Interdisciplinary curriculum

This chapter focuses on processes for developing or revising purposeful, scaffolded, and clearly defined interdisciplinary curricula. The discussion will concentrate on instrumental interdisciplinarity resulting in integration with curricular examples drawn from U.S. colleges and universities. Accepting that curriculum development can be time-consuming and even contentious, this chapter offers both guidance and educational models to support this work. Some major discussion and reflection points include defining interdisciplinarity and making decisions about vital knowledge and skills, program level learning outcomes, the depth and/or breath of the interdisciplinary curriculum, when to introduce and build upon interdisciplinarity and integration, desired core courses, and key academic and/or professional experiences. The chapter also offers guidance on course development-ensuring that individual courses meet program goals and contribute to interdisciplinarity-and recommends program, curriculum, major, and career maps as effective strategies for communicating crucial information about the interdisciplinary program to students, colleagues, and community partners.