to model new ideas for invigorated thinking beyond disciplinary specificity, university communities, and entrenched academic practices. In essays that are theoretical, speculative, experimental, and deeply personal, contributors suggest that German studies might do better to stop trying to protect existing national and disciplinary arrangements. Instead, the discipline should embrace feminist, queer, anti-racist, and decolonial academic practices and commitments, including community-based work, research-creation, and scholar activism. Interrogating the position of researchers, teachers, and administrators inside and outside academia, Transverse Disciplines takes stock of the increasingly tenuous position of the humanities and stakes a claim for the importance of imagining new disciplinary futures within the often restrictive and harmful structures of the academy.

Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines
Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines

Author: Deane E. D. Downey

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2009-04-15

Total Pages: 543

ISBN-13: 1606085298

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This book---an edited compilation of twenty-nine essays---focuses on the difference(s) that a Christian worldview makes for the disciplines or subject areas normally tauht in liberal arts colleges and universities. Three initial chapters of introductory material are followed by twenty-six essays, each dealing with the essential elements or issues in the academic discipline involved. These individual essays on each discipline are a unique element of this book. These essays also treat some of the specific differences in perspective or procedure that a biblically informed, Christian perspective brings to each discipline. Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines in intended principally as an introductory textbook in Christian worldview courses for Christian college or university students. This volume will aslo be of interest to Christian students in secular post-secondary institutions who may be encountering challenges to their faith---both implicit and explicit---from peers or professors who assume that holding a strong Christian faith and pursuing a rigorous college or university education are essentially incompatible. This book should also be helpful for college and university professors who embrace the Christian faith but whose post-secondary academic background---because of its secular orientation---has left them inadequately prepared to intelligently apply the implications of their faith to their particular academic specialty. Such specialists, be they professors or upper-level graduate students, will find the extensive bibliographies of recent scholarship at the end of the individual chapters particularly helpful. "Downey and Porter present a unique contribution to the perennial question of how faith interacts with the academic disciplines. Numerous factors contribute to this book's significance: the common conviction that one's Christian beliefs ought to shape the contents of one's teaching, the variety of perspectives and opinions, and the wide range of academic disciplines under discussion. The essays---originating among the excellent faculty of Trinity Western University---will deservedly be much used in undergraduate colleges and universities."---Hans Borsma J.I. Packer Professor of Theology, Regent College "Few faculty, Christian or otherwise, understand what their colleagues in other departments are doing or why. This collection of essays is not only an excellent introduction to the whole scope of academic enterprises but to the unique and important relationship between each discipline and the Christian faith. An important book not only for the entire range of faculty but for students yearning to understand both their Christian faith and what is being taught in the classroom."---James W. Sirf author of the Universe Next Door and, with co-author carl Peraino, Deepest Differences A Christian Atheist Dialogue "Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines is a book long overdue. It will serve as an outstanding textbook for interdisciplinary courses. But this book is more than that. Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines is a book that everyone concerned with Christian thought, especially in the context of the Academy, will want to read. I highly recommend it."---Craig A. Evans Payment Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Acadia Divinity College Nova Scotia

Higher Education and the American Dream
Higher Education and the American Dream

Author: Marvin Lazerson

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9639776793

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"Marvin Lazerson’s new book is exactly what is needed: a readable, cogent explanation of how the U.S. can have the best system of higher education in the world, but also a system that seems to be coming apart at the seams.” —Susan Fuhrman, President Teachers College, Columbia University, President of the National Academy of Education "In prose remarkable for its clarity and analysis remarkable for its fair-mindedness, this volume delivers a penetrating, nuanced account of American universities in the twenty-first century. Blessedly without rant or cant, the book tackles topics that range from the rise of the managerial class to the failed attempts to reform practice in the classroom. It’s a smart provocation—a must-read for anyone who cares about where our universities are heading.” —David L. Kirp, Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and author of Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education "Professor Lazerson gives an insightful account of American higher education based on years of study and first-hand experience. He discusses both the problems and the accomplishment of our universities with equal care and thus, succeeds in providing a useful and illuminating analysis.” —Derek Bok, Harvard University, President-emeritus "Marvin Lazerson’s magnificent book is not only comprehensive, but it is written from an all-embracing point of view: seeing higher education in America as an expression of the American Dream. This book should be on the reading list of all who want to understand America’s actions, role and image in the world today, with and equal emphasis on their successes and the discontents they create.” —Yehuda Elkana, Rector and President-emeritus, Central European University

Africa and the Disciplines
Africa and the Disciplines

Author: Robert H. Bates

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1993-12

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 0226039013

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African Studies, contrary to some accounts, is not a separate continent in the world of American higher education. Its intellectual borders touch those of economics, literature, history, philosophy, and art; its history is the story of the world, both ancient and modern. This is the clear conclusion of Africa and the Disciplines, a book that addresses the question: Why should Africa be studied in the American university? This question was put to distinguished scholars in the social sciences and humanities, prominent Africanists who are also leaders in their various disciplines. Their responses make a strong and enlightening case for the importance of research on Africa to the academy. Paul Collier's essay, for example, shows how studies of African economies have clarified our understanding of the small open economies, and contributed to the theory of repressed inflation and to a number of areas in microeconomics as well. Art historian Suzanne Blier uses the terms and concepts that her discipline has applied to Africa to analyze the habits of mind and social practice of her own field. Christopher L. Miller describes the confounding and enriching impact of Africa on European and American literary theory. Political scientist Richard Sklar outlines Africa's contributions to the study of political modernization, pluralism, and rational choice. These essays, together with others from scholars in history, anthropology, philosophy, and comparative literature, attest to the influence of African research throughout the curriculum. For many, knowledge from Africa seems distant and exotic. These powerful essays suggest the contrary: that such knowledge has shaped the way in which scholars in various disciplines understand their worlds. Eloquent testimony to Africa's necessary place in the mainstream of American education, this book should alter the academy's understanding of the significance of African research, its definition of core and periphery in human knowledge. "These essays are at once exceptionally thoughtful and remarkably comprehensive. Not only do they offer an unusually interesting overview of African studies; they are also striking for the depth and freshness of their insights. This is the sort of volume from which both seasoned regional experts and students stand to learn an enormous amount."—John Comaroff, University of Chicago "These essays provide an important perspective on the evolution of African studies and offer insights into what Africa can mean for the different humanistic and social science disciplines. Many show in ingenious and subtle ways the enormous potential that the study of Africa has for confounding the main tenets of established fields. One could only hope that the strictures expressed here would be taken to heart in the scholarly world."—Robert L. Tignor, Princeton University

Discipline-Based Education Research
Discipline-Based Education Research

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2012-08-27

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0309254140

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The National Science Foundation funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science content. It describes the discipline-specific difficulties learners face and the specialized intellectual and instructional resources that can facilitate student understanding. Discipline-Based Education Research is based on a 30-month study built on two workshops held in 2008 to explore evidence on promising practices in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This book asks questions that are essential to advancing DBER and broadening its impact on undergraduate science teaching and learning. The book provides empirical research on undergraduate teaching and learning in the sciences, explores the extent to which this research currently influences undergraduate instruction, and identifies the intellectual and material resources required to further develop DBER. Discipline-Based Education Research provides guidance for future DBER research. In addition, the findings and recommendations of this report may invite, if not assist, post-secondary institutions to increase interest and research activity in DBER and improve its quality and usefulness across all natural science disciples, as well as guide instruction and assessment across natural science courses to improve student learning. The book brings greater focus to issues of student attrition in the natural sciences that are related to the quality of instruction. Discipline-Based Education Research will be of interest to educators, policy makers, researchers, scholars, decision makers in universities, government agencies, curriculum developers, research sponsors, and education advocacy groups.

Writing in the Academic Disciplines, 1870-1990
Writing in the Academic Disciplines, 1870-1990

Author: David R. Russell

Publisher:

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13:

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In this singular study, David R. Russell provides a history of writing instruction outside general composition courses in American secondary and higher education, from the founding of public secondary schools and research universities in the 1870s through the spread of the writing-across-the-curriculum movement in the 1980s. Russell's task is to examine the ways writing was taught in the myriad curricula that composed the varied structure of secondary and higher education in modern America. He begins with the assertion that, before the 1870s, writing was taught as ancillary to speaking. As a result, formal writing instruction was essentially training in handwriting, the mechanical process of transcribing sound to visual form. From this point, Russell carefully examines academic writing, its origins and its teaching, from a broad institutional perspective. He looks at the history of little-studied genres of student writing such as the research paper, lab report, and essay examination. Tracing the effects of increasing specialization on writing instruction, he notes how two new ideals of academic life, research and utilitarian service, shaped writing instruction into its modern forms. Finally, he contributes the definitive history of the current writing-across-the-curriculum movement, providing a study of the long tradition of other WAC efforts with an analysis of why they have waned.

The Decoding the Disciplines Paradigm
The Decoding the Disciplines Paradigm

Author: David Pace

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2017-02-27

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 025302465X

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Teaching and learning in a college setting has never been more challenging. How can instructors reach out to their students and fully engage them in the conversation? Applicable to multiple disciplines, the Decoding the Disciplines Paradigm offers a radically new model for helping students respond to the challenges of college and provides a framework for understanding why students find academic life so arduous. Teachers can help their pupils overcome obstacles by identifying bottlenecks to learning and systematically exploring the steps needed to overcome these obstacles. Often, experts find it difficult to define the mental operations necessary to master their discipline because they have become so automatic that they are invisible. However, once these mental operations have been made explicit, the teacher can model them for students, create opportunities for practice and feedback, manage additional emotional obstacles, assess results, and share what has been learned with others.