Is there a ‘crisis’ in the disciplines of education? In this book, leading scholars explore how the changing epistemological and political debates of the last 20 years have resulted in the progressive demise of the disciplines in relation to the study of education. Finally the book asks whether the disciplines have a place in education in the 21st century.

The National Science Foundation funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science content. It describes the discipline-specific difficulties learners face and the specialized intellectual and instructional resources that can facilitate student understanding. Discipline-Based Education Research is based on a 30-month study built on two workshops held in 2008 to explore evidence on promising practices in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This book asks questions that are essential to advancing DBER and broadening its impact on undergraduate science teaching and learning. The book provides empirical research on undergraduate teaching and learning in the sciences, explores the extent to which this research currently influences undergraduate instruction, and identifies the intellectual and material resources required to further develop DBER. Discipline-Based Education Research provides guidance for future DBER research. In addition, the findings and recommendations of this report may invite, if not assist, post-secondary institutions to increase interest and research activity in DBER and improve its quality and usefulness across all natural science disciples, as well as guide instruction and assessment across natural science courses to improve student learning. The book brings greater focus to issues of student attrition in the natural sciences that are related to the quality of instruction. Discipline-Based Education Research will be of interest to educators, policy makers, researchers, scholars, decision makers in universities, government agencies, curriculum developers, research sponsors, and education advocacy groups.

University teaching and learning take place within ever more specialized disciplinary settings, each characterized by its unique traditions, concepts, practices and procedures. It is now widely recognized that support for teaching and learning needs to take this discipline-specificity into account. However, in a world characterized by rapid change, complexity and uncertainty, problems do not present themselves as distinct subjects but increasingly within trans-disciplinary contexts calling for graduate outcomes that go beyond specialized knowledge and skills. This ground-breaking book highlights the important interplay between context-specific and context-transcendent aspects of teaching, learning and assessment. It explores critical questions, such as: What are the ‘ways of thinking and practicing’ characteristic of particular disciplines? How can students be supported in becoming participants of particular disciplinary discourse communities? Can the diversity in teaching, learning and assessment practices that we observe across departments be attributed exclusively to disciplinary structure? To what extent do the disciplines prepare students for the complexities and uncertainties that characterize their later professional, civic and personal lives? Written for university teachers, educational developers as well as new and experienced researchers of Higher Education, this highly-anticipated first edition offers innovative perspectives from leading Canadian, US and UK scholars on how academic learning within particular disciplines can help students acquire the skills, abilities and dispositions they need to succeed academically and also post graduation. Carolin Kreber is Professor of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and the Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment at the University of Edinburgh

First published in 1990, this book was the first to explore Foucault's work in relation to education, arguing that schools, like prisons and asylums, are institutions of moral and social regulation, complex technologies of disciplinary control where power and knowledge are crucial. Original and challenging, the essays assess the relevance of Foucault's work to educational practice, and show how the application of Foucauldian analysis to education enables us to see the politics of educational reform in a new light.

Communication studies: fostering effective communication in online courses / Rosalie S. Aldrich, Renee Kaufmann, Natalia Rybas -- Composition and writing: embedding success: supplemental assistance in online writing instruction / Sarah E. Harris, Tanya Perkins, J. Melissa Blankenship -- English: facilitating online learning through discussions in the English classroom: tools for success and stumbling blocks to avoid -- Margaret Thomas-Evans, Steven Petersheim, Edwin A. Helton -- Political science: engaging students through effective instruction and course design in political science / Cheral A. Forge, Kristoffer Rees, Lilia Alexander, Ross C. Alexander -- Criminal justice: calming, critical thinking, and case studies: the politics, pitfalls, and practical solutions for teaching criminal justice in an online environment / Stephanie N. Whitehead, M. Michaux Parker -- Psychology: student misconceptions of psychology: steps for helping online students toward a scientific understanding of psychology -- Beth A. Trammell, Gregory Dam, Amanda Kraha -- World languages (Spanish and French): best practices in online second language teaching: theoretical considerations in course design and implementation / Dianne Burke Moneypenny, Julien Simon -- History: teaching history online: old struggles, new pathways / Justin Carroll, Christine Nemcik, Daron Olson -- Fine arts (drawing): best practices in online teaching for drawing / Carrie Longley, Kevin Longley -- Sociology, anthropology, and geography: igniting the passion: examples for sociology, anthropology, and geography / Denise Bullock, Katherine Millerwolf, Wazir Mohamed, Marc Wolf -- Philosophy: the proof is in the pedagogy: a philosophical examination of the practice of backward design / Mary A. Cooksey -- Biological sciences: online teaching and learning in biological sciences / Parul Khurana, Neil Sabine -- Mathematics: best practices of online education in mathematics / Young Hwan You, Josh Beal -- Education: building online learning communities on the foundation of teacher presence / Jamie Buffington-adams, Denice Honaker, Jerry Wilde -- Economics and finance: using simulation games to engage students in online advanced finance courses / Oi Lin Cheung, Litao Zhong -- Nursing: meeting QSEN competencies in the online environment / Paula Kerlerbaumann, Tony Abreymier, Karen Clark.

Calls for closer connections among disciplines can be heard throughout the world of scholarly research, from major universities to the National Institutes of Health. In Defense of Disciplines presents a fresh and daring analysis of the argument surrounding interdisciplinarity. Challenging the belief that blurring the boundaries between traditional academic fields promotes more integrated research and effective teaching, Jerry Jacobs contends that the promise of interdisciplinarity is illusory and that critiques of established disciplines are often overstated and misplaced. Drawing on diverse sources of data, Jacobs offers a new theory of liberal arts disciplines such as biology, economics, and history that identifies the organizational sources of their dynamism and breadth. Illustrating his thesis with a wide range of case studies including the diffusion of ideas between fields, the creation of interdisciplinary scholarly journals, and the rise of new fields that spin off from existing ones, Jacobs turns many of the criticisms of disciplines on their heads to mount a powerful defense of the enduring value of liberal arts disciplines. This will become one of the anchors of the case against interdisciplinarity for years to come.

This book is a comprehensive, student-friendly text, introducing you to the main education disciplines in one handy volume. In a lively and accessible manner, it examines the academic disciplines that underpin our understanding of education and the contexts within which learning takes place. The book covers the seven main subject disciplines that contribute to education as a broad field of study - history of education, politics of education, philosophy of education, economics of education, sociology of education, psychology of education and comparative education. Key features include: Seven extended chapters all written by specialist and experienced academics in their field A brief overview and history at the beginning of each chapter, followed by a selection of key themes and topics within the discipline Boxed summaries of key theorists and researchers throughout each chapter Tasks for the reader, along with extensive referencing and suggestions for further reading and research Studying Education is essential reading for students on Education Studies or PGCE courses, as well as all of those interested in or involved with education or schooling. Contributors: Rebecca Allen, Clyde Chitty, Will Curtis, Barry Dufour, Diahann Gallard, Angie S. Garden, Debbie Le Play, Richard Waller "This book provides an authoritative, ‘state of the art’ introduction to the key disciplines of education studies. It provides useful study activities and concise introductory notes on key texts, key figures, key centres and key journals in each discipline. A valuable and highly readable addition to the education studies literature." Clive Harber, Professor of International Education, University of Birmingham, UK "This book aims to explore the disciplines that are the “foundation” education disciplines: History, Politics, Philosophy, Economics, Sociology, Psychology and Comparative Education. The editors claim that their key aim is to “provide a general overview of each subject [...] enabling the readers to explore each discipline in greater depth” (page1). This book offers an overview of the disciplines that have been dominant in education. The disciplines the editors have chosen to include in this book thus illustrate a range of diverse approaches to the study of education. The book is written in an accessible style for undergraduate students embarking on inquiry into the nature of education studies and the disciplines that may be important. Interestingly the chapters in this book will also help students to refine their understanding of historical, political, socio-economical and psychological aspects that are interrelated in the study of education. Although the authors of individual chapters develop a discussion of their discipline in each chapter, they successfully and consistently apply their disciplinarity thus offering students opportunities to discuss the identity of education studies and debate the relevance of disciplines in the development of educational thought. Chapter One offers a rigorous and critical approach to key historical developments in education, attempting a useful heuristic consideration to all levels of education and covering a number of factors such as women and education, ethnicity, race and religion in order that students are inducted into the wider socio-political developments of education. The second chapter offers a different, but relevant, dimension to the first chapter by examining the role of politics in education, debating issues around power, conflict and change and for the development of educational thinking such a chapter debating policy-making and politics is vitally important. The third chapter on philosophy of education is central to the study of the foundation disciplines of education as philosophical approaches influence and underpin education studies in terms of history, policy, research and practice. The next chapter debates the economics of education and is particularly welcomed especially in an era that there is a decline in the study of this topic. The next two chapters examine sociological and psychological aspects of education studies.Finally the last chapter raises an interesting debate of the academic disciplinarity of comparative education, drawing upon the challenges of organisational support, funding and policy making. Overall throughout the book the students are encouraged to avoid fragmentation and to develop an educational thinking beyond disciplinary perspectives without losing the relativity of education to these disciplines and their contribution to the development of the 21st educational thinking." Ioanna Palaiologou, The University of Hull