ted with several effects. These include: allowing: teachers to develop a more complete understanding of students as individuals and an improved ability to solve learning problems before they reach the crisis stage. Students are said to deepen their sense of belonging; improve their ability to think critically; improve their communication skills; develop a sense of responsibility, and to learn the kind of skills necessary to achieve common goals.
Norris (1990) investigated whether the interdisciplinary unit could develop more positive attitudes in a sample of at-risk students attending middle school in Florida. In other words, these units have been examined for their effects on dropout prevention.
Most of the study body consisted of poor black students. The integrated curriculum presented to students consisted of helping them to see the relationship between education and career. To this end, four interdisciplinary units which centered around the importance of education, decision making skills, critical thinking skills and career awareness were developed.
The project administrator obtained material; arranged initial and culminating experiences for each unit; evaluated each unit; led a teacher workshop; and supervised and maintained the project. Norris (1990) stated that evaluative data indicated that students had more positive attitudes toward education in general and toward their school in particular following exposure to the program.
In another study of the effects of interdisciplinary units on middle school children, Hough and St. Clair (1995) examined for its impact on students' problem-solving ability. Subjects in the study were 459 students attending four school districts in the Midwest.
The authors reported that when they compared pre- and posttest data, they found that students identified as formal operational thinkers made significant gains in their problem-solving ability, whereas gains of concrete thinke...