Medicine has evolved from the undertaking of the individual practitioner to a state in which many disciplines become involved in administering both diagnostic and treatment services. It has become a standard of care in hospital and clinic-based practice to utilize a multidisciplinary approach to medical care. Multidisciplinary modes of practice, however, do not ensure that participants interact cooperatively, or with the exclusive purpose of patient benefit. The usual mode of interaction within medical academic and clinical environments promotes individualism, protectionism, and some degree of isolation, not infrequently to the detriment of patient care. The stated purpose of this book is to provide a synthesis of theories and methodologies that promote a growing permeability of boundaries and that allow for intellectual accommodation. Health care professionals have been turning to interdisciplinary intervention approaches for several reasons, but the most compelling in medicine is the need to solve problems that are beyond the

Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice

In this article, I used a discourse analytic framework to examine the "voice" of a middle school mathematics unit. I attended to the text's voice, which helped to illuminate the construction of the roles of the authors and readers and the expected relationships between them. The discursive framework I used focused my attention on particular language forms. The aim of the analysis was to see whether the authors of the unit achieved the ideological goal (i.e., the intended curriculum) put forth by the NCTM's Standards (1991) to shift the locus of authority away from the teacher and the textbook and toward student mathematical reasoning and justification. The findings indicate that achieving this goal is more difficult than the authors of the Standards documents may have realized and that there may be a mismatch between this goal and conventional textbook forms.

From Intended Curriculum to Written Curriculum: Examining the "Voice" of a Mathematics Textbook

Given the significant role that textbooks play in many countries of the developing world, the paper highlights issues related to the use of the textbook in rural Pakistan, and identifies ways to improve upon current practices. The findings presented in this paper emerge from our analysis of teachers’ experiences and practices related to the use of Science textbooks in public schools. Since the existing knowledge base is limited on teachers’ actual use of the textbook, the paper attempts to fill in this gap by highlighting the various issues related to teachers’ perceptions and practices. These include teachers’ limited use of textbooks, access to textbooks, information gaps and limitations of textbooks – all working to restrict the use of the textbook as a learning resource. The paper concludes by offering recommendations on improving textbook usage in Pakistan.

Effective Use of Textbooks: A Neglected Aspect of Education in Pakistan

Textbooks play an important role in teaching learning process especially in developing countries such as Pakistan. Textbooks are very useful and accessible resources that students and teachers can utilize according to their needs. Thus, the selection of an appropriate textbook is a process that needs careful attention. The study reported in this paper discusses the characteristics of a quality textbook and investigates the presence or absence of these characteristics in the textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education, Pakistan in the light of enacted written (intended) curricula. The data were collected from 51 experts in the field of curriculum material, its development and evaluation with a representation from all geographical areas of Pakistan. The data gathering instrument was a structured Textbook Evaluation Form based on eight characteristics of quality textbook. The analysis of the data indicates that the approved textbooks are lacking in many of the desirable characteristics. The study also discloses that experts with practical experience in curriculum material development and evaluation have deeper understanding of textbook evaluation as compared to those who have theoretical knowledge of the subject and/or only teach it.

Conformity to Quality Characteristics of Textbooks: The Illusion of Textbook Evaluation in Pakistan

National narratives have often served to mobilize the masses for war by providing myths
and distorted interpretations of the past, while conversely wars were major sources for
producing national narratives. Because national history is very likely to remain a central topic
in history education, albeit in ways that differ from how the topic was used fifty years ago, it
is important to gain a greater understanding of the underlying structures and mechanisms of
these narratives in history textbooks. After outlining the historical interconnectedness of the
emerging nation states and history teaching, this review article explains the complexity of the
history textbook as an educational resource. Next, we identify some current problems and
challenges in history textbook research. We continue by discussing promising research trends
related mainly to national narratives, such as the analysis of images, the use of digital tools, and
studies of the autonomy of textbook narratives and of history textbooks in relation to other
media. Another recent reorientation is textbook research that uses a holistic approach. By this
we mean studies that examine the history textbook as a whole: composition, periodization,
visual intertextuality and chapters that do not at first glance appear to focus on national
history. These studies offer new insights and explanations for the perpetuation of national
narratives in history textbooks.

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Why national narratives are perpetuated: A literature review on new insights from history textbook research

This article draws from two research programs on the use of textbooks for a variety of school subjects by elementary-school teachers in Quebec. Highlighting the main analytical orientations pertaining to textbooks both in Quebec and elsewhere, it first distinguishes between textbooks and schoolbooks, and then presents the importance and the role that textbooks, in Quebec elementary teaching, have had over the past 40 years. Lastly, the article portrays the state of research on textbooks, unveiling the need for a comprehensive, situated approach in research on textbooks, as well as work focused on how teachers use them and on the impact of this use on both practice and learning.

Past and Current Trends in the Analysis of Textbooks in a Quebec Context

Dans cet article, nous procedons a l’analyse comparative de contenu du discours de certains acteurs principaux du processus de reforme curriculaire et de praticiennes et praticiens de l’enseignement primaire au Quebec. Les concepts a l’etude, ceux de matiere, de discipline, de matiere de base ou secondaire ainsi que de savoir, sont mis en perspective en fonction de leur impact sur les fondements epistemologiques du curriculum et de l’enseignement. Nous terminons l’article en interrogeant la pertinence du recours a un discours qui se veut constructiviste si les concepts qui fondent le discours en education sont definis selon une epistemologie realiste dont l’expression curriculaire ne peut etre que de type neobehavioriste.

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Curriculum et Coca-Cola : un nouvel emballage change-t-il la saveur? Les concepts de matière, de discipline, de savoir et de connaissance dans le contexte de la réforme du curriculum au Québec

Mary Pearson

Papers

Past and Current Trends in the Analysis of Textbooks in a Quebec Context

Curriculum et Coca-Cola : un nouvel emballage change-t-il la saveur? Les concepts de matière, de discipline, de savoir et de connaissance dans le contexte de la réforme du curriculum au Québec

The Integration of ICT in Teacher Education Programs: Measuring the Effect of the Practicum on Preservice Teachers