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The Structure of the disciplines is a concept in the study of curricula.
The rise of geopolitical difference after World War II gave birth to a desire to achieve high levels of rigor in academic pursuits. [1] A systematic approach to developing models of inquiry in the fields of study forced educational institutions to engage subject areas in terms of scientific inquiry. While the societal influences of this perspective no longer play out in current times, the concepts of academic inquiry have a place in the current educational system.
A tenet of the structure of disciplines curriculum approach is that topics are evolving and not static. [2] This allows each subject area to engage in research and study to grow within the subject. A second tenet relates to this research; each discipline must engage in research and follow a discipline-specific model of inquiry. [3] Thirdly, the structures of discipline put forth that each learner develop a sense of multiple models of scientific inquiry relating to multiple disciplines. [4] This creates a soundness of education across many fields of study and enables a learner to become expert in one or many of the disciplines studied.
During the post-World War II, the United States of America was engaged in steep competition with the former Soviet Union; known as the Cold War. Cold War mentalities called for strength in the face of perceived enemies and this extended to include schooling. [1]
World War II saw exponential advancements in sciences, including the development of super weapons. The discipline of scientist became widely regarded and supported changes in the school environment to approach all fields with the same rigor of scientific inquiry. [5] Thus, classrooms saw changes in how curriculum developed and implemented through instruction.
Related to these influences is the focus on militaristic strength and rigor. In the Cold War era, military research showed a systemic method to study subject matter. [6] By expanding the scientific management approach of the early 20th century, practitioners of the structures of the disciplines curriculum perspective could strengthen how subject matter study took place in the classroom.
The scientific approach to studying multiple fields produces an air of academic elitism or arrogance towards other fields not as adept at scientific inquiry. [7] While inquiry models can develop within disciplines, some are not as prepared for the rigors of widely accepted inquiry models.
Through the study of disciplines approach, the focus of the curriculum shifts from learner-centric to subject-centric instruction. [8] Rather than look at how learners interact with the subject, the subject is studied with the learners acting more as observers than creators.
Finally, with the changing from the xenophobic views of the Cold War, the society is open to exploration across national and geopolitical lines, making the influences of this curriculum perspective outmoded. [9] While applicable in instruction, the pressures of conforming to a national policy no longer exist. In the place of nationalistic pride is the concept of the world as connected and dependent on other groups for the expansion of knowledge.
An obvious application of the structure of the disciplines approach is based in the sciences and mathematics fields. [10] The concept of scientific inquiry applies greatly to fields that systemically decipher meaning and understanding. During the Cold War significant funding was available to expand the sciences in school settings. [11] Applications of this curriculum perspective are evident in many scholarly pursuits including the discourse and inquiry around the expansion of knowledge. The systematic decoding of accepted information into debatable and verifiable content is an important element of academic discourse.
The structures of the disciplines approach is applicable in many areas and the tenets of creating strong academic achievers is not lost in schooling and non-schooling settings. Perhaps, most outmoded is the reasoning behind the development of this approach. Today the curriculum perspective is still evident in both school and non-school environments.
Computer science is the study of processes that interact with data and that can be represented as data in the form of programs. It enables the use of algorithms to manipulate, store, and communicate digital information. A computer scientist studies the theory of computation and the practice of designing software systems.
Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include teaching, training, storytelling, discussion and directed research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, however learners can also educate themselves. Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational. The methodology of teaching is called pedagogy.
Homeschooling, also known as home education, is the education of children at home or a variety of places other than school. Home education is usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an online teacher. Many families use less formal ways of educating. "Homeschooling" is the term commonly used in North America, whereas "home education" is commonly used in the United Kingdom, Europe, and in many Commonwealth countries.
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combining of two or more academic disciplines into one activity. It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics etc. It is about creating something by thinking across boundaries. It is related to an interdiscipline or an interdisciplinary field, which is an organizational unit that crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or schools of thought, as new needs and professions emerge. Large engineering teams are usually interdisciplinary, as a power station or mobile phone or other project requires the melding of several specialties. However, the term "interdisciplinary" is sometimes confined to academic settings.
Learning Theory describes how students absorb, process, and retain knowledge during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a world view, is acquired or changed and knowledge and skills retained.
Social science is the branch of science devoted to the study of human societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of society", established in the 19th century. In addition to sociology, it now encompasses a wide array of academic disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, economics, human geography, linguistics, management science, media studies, musicology, political science, psychology, and social history.
Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems. A system is a cohesive conglomeration of interrelated and interdependent parts which can be natural or human-made. Every system is bounded by space and time, influenced by its environment, defined by its structure and purpose, and expressed through its functioning. A system may be more than the sum of its parts if it expresses synergy or emergent behavior.
Natural science is a branch of science concerned with the description, prediction, and understanding of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatability of findings are used to try to ensure the validity of scientific advances.
Science education is the teaching and learning of science to non-scientists, such as school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process, some social science, and some teaching pedagogy. The standards for science education provide expectations for the development of understanding for students through the entire course of their K-12 education and beyond. The traditional subjects included in the standards are physical, life, earth, space, and human sciences.
In education, a curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experiences in terms of the educator's or school's instructional goals. In a 2003 study, Reys, Reys, Lapan, Holliday, and Wasman refer to curriculum as a set of learning goals articulated across grades that outline the intended mathematics content and process goals at particular points in time throughout the K–12 school program. Curriculum may incorporate the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives. Curriculum is split into several categories: the explicit, the implicit, the excluded, and the extracurricular.
Constructivism in education has roots in epistemology. The learner has prior knowledge and experiences, which is often determined by their social and cultural environment. Learning is therefore done by students' “constructing” knowledge out of their experiences. While the Behaviorist school of learning may help understand what students are doing, educators also need to know what students are thinking, and how to enrich what students are thinking.
Holistic education, a relatively new movement, began taking form as an identifiable area of study and practice in the mid-1980s in North America. It is a philosophy of education based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to their local community, to the natural world, and to humanitarian values such as compassion and peace. Holistic education aims to call forth from people an intrinsic reverence for life and a passionate love of learning, gives attention to experiential learning, and places significance on " relationships and primary human values within the learning environment". The term "holistic education" is most often used to refer to the more democratic and humanistic types of alternative education.
The community of inquiry, abbreviated as CoI, is a concept first introduced by early pragmatist philosophers C.S.Peirce and John Dewey, concerning the nature of knowledge formation and the process of scientific inquiry. The community of inquiry is broadly defined as any group of individuals involved in a process of empirical or conceptual inquiry into problematic situations. This concept was novel in its emphasis on the social quality and contingency of knowledge formation in the sciences, contrary to the Cartesian model of science, which assumes a fixed, unchanging reality that is objectively knowable by rational observers. The community of inquiry emphasizes that knowledge is necessarily embedded within a social context and, thus, requires intersubjective agreement among those involved in the process of inquiry for legitimacy.
The philosophy of engineering is an emerging discipline that considers what engineering is, what engineers do, and how their work affects society, and thus includes aspects of ethics and aesthetics, as well as the ontology, epistemology, etc. that might be studied in, for example, the philosophy of science.
Education sciences or education theory seek to describe, understand, and prescribe education policy and practice. Education sciences include many topics, such as pedagogy, andragogy, curriculum, learning, and education policy, organization and leadership. Educational thought is informed by many disciplines, such as history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology.
An academic discipline or academic field is a subdivision of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined, and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties within colleges and universities to which their practitioners belong. It includes language, art and cultural studies and other scientific disciplines.
Thematic teaching is the selecting and highlighting of a theme through an instructional unit or module, course, multiple courses. It is often interdisciplinary, highlighting the relationship of knowledge across academic disciplines and everyday life. Themes can be topics or take the form of overarching questions. Thematic learning is closely related to interdisciplinary or integrated instruction, topic-, project- or phenomenon-based learning. Thematic teaching is commonly associated with elementary classrooms and middle schools using a team-based approach, but this pedagogy is equally relevant in secondary schools and with adult learners. Thematic instruction assumes students learn best when they can associate new information holistically with across the entire curriculum and with their own lives, experiences, and communities.
An elementary school is the main point of delivery of primary education in the United States, for children between the ages of 4–11 and coming between pre-kindergarten and secondary education.
Phenomenon-based learning is a multidisciplinary, constructivist form of learning or pedagogy where students study a topic or concept in a holistic approach instead of in a subject-based approach. PhBL includes both topical learning, where the phenomenon studied is a specific topic, event, or fact, and thematic learning, where the phenomenon studied is a concept or idea. PhBL emerged as a response to the idea that traditional, subject-based learning is outdated and removed from the real-world and does not offer the optimum approach to development of 21st century skills. It has been used in a wide variety of higher educational institutions and more recently in grade schools.
A non-science is an area of study that is not scientific, especially one that is not a natural science or a social science that is an object of scientific inquiry. In this model, history, art, and religion are all examples of non-sciences.