In this chapter we describe the Decoding the Disciplines Faculty Learning Community at Mount Royal University and how Decoding has been used in new and multidisciplinary ways in the various teaching, curriculum, and research projects that are presented in detail in subsequent chapters.

The University of Gloucestershire, located in the southwest of the United Kingdom, is a small university with approximately 7,500 full-time students and 400 teaching staff. It has three faculties, all with a professional or applied focus: (1) Media, Art, and Technology; (2) Business, Education, and Professional Studies; and (3) Applied Sciences.…

In 2006, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) launched a major initiative, the Top 25 Project, to embed inquiry-guided learning (IGL) into its largest-enrollment courses across the university. These are generally entry-level classes and thus affect many students: 75 percent of incoming students on its main campus in 2010 were in at least one Top 25…

Follow-up activities are essential to maintaining a writing-across-the-curriculum program. La Salle University created a second stage of program development through new workshops and symposia, collaborative teaching and co-authoring, and opportunities for student involvement. (MSE)

The enthusiasm generated by workshops in writing across the curriculum can be translated into lasting curricular change, particularly in freshman composition, general education courses, and upper-division writing emphasis courses. Committees, central to any change effort, can take any of a variety of forms. (MSE)

Survey responses from 401 community colleges show that many of these two-year, open-admissions institutions have developed writing-across-the-curriculum programs that address the special needs of their faculty and students. (MSE)

Writing-across-the-curriculum programs in secondary schools may have been fostered by the same body of knowledge as those in colleges and universities, but their evolution has been shaped by a different set of circumstances. Development of articulation programs between these institutions requires an understanding of their different contexts. (MSE)

A step-by-step guide to designing interdisciplinary courses is presented. Underlying theoretical rationales and expected educational outcomes are explored, and concrete suggestions and examples are offered. Steps include assembling an interdisciplinary team, selecting a topic, identifying disciplines for inclusion, developing the issues underlying…

Given the strength of departments, pressures on faculty, and the large number of teaching assistants responsible for undergraduate instruction in research universities, writing instruction often seems to be "in spite of the curriculum." However, it is possible to run successful writing-across-the-curriculum programs in such institutions. (MSE)