Module 2: Academic Disciplines
2.0 Welcome to Module 2 – Academic Disciplines
As we discussed in Module 1, your educational journey has been divided into disciplines (English, Math, History, etc.) since middle school. That type of structure is also used in High School and in College. As a reminder:
An academic discipline is a field of study in higher education. It is a field that is taught, studied, and researched in a college or university setting. Some disciplines have been around as long as the academy, while some have just blossomed within the last few years. There are some main disciplines and under the main disciplines are the sub-disciplines. The sub-disciplines are considered branches off of the disciplines.
(McElreavy, 2016).
Our goal in this module is to go a little deeper into our understanding of the elements that define academic disciplines and for you to understand your academic disciplines better. You will also consider a complex problem related to a discipline you have studied and brainstorm the disciplines related to that complex problem. There may be several disciplines that have insights into the complex problem you are interested in knowing more about.
Remember that 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 or profession,” and it “draws on disciplinary perspectives and integrates their insights through construction of a more comprehensive perspective” (Klein & Newell, 1998, p. 3).
References
Klein, J. T., & Newell, W. H. (1998). Advancing Interdisciplinary Studies. In W. H. Newell (Ed.), Interdisciplinarity: Essays From the Literature. New York: College Entrance Examination Board.
McElreavy, C., Tobin, V., Martin, T., Damon, M. B., Crate, N., Godinez, A., & Bennett, K. (2016). The history of the academy and the disciplines. Interdisciplinary studies: A connected learning approach. Retrieved May 2, 2024, from https://press.rebus.community/idsconnect/chapter/the-history-of-the-academy-and-the-disciplines/. CC BY 4.0.
