Disciplines as Frameworks for Student Learning: Teaching the Practice of the Disciplines - Softcover

"'The main point, developed across all of the chapters is that each discipline not only has characteristic modes of thinking and analysis--its framework--but also that these frameworks provide and important means of viewing and interacting with the world. These educatiors have considered how studying their discipline will enhance students' learning across the curriculum, and throughout their lifetimes... This book will be valuable as an example of how individual faculty have thought through their discipline to understand its value within the context of an education. It alsoprovides a fine view of a holistic approach to higher education, where assessment, learning activities, and disciplinary content are inseparable, rather than seen as discreet building blocks. While it is not intended primarily as a course design handbook, it does provide some excellent examples of alternative asessments and collaborative learning activities. Above all, it will be sure to spark reflection in readers about the value of their own disciplines, and how they may be better taught and practiced.'--The National Teaching and Learning Forum"

Making a discipline come alive for those who are not experts - particularly students who may only take one or two courses - requires rigorous thought about what really matters in a field and how to engage students in its practice. Faculty from Alverno College in several disciplines - chemistry, economics, history, literature, mathematics and philosophy - demonstrate what it means for them to approach their disciplines as frameworks for student learning. They show how they have shaped their teaching around the ways of thinking they want their students to develop; and how they design assessments that require students to demonstrate their thinking and understanding through application and use.