Multiand Interdisciplinary Instruction at PA: Theory, Practice and Constraints

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Multi- and Interdisciplinary Instruction at PA: Theory,

Practice and Constraints

Jerry Hagler, Christopher Shaw and Erin Strong

Defining “Interdisciplinary” at Andover

Teachers at all levels often refer to curriculum that explores content using one or more disciplines as

interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary, often interchangeably. In 2012-13, Andover’s dean of studies asked

the Academic Council to agree on a definition of interdisciplinarity for use at the academy. The chairs of

the departments of theatre and dance, of history and social science, and the head of the division of the

natural sciences met during the fall of 2013 in an effort to come to some agreement on this definition,

using a combination of published theory and common practice, both at Andover and at other secondary

and tertiary institutions.

When is a course multidisciplinary?

Curriculum that juxtaposes content, analytical methods, or creative techniques from one or more

disciplinary traditions is considered representative of more than one “many” discipline(s). Such an

approach borrows and sets side-by-side whole texts, tools and vocabularies from two or more disciplines

in the presentation of a given topic. A course on a common idea or problem – for example, climate

change – might present weekly lectures from a series of experts engaged with the topic who do not, as a

rule, seek to define new approaches or integrate the knowledge they bring. Such a course might begin

with an ecologist describing eco-systems undergoing change from increasing temperatures, and follow

that expert with a geologist speaking about glaciers, then an anthropologist addressing the impact on

human communities, an engineer on human infrastructure, and an economist on the long-term costs to

national output.

…versus interdisciplinary?

Heidi Hayes Jacobs at Columbia’s Teachers College emphasizes the integrative quality of

interdisciplinarity, the merging of disciplinary understandings into a new form of knowledge.1 She warns

of the “pot pourri” approach, presenting Ancient Egypt, for example, as sequential tastes of relevant

history, architecture, and arts, an approach that tends to fail in terms both of rigor and focus. She also

describes the “polarity problem,” in which a disciplinary focus is seen as antithetical to interdisciplinary

understanding, in which each inhabits its own, exclusive zone of meaning and practice.

To remedy these pitfalls, she defines interdisciplinary programs as meeting two essential criteria in design

and student experience:

● They must have carefully conceived design features:

1 Heidi Hayes Jacobs ed., Interdisciplinary Curriculum Design and Implementation (Association for

Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1989). 1 1

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○ a scope and sequence,

○ a cognitive taxonomy to encourage thinking skills,

○ behavioral indicators of attitudinal change, and2

○ a solid evaluation scheme.

● They must use both discipline-field-based and interdisciplinary experiences for students in the

curriculum.3

Jacobs goes on to emphasize the need for epistemology at all levels of instruction – “How do we know

what we know? What is knowledge?” – as well as the quality that successful interdisciplinary approaches

not only depend on disciplines and discipline-based knowledge and methodology, but also enhance

relevance and reduce fragmentation, rather than the other way around.

More recently, Repko, Szestak and Buchberger describe interdisciplinary studies as those that “cross”

disciplinary boundaries and seek to integrate knowledge in a new way, citing as examples “neuroscience

and biochemistry…[ ] environmental science, nanotechnology, geobiology, sustainability science and

engineering, psycholinguistics, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, women’s studies, urban studies, and

American studies.”

They propose a definition consistent with Jacobs, emphasizing process, disciplines, integration and the

more comprehensive understanding that emerges, describing interdisciplinary as the smoothie to

multidisciplinary’s bowl of fruit:

“Interdisciplinary studies is a process of answering a question, solving a

problem, or addressing a topic that is too broad or complex to be dealt with

adequately by a single discipline, and draws on the disciplines with the goal of

integrating their insights to construct a more comprehensive understanding.[3]

Examples of Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Teaching at

Phillips Academy

Multidisciplinary

Teaching models:

● “Portable” Teaching Units: Individual class units taught by museum instructors from the Addison

or the Peabody on a guest lecture basis. These are in common use in many courses throughout

the curriculum (see Appendix A). An example might include a history course that visits the

Addison for one or two class session to examine a topic at hand through the lens of visual art.

● Guest lectures: A teacher invites a colleague from another department to lecture once or twice

per trimester.

2 Ibid., 3.

2 3 Allen F. Repko, Rick Szostak and Michelle Phillips Buchberger, Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies

(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2013). 3 3

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● Single topic across several courses: Examination of a particular topic through consideration in

multiple courses.

○ South Africa Art Project - each of three arts -- music, visual art & dance -- will examine

the same topic from a different lens;

○ THDA 320,321, 920 (Costume, Light, Play Production) while collaborative in nature, each

remains distinct -- the costume class examines the theme through costume design,

actors from a performing stance, sound design, light design, etc.; all are separate lenses

to examine the same theme;

● Single topic across several disciplines or angles in one course: One overarching topic is

considered by faculty from multiple departments (or even within a single department) from

multiple angles on a short-term basis (one or two class sessions):

○ IP Colloquium (Dylan; Justice, Tyranny and Law; London); (none is truly an IP, but that is

for the Advising Council to decide since it approves IPs)

○ THDA 370 Performance Art: The Creative Self

○ English 530AA When I Paint My Masterpiece

○ English 542AA An Intro Survey of African American Lit

○ Hist-SS500 American Pop Culture

○ Biol-430 The Root of It All: Plants in the Modern World

Interdisciplinary

Teaching models:

● Two+ instructors from distinct departments teach one course (~double course enrollment)

○ Engl- 533GL, Phre-533 and Phre-550 Abbot Global Scholars (although in the course

description this course is described as multidisciplinary, the description itself suggests

that this course is actually interdisciplinary)

○ Eng/Musc-530 Brazilian Cultural Studies

○ Hist-SS/Scie-480 History of Disease and Medicine in the United States: Pox and

Pestilence

○ Hist-SS/Musc-485 Out of Tune: Music and the State in the Twentieth Century

○ Intd-410 Academy Hill: A Sense of Place

○ Phre/Scie-445 Bioethics: Humanity in the Post-Genomic Era

○ Psyc/Scie-490 The Brain and You--A Users Guide

○ Scie-470 Human Origins

● Single instructor teaching one course (interdisciplinary approach to topic, using guest speakers

bringing particular expertise)

○ Scie-410 Environmental Science: Global Climate Change

○ Scie-420 Environmental Science: Agriculture, and the Future

○ Scie-430 Environmental Science: Water Resources

○ Scie-435 Love That Dirty Water: The Global Sanitation Challenge

○ Scie-460 Molecular Gastronomy

○ Span-620 Commerce, Culture, and Trade: Modern Latin America

○ Musical Play Productions (are both multi and inter)

○ Art-400 Histories of Art

○ Art-465 Cultural Perspectives, Global Connections

○ Musc-410 The Musical Brain

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Examples of multi- and interdisciplinary courses at other private high

schools

Several of our peer schools include inter- or multidisciplinary courses in their course catalogs. Here you

will find a round-up of prominent offerings from a selection of these schools, as determined through a

search of school websites and/or course catalogs for the terms “interdisciplinary” and “multi-disciplinary”

(or some variation).

A. Courses that have descriptions that include the word multi- or interdisciplinary, or that are

clearly multi- or interdisciplinary in nature (even if not listed as such):

Phillips Exeter Academy4:

While the Exeter course catalog does not specifically offer courses labeled as multi- or interdisciplinary,

they do offer courses that appear to have characteristics of both:

● ENG461: ART OF PROTEST--the course description mentions that this is an interdisciplinary

course.

● The Exeter course catalog includes an entire section dedicated to Senior Studies, a set of

courses that “encourage students to make connections across disciplinary lines and to utilize

skills they have developed in different disciplines.” Courses include:

○ SRS406: SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

○ SRS411: THE WORLD SEEN THROUGH A DAILY NEWSPAPER

○ SRS412: HUMAN RIGHTS

○ SRS425: THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN WHITE AMERICA I

○ SRS426: THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN WHITE AMERICA II

○ SRS440: EL TANGO ARGENTINO – HISTORY, MUSIC & DANCE

○ SRS448: SPORTS SCIENCE

○ SRS449: BEST-SELLING SCIENCE

○ SRS451: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND PROFIT IN SOCIETIES

○ SRS453: INFORMATION AND CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Deerfield Academy5

The Deerfield course catalog does not have a section dedicated to inter- or multidisciplinary studies.

However, several courses do mention interdisciplinarity in the course description. We’ve indicated the

specific areas of interdisciplinarity as well as the teaching method if indicated.

● ENG311 American Studies (American Literature and US History)

● ENG313 American Styles (English and Visual Arts)

● HIS122 Africa and Latin America

● HIS311 His: American Studies (US History and American Literature, team-taught)

● HIS443 India and China: 2.5B and Change

Deerfield is a participant in the AP Cambridge Capstone Program

4 “Phillips Exeter Academy” http://www.exeter.edu/

5 “Deerfield Academy” http://deerfield.edu/

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(http://aphighered.collegeboard.org/exams/cambridge-capstone) and offers two courses designed

specifically to fit into the AP Cambridge program, both of which are described as being interdisciplinary in

nature:

● ENG492 AP Cambridge: Capstone Research

● HIS349 AP Cambridge: Global H2O

Milton Academy6

Offers one interdisciplinary course, AOIOH-Advanced Oral Interpretation: Oral History, team taught by faculty from performing arts and history. Other courses include the term “interdisciplinary” or “multi-disciplinary” in the course description:

● SP4CL-Spanish 4: Topics in Hispanic Culture and Literature: Mexico Yesterday and Today

● FR5WS- French 5: The Francophone World

B. Course catalog includes a section dedicated to interdisciplinary courses:

Choate Rosemary Hall7

The Choate website includes a section outlining its curriculum (including a listing of all courses). Under

this curriculum is a heading labeled Interdisciplinary which includes a definition of interdisciplinary

courses as: “courses specifically designed to incorporate subject matter from two or more disciplines.”

They include the following courses under this heading:

● Environ Research Project, Honors ● Evolution: Darwin's Dangerous Idea ● Greening of America: Environmental Movem ● Introduction To Logic ● Introductory Classical Chinese, Honors ● Islamic Civilizations of The Middle East ● Modernism, Honors ● Post-Modernism, Honors ● Public Speaking ● Research Methods, Honors ● Romanticism, Honors ● Seminar In Art History, Honors ● Sophomore Seminar ● Sustainable International Development

Lawrenceville Academy8

Lawrenceville maintains a section of its course catalog dedicated to interdisciplinary study, described as:

“The interdisciplinary studies program at Lawrenceville is not a separate department, but a series of courses that emerge from our core disciplines of history, science, English, foreign language, art, and religion and philosophy.

Beginning in the Second Form, students become familiar with the insights, methods, and approaches of these core disciplines. Interdisciplinary courses then attempt to build on these disciplinary groundings in the Fourth and Fifth Form by encouraging students to integrate two or

6 “Milton Academy” http://www.milton.edu/

7 “Choate Rosemary Hall” http://www.choate.edu/

8 “The Lawrenceville School” http://www.lawrenceville.org/

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more disciplines. Increasingly, the most complex intellectual and practical problems in the world lie beyond the boundaries of a single discipline. As such, the goal of the Interdisciplinary courses is to answer a question, solve a problem, or achieve an understanding impossible through a single discipline alone. At Lawrenceville, we specifically define Interdisciplinary Studies as “Inquiries which critically draw up two or more disciplines leading to an integration of disciplinary insights.”

● “Inquiries”: Interdisciplinary Courses should focus on a question or a problem that requires analysis from multiple disciplinary perspectives.

● “Which Critically Draw Upon Two or More Disciplines”: Interdisciplinary Courses should emerge from our core Departments and the disciplinary groundings students have acquired during their first two to three years at Lawrenceville. The purpose of Interdisciplinary Courses is to leverage the insights of two or more disciplines while also encouraging students to reflect critically on the limitations of each discipline.

● “Leading to an Integration of Disciplinary Insights”: Once a course's essential question is examined from the perspective of the contributing disciplines -- and each discipline reaches the limits of its explanatory or problem-solving power.

Interdisciplinary courses should then become a search for a "third way" -- a strategy that builds on

the insights and approaches of the contributing disciplines, but then "integrates" them in the service of answering a question, solving a problem, or achieving an understanding impossible through a single discipline alone.”

The following is a list of courses that grant interdisciplinary credit:

● EN414 – European‐ American English II ● EN417 – Legal Practice And Procedures ● EN517 – Ex Nihilo: Postmodern Literature ● EN517 – Ex Nihilo: Postmodern Literature ● EN549 – Linguistics: Dr. Johnson To Dr. Chomsky ● EN573 – Heuristics ● HI506 – Women & Poverty in the Developing World ● HI516 – Russia: History and Memory ● HI563 – European‐ American History I ● HI570 – Africa: Then and Now ● HI578 – The Middle East ‐ Myth And History ● HI592 – Immigration Stories/Theories I ● IN586 – Interdisciplinary: Capstone X [Health Care] ● IN588 – Interdisciplinary: Capstone [Health Care] ● LA563 – Honors French: Versailles ● LA592 – Honors Spanish: Politics & Poetry ● MA507 – Honors Calculus AB with Physics ● MA535 – Honors Math Seminar: Infinity ● PA506 – Popular Music In America ● PA522 – Reason & Faith: Brecht’s “Galileo” ● RP401 – Varieties‐ Religious Experience ● RP502 – The Karma Of Words ● RP504 – Religious Dimens Of Music ● RP505 – Religion And Ecology ● RP506 – Heresy: Philosophy, Religion, & Science ● RP508 – Religion In America I ● RP511 – Makers Modern Mind I ● SC531 – Honors Physics With Calculus ● SC570 – Bioethics ● SC583 – Race ● SC591 – Food

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● VA507 – Time, Space & Light: The 20th Century ● VA511 – Design For Social Change

Also described as an interdisciplinary course in the course description but not listed as giving Interdisciplinary credit: LA549 – Honors Latin: Shakespeare. Hotchkiss

9 Maintains a section in its Course Listing labeled “Interdisciplinary Courses” and includes:

● IC352 – EPISTEMOLOGY: A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE ● HU150 – PREP HUMANITIES (1500-1815) ● HU250 – LOWER MID HUMANITIES (1815-PRESENT)

According to the course description, both HU150 and HU250 contains sections in English, history, philosophy and religion, and the arts (visual art, dance, music, photography, theatre). The following courses are also described as being interdisciplinary:

● SC441 – INTRODUCTION TO FORENSIC SCIENCE ● ES421 – ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS (cross listed with humanities and social sciences)

C. Schools that integrate interdisciplinary studies into the core curriculum:

Lawrence Academy10

9th Grade Program From the Lawrence Academy Course of Study:

“Students are taught by a team of four teachers—one from the arts, one from science, one from English, and one from history. Classes focus on teaching the skills using content material from the various disciplines in an interdisciplinary approach, thus encouraging students to make connections and to draw on shared experiences. The NGP offers a new approach to interdisciplinary learning by proposing that skills, not facts, unite the disciplines.” This program consists of four courses as listed in the catalog:

● Ninth Grade Arts Program-100 ● Ninth Grade English Program-201 ● Ninth Grade History Program-603 ● Ninth Grade Science Program-500

Several courses are also described as multidisciplinary:

● Honors Dance - 122 ● Honors Music – 019 ● Honors Theatre Ensemble – 128 ● Honors Visual Art – 132

Northfield-Mount Hermon

11 NMH has a required interdisciplinary Humanities Program. It consists of three parts:

● 9th graders are required to take Environmental Perspectives (HUM 001 : Humanities I: Environmental Perspectives), a course that combines English with religious studies and is collaboratively taught by faculty from both departments;

● New 10th graders are required (and returning 10th grade are permitted) to take International Perspectives (HUM 002 : Humanities II: International Perspectives), a course that combines

9 “The Hotchkiss School” http://www.hotchkiss.org/

10 “Lawrence Academy” http://www.lacademy.edu/

11 “Northfield Mount Hermon School” http://www.nmhschool.org/

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history with religious studies. This course is also taught by collaborating faculty from both history and religious studies.

● Upper level humanities course offerings include courses that are described to integrate two disciplines together. Examples include:

○ HIS/ENG 003 : The Civil War and American Memory ○ REL/HIS 6 : Global Futures

Other courses that include the term “interdisciplinary” in the course description:

● INT 073 : International Studies Program: New Zealand ● ENV 411 : Environmental Studies ● ENV 511 : Advanced Placement Environmental Science ● Senior Seminars

Other courses that are listed in two departments and are likely inter- or multidisciplinary in nature:

● BIO/REL 1 : Genetics and Ethics ● REL/HIS 2 : The Islamic Middle East ● HIS 311LM/Eng 311LM : Shared Voices: Multicultural US History and American

Literature ● REL/HIS 2 : The Islamic Middle East

These courses offer credit in two or more departments, implying a strong interdisciplinary component:

● HUM 211BR : Humanities II: Brazil (offers credit in history, religious studies and math--includes a travel component)

● HUM 211SA : Humanities II: South Africa (offers credit in history, religious studies and English--includes a travel component)

● HUM211CH : Humanities II: China (offers credit in history, religious studies and math--includes a travel component)

● HUM 211IN : Humanities II: India (unclear where the credits go--includes a travel component)

Phillips Academy

12 Note: A similar analysis of the Phillips Academy webpage and course of study yields the following results: A section of our course of study “Interdisciplinary Science” includes:

● SCIE-445/PHRE-445, Bioethics: Humanity in the Post-Genomic Era ● SCIE-490, The Brain and You: a User's Guide ● SCIE-480, Disease and Medicine in the United States: Pox and Pestilence ● SCIE-470, Human Origins ● SCIE-435, Love That Dirty Water: the Global Sanitation Challenge ● SCIE-430, Env. Science: Water Resources ● SCIE-420, Env. Sci : Food,agriculture & the Future ● SCIE-410, Env. Science: Global Climate Change ● SCIE-460, Molecular Gastronomy

Several courses (not already listed above) include the word “interdisciplinary” in the course description. These include:

● ART-302, Clay and the Ancestral Pot ● ENGL-511CC, The World in Pieces: Cinema, Poetry, And the Aesthetics of

Fragmentation ● ENGL-530AA, When I Paint My Masterpiece

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“Phillips Academy” http://www.andover.edu/Pages/default.aspx

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● ENGL-534YO, Yoga: Poetry and Practice ● INTD-410, Academy Hill: a Sense of Place

Interestingly, there are several courses that are included in the hard copy course of study under the heading “Interdisciplinary Studies.” The “Interdisciplinary Studies” category is not included in the online version of the COS (which obviously should be fixed). Courses that should be included under this heading:

● HIST-SS485/MUSC-485, Out of Tune: Music and the State in the Twentieth Century ● ENGL-530AB/MUSC-530, Brazilian Cultural Studies ● ENGL-533GL/2/PHRE-533, Abbot Global Scholars: Encounters ● PHRE-550, Abbot Global Scholars: Connections ● HIST-SS-480/SCIE-480, Disease and Medicine in the United States: Pox and Pestilence ● PHRE-445/SCIE-445, Bioethics: Humanity in the Post-Genomic Era ● SCIE-490/PSYC-490, The Brain and You--A User’s Guide ● INTD-410, Academy Hill: A Sense of Place ● INTD-400/1: Humanities Writing Seminar

Obstacles associated with the development of inter- and

multidisciplinary courses at PA

Ways to promote inter- and multidisciplinary course development:

Historically, faculty and department chairs who have been interested in developing inter/multi-disciplinary

courses have encountered several problems that prevent the easy development of such courses. We

have divided these problems into the following general categories: Structural, Territorial, Work Load, and

Financial, with a discussion of each following. This is in no way meant to be a comprehensive analysis of

this issue, but should serve to highlight the major problems that have been encountered (and some of the

solutions that have been adopted) in the development of inter-/multi-disciplinary courses.

Structural—the structure of the school and the curriculum interferes with interdisciplinary collaboration.

Problem #1: Difficult to schedule faculty such that they can both teach during any one period.

Possible solutions:

● Use the ad hoc method we already employ. Rely on the primary faculty for that interdisciplinary

course to invite and schedule their guest lecturers for mutually convenient times, but with

expressed support from the administration.

i. Advantages: requires no changes in mentality or structure on the part of the school,

and can also be very flexible.

ii. Disadvantages: Limiting. Also, this model doesn’t really encourage more in depth

collaboration between faculty.

● Creative scheduling and use of time

a. More extensive use of 9th period. 4x75 minute periods (4:50-6:05) are available.

i. Advantages: Great deal of flexibility for both faculty and teachers. Most faculty do not

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teach in 9th period, and most students do not have classes here either. Meet for dinner.

ii. Disadvantages: Hard on the family life for some of us who have young kids.

Not a popular time for students to have class?

In recent years several courses have been offered during 9th period:

● Art-301/401/501/601 Architecture

● Biol-430 Root of It All

● Biol-610 Molecular and Cellular Biology: Independent Laboratory Research

● Comp-630 Honors Computer Science Seminar

Enrollments in 9th period sections have varied. In Winter term 2014, both Art-

301/401/501 and Comp-630 have full enrollment. Over the two years we offered Biol-

430, it never filled completely.

b. Use athletics and community service time for additional course time

i. Advantages: Opens up yet another block of time that can be utilized for specialized

course work.

ii. Disadvantages: Encroaches on time set aside specifically for athletics and community

service….major league taboo?

We already have the structure in place to support the use of afternoons for other courses.

The athletics department offers Flexible Fitness Option, Supervised Approved Sports

Exemption and Independent Exercise Options to improve flexibility in how students can

use afternoon hours. These options have been used by students to pursue course work

outside of the normal school day. An example would include some students in Biol-610.

No doubt there are others as well.

c. Institute class meeting times utilize multiple period times. For example, one colleague

teaches

his/her part of the course during regular periods 1-7, the collaborating faculty, due to scheduling

conflicts, utilizes 9th period (or athletic/com service time) for his/her component of the course.

Thus, students might meet in a course for one or more period in periods 1-7, and also for one or

more periods in period 9.

i. Advantages: Great deal of flexibility for scheduling. Students who want to enroll in

such a class that requires this kind of flexibility would only need to set aside one period

during the normal class day to enroll. The other part of the course would exist in a lightly

utilized portion of the schedule (period 9).

ii. Disadvantages: Clutters up the daily and weekly schedule. Clouds up a lot of the

clarity achieved with the new class schedule. Also potentially conflicts with athletic

commitments, especially during Winter term

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d. Parallel scheduling of multiple sections of one course. For example, if we combine Human

Genetics and Bioethics into one course, we would schedule two sections of this course for the

same period. They would meet separately and be taught by one of the two faculty heading the

course. These faculty would switch sections on some sort of predetermined schedule so that

they could each get to interact with each section at least during half of the available class time. In

effect, each section would get half science/half ethics instruction.

i. Advantages: Faculty do not need to learn whole new subject areas outside their area

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of expertise in order to teach the class. The collaborating faculty would cover that area.

For example, I teach the science of Human Genetics issues to both sections, Vincent

teaches ethical issues to both sections. Both teachers are teaching separately during the

same period for the whole term. They are both in effect teaching one course each and

thus there are no FTE issues.

ii. Disadvantages: How do we assign credits for the course? The students essentially

get one half of a course in one discipline, and half a course in the other. Do they get

discipline credit for either, both or neither? Also, enrolling enough students for two

sections worth of one elective course in one period may be a problem.

e. Use combined periods to teach, as we do with Bio 600 (6th and 7

th period combined together

to make an 8 hour course).

i. Advantages: Yet more flexibility. A course that uses, say, period 3 and 4 together

can have faculty teaching that course who also have another course during one of those

two combined periods. This works best if one faculty can have one of the two periods

dedicated to the interdisciplinary course, and the other collaborating faculty has the

complimentary period dedicated. This model results in less scheduling woes for the

department head.

ii. Disadvantages: Results in scheduling restrictions for both the student and the

scheduling officer.

f. Coscheduling faculty: departments cooperate to co-schedule collaborating faculty so that they

can co-teach their interdisciplinary course in the same period.

i. Advantages: Neat and tidy way to deal with common teaching time

ii. Disadvantages: Serious FTE issue. How do we allocate FTEs? Also, full course time

blocked out for a faculty member who essentially teaches during only half of that time,

resulting in inefficient use of teaching time (from the point of view of the department

chair). Other issues?

g. Schedule the course at an odd time when all faculty can participate.This technique has been

used to support the teaching of the IP colloquium courses (Dylan, Justice, Law and Tyranny,

London) which are all taught on Wednesday evening after dinner for a two-hour block. This does

seem to be a workable model. All of these courses were heavily enrolled and drew on the

resources of a great variety of faculty. Each faculty member was only asked to teach one

evening a term. Only the course head met with the class every week.

Problem #2: How do departments handle introduction of new interdisciplinary courses without incurring

“Course of Study bloat?” In which departments should truly interdisciplinary courses be included? Do we

need more flexibility in the structure of our curriculum to accommodate new courses? What is the role of

the newly created Andover Institute?

Consider:

● Deliberately consider interdisciplinary courses to be, by default, temporary, so that they run for

only a few years (perhaps 4 years at the max). This model would allow new courses to pop in to

place to replace the old, keeping the curriculum of the school dynamic, exciting and current.

● Create a set number of interdisciplinary course slots available every year that are filled by

interested faculty. Perhaps faculty can compete for these slots.

● Each department has a set number course slots available for new or changing courses (not just

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for ID courses). These can be allocated as the department wishes for next school year in time for

the deadline for Course of Study changes in January. As courses wither and die, and faculty

priorities change, these course slots can change as well

● Interested faculty can have designated course slots of their own that they can modify form year to

year.

● Place interdisciplinary/multi-disciplinary courses under the banner of the Andover Institute, free of

departmental constraint. However, how would such a structure be coordinated with the interested

departments?

● Other Ideas?

Problem #3: How do we get students to take these courses, especially if they are running at odd times

(as described above)?

● In recent experience, this does not seem to be much of a problem. Most of the interdisciplinary

courses we offer appear to be well subscribed. Even courses offered at odd time, such as the IP

colloquium have been popular. Also, the credit students receive for interdisciplinary courses

needs to be addressed. Recent experience has shown that if courses are offered out of two

departments, and are listed in both departments, students can be given the choice of department

in which to receive credit. That model has worked well with

○ Hist-SS480/Scie-480

○ Psyc-490/Scie-490

○ Hist-SS485/Musc-485

○ Engl-533GL/2/Phre-533

○ Hist-SS485/Musc-485

○ Phre-445/Scie-445.

This remains a problem for courses that cannot be easily fit within the departmental structure.

Problem #4: How do we manage who gets to do interdisciplinary work…..all faculty, first-come-first-

served, competitively chosen, an elite few?

Territorial—Faculty tend to be territorial with their courses, not wanting to share their space and their

student time with anyone else. We don’t know the extent of this problem. It does seem faculty are

generally reluctant to ask other faculty to give guest lectures in their classes (especially intra-

departmentally, at least in the sciences--). Here are some points to consider when thinking about this

issue:

Why are we as a faculty generally reluctant to allow or seek outside participation in our courses? (By

outside, we mean outside of the actual course, but from within their department or from another

department…..it is clear that people already utilize speakers from outside the school)

Possible answers:

● The culture of the school such that we are afraid of imposing on other faculty by asking them to

participate in our courses due to perceived time constraints. A guest lecture requires prep time,

class time, hassle, etc. Yet another thing that needs to be done in the course of a very busy daily

schedule.

● It is too much of a hassle to arrange.

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● Ego issues part 1……are we afraid of being “out done” by our guest lecturer? Will we find that

we are not as good teachers as we thought in comparison to others?

● Ego issues part 2……we feel that we are better at teaching a subject, have more knowledge

about a subject, etc, than other faculty members. Therefore, we do not need to invite guest

lecturers.

● Intellectual issues.

i. Will we be challenged by our students and the guest lecturer beyond our comfort level?

ii. Are faculty really even interested in other fields of study to the point where they would

like to invite guests or establish collaborations for a new course?

● Duration of the term might be too short to allow guest lecturers (in other words, courses contain

too much content that needs to be covered in a limited amount of time). This is probably really a

problem for AP/AP-level courses.

● The use of a lot of guest lecturers might be perceived as “slacking off” on your teaching duties by

the rest of the department or by the rest of the school.

Should faculty offer to give guest lectures for specific classes or departments? For example, should

Hagler, a molecular biologist, offer to give lectures in Chemistry classes about enzymes (biological

catalysts), or perhaps about the issues surrounding stem cell research for Bioethics? Making such an

offer may be one way to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration. Here are the problems we see with such

an approach:

● All of the issues outlined above under B1.

● The person who does this looks like an “ego-maniac”.

● The person who does this might be perceived as encroaching on another faculty member’s

“personal teaching space” and intellectual homebase.

● others?

Are there ways that inter-course collaboration can be encouraged by the department heads and by the

administration?

● Comp time for course development?

Workload—both positive and negative pressures—Co-teaching tends to generate problems with FTEs.

Two (or more) faculty teaching one course results in inefficient use of teaching time from a departmental

point of view (one teacher using half their time for a course for which they get full 0.2 FTE credit).

Possible solutions:

● Don’t give teachers full credit, but instead, assign proportional credit (0.1 FTE each for two

teacher course, etc). This would encourage additional collaborations by teachers of

interdisciplinary courses (so that they can bring themselves up to full FTE workload with

additional courses).

● Don’t worry about it and just take the hit. Sure, there is a loss of efficiency, but that might be the

cost for maintaining the school at the vanguard of competitive private high schools.

● “Double” enrollment in the course. This way each instructor is teaching the equivalent of a full

section worth of students. There are several courses that use this solution currently: Hist-

SS480/Scie-480, Psyc/Scie-490, Scie-470 all accept an enrollment of at least 22 students (~11

students/instructor). This solution has been an acceptable compromise for courses of this type

for several years.

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Having other faculty come and teach lectures (as in the current informal model of interdisciplinary

courses) in a course reduces workload for the main teacher of that course.

This, we think, on the whole is a positive thing. But, do we need to account for that? If so, how should

the school account for that? We need to be careful not to penalize people for dreaming and planning

interdisciplinary work.

Utilize resources outside the bounds of the formal academic program of Phillips Academy

● Utilize the resources of the two Museums and other offices.

○ Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, which offers extensive curriculum units

expressly for use in the academic program that can be delivered to classes by the RSP

education staff (see appendix A);

○ Addison Museum of American Art (see appendix B)

○ Archives

○ OWHL

All four of these resources have been used successfully in a variety of academic courses over the

past several years. This does appear to be a valuable way to introduce multi- and

interdisciplinary themes into the academic program

Financial—How do we pay for interdisciplinary work?

There is probably a need for financial resources to cover faculty time spent in planning (summer or over

the course of the year), books and other resources, guest speakers, travel, etc. Should the school expect

this to come out of the pocket of the faculty involved, from the department, or from somewhere else?

One possible solution is the establishment of an endowment or some other pool of money available to

support interdisciplinary work (such as existed for the Medicine and Society Project). Curriculum and

faculty development money from the Dean of Studies and the Dean of Faculty may be good resources for

this as well. It may be that existing resources remain largely unknown or under-utilized.

Appendix A

Curriculum Units:

Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology

The education staff at the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology offers the following curriculum

units for use in appropriate courses. These units are taught by the museum educators, often utilizing

items directly from the museum collections.

It’s aMAIZEing!

The Ancient Maya

Andean Textiles *

Anthropology of Gender *

Archiving the Light – The Importance of Photography in the Scientific Process

Astronomy of the Ancestral Puebloans at Chaco Canyon

Astronomy of the Ancient Maya

“As you are now, so once was I” – Changes in religious ideology as revealed at Andover’s

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South Church Burial Ground

The Atlatl – An Ancient Hunting and Warfare Device

Blubber: It’s What’s For Dinner

Bones to Beethoven: Music in the Archaeological Record

A Brave New Ceremony

Cave, Earth, & Sky: The Animate Landscape of Ancient Mesoamerica

The Corn Conundrum*

The Countdown to 2012

Cultures in Contact

Death as Fashion: 18th and 19th Century Gravestone Style Change at Andover’s South Church Burial

Ground

Deforestation……with Stone Age Tools?

Ethnobotany: How People Use Plants *

Etowah *

Fantastic Archaeology*

First Peoples of the Americas

Forensic Anthropology

Fur Trade in the 17 th and 18 th Centuries

Going Viral

Hellish Fiends and Brutish Men

History in Our Own Backyard – An Architectural Tour of Andover

History of Halloween

Hominid Cranial Morphology

How Humans and Sugar Glucose

Human Osteology & Forensics of an 18th Century Execution

Indigenous Ceramics of the Americas *

Intro to Andean & Mesoamerica Precolumbian Art & Culture

Journey to the Underworld – The Ancient Maya Myth of the Hero Twins

Making Stones Tools – The Art of Flint Knapping

Mandan *

The Mark of Cane: A History of the Sugar Industry in America

Mathematics and Calendrics of the Ancient Maya

Mesoamerican Religion – Death, Deities, and the Afterlife

The Mexican Day of the Dead, El Día de los Muertos

Mimbres Pottery *

Mother Nature Knows Best

NAGPRA and Early American Human Remains – A Debate

NAGPRA Explained

Objects and Meaning in Portable Art

Origin and Tenacity of “Race” *

The Origins of Chocolate

The Origins of Writing

Paddling through the Americas

Pecos Pueblo

Phillips Academy’s Great Auk *

Points, Plants and People

Pseudomorphs

The Shell: 500 Million Years of Inspired Design*

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Statistics: It’s a Sherd Thing

Stone’s Throw: Evidence of Agriculture

Sustaining the Dead: Ancestor Worship, Curation, and Interaction in Mesoamerica

Tarps

That Which Sets US Apart *

Time and Tradition: Ancient Mesoamerican Social and Political Structure from the

Olmec to Aztec

The Trail Where They Cried

Trebuchet!

U.S. Indian Policy and Tribal Land Tenure: The Dawes Act

Up in Smoke: A History of Tobacco *

The ‘Ways’ of the Ancients Live On: La Continuidad Cultural en el Mundo Maya

Westward Expansion

What is Archaeology?

When Strangers Meet

Writing of the Ancient Maya

You’ve Got Mail!

The Addison Gallery of American Art

The Addison Gallery of American Art offers portfolio guides, which suggest works of art derived from the

Addison collections organized thematically for use in the academic program:

The American Civil War

American Identity

The Great Depression

Representing the Land

Images and the Media

Photographic Technologies

Race and Otherness

Global Interactions