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ERIC Number: ED208914
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1981-Feb-20
Pages: 12
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Charting the Territory: Interdisciplinary Studies.
Eason, Douglas O.
Although enrollment in interdisciplinary studies is increasing in the two-year college, much remains to be done in defining and planning interdisciplinary programs. A valuable distinction can be made between interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary studies. The first refers to exploring significant relationships between or among unrelated disciplines while the latter illuminates one particular discipline by the infusion of information from closely-related disciplines. The cost and coordination demands of intradisciplinary studies are usually minimal; the major problems for most faculty are time and inspiration. Interdisciplinary studies, however, require the importation of the humanities into a curriculum which would otherwise willingly ignore them. Successful examples of interdisciplinary humanities programs are the American civilization course offered at the University of Michigan at Dearborn and the Humanities Perspectives on the Professions program at the University of Florida. These programs seek to enrich the study of science, technology, or the professions by including humanities subject matter. Both interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary studies have inevitable drawbacks, but also have obvious benefits, including providing relational learning for general education and career students, providing new challenges for faculty, and helping students see that knowledge is organic and interdependent. (Author/KL)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Conference on English in the Two-Year College (Biloxi, MS, February 20, 1981).