Research

Results - Interdisciplinary Approaches

Examples:

Fairleigh Dickenson
Fairleigh Dickenson uses four interdisciplinary seminars as its entire general education program. They include Global Challenge, Perspectives on the Individual, Cross-Cultural Perspectives, and The American Experience.

James Madison University
At James Madison, students complete their general education by taking one package in each of the five clusters in their program called “The Human Community.” Clusters are cross-disciplinary or sequenced sets of courses.

Portland State University
Portland State is well known for its interdisciplinary approach to general education. Freshman Inquiry is a year-long, interdisciplinary seminar in which key skills are taught within a theme. (See themes.)

Temple University
Temple offers the “Intellectual Heritage” program—writing-intensive, two-semester, interdisciplinary sequence introducing students to “seedbed texts” in the western intellectual tradition.

University of Northern Colorado
At UNC, students have the option of completing their Liberal Arts Core in “Life of the Mind,” interdisciplinary courses planned by teams from different departments.

(See also Themes, Seminars, Learning Communities and First-Year Experience)

Tell Us What You Think: What do you think of the interdisciplinary approach? How could we use interdisciplinary approaches at Metro?