Breaking Down the Silos: Curriculum Development as a Tool for Crossing Disciplines in the Arts, Sciences and Humanities
“Higher education has long been departmental in nature (dating back to the 19th century), and becomes more restrictive as a student moves from “interesting” first-year seminars bridging a wide range of topics, through their major courses in a departmental area and finally into graduate school, where a single department awards their degree based on a usually narrow set of course requirements and a thesis or dissertation. However, in the 21st century, investigators are finding that there are often tools, information, resources and even points of view from other disciplines that can elucidate and even answer the problem they are studying. Graduate students who wish to take course in other departments are often told that those courses “don’t count” towards their degree, sending a negative message. New programs and centers are trying to bridge this gap, but most institutions do not offer “cross-disciplinary” courses in their standard curriculum. This study will look at the current state of cross-disciplinary curriculum in the arts, sciences and humanities and make recommendations for the future.”
READ MORE AT: http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/cdash/