Course-5 Understanding Disciplines and School Subjects pmd

Block - 1 : Introduction to Disciplines and School
Subjects
Unit - 4 : Emergence of Academic Disciplines and
Formation of School Subjects
Unit Structure
1.4.1.
Learning Objectives
1.4.2.
Introduction
1.4.3.
Learning Points and Learning Activities
1.4.3.1.
Emergence of Academic Disciplines
Check Your Progress-1
1.4.3.2.
Formation of School Subjects
Check Your Progress-2
1.4.4.
Let us Summarise
1.4.5.
Answer to Check Your Progress - 1 and 2
1.4.6.
Unit End Exercise
1.4.7.
References
1.4.1. Learning Objectives
•
After completing this Unit, the student teachers will be able to
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Describe the historical perspectives of academic discipline;
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Explain how the academic disciplines emerged; and
•
Describe how the school subjects were formed.
1.4.2. Introduction
We know that, what we speak of disciplines today like science, mathematics, history
etc. were not in existence in the past. The knowledge was considered as a single unit. The
knowledge was classified into different discipline for number of reasons. We are also aware
that the subjects taught in our schools today emerged during the course of time. We are
naturally curious to know how these disciplines and school subjects emerged. Let us
understand the history behind this process in the present unit.
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1.4.3. Learning Points and Learning Activities
1.4.3.1. Emergence of Academic Disciplines
knowledge is the starting point in the process of the evolution of discipline. Let us
understand how knowledge is created. Knowledge emerge in the following situations:
• social experience of human beings
• interaction between human beings and the environment
When these personal experiences are felt by many people in a cultural environment,
it gets validated and get the status of knowledge. Take for example, many people experience
the possibility of training dogs and as a result of it, they deduct the knowledge that ‘dogs
are trainable’. This will be further validated by many people and gets established as
knowledge.
When knowledge gets into the realm of academic discipline, its focus and scope get
narrowed. Bringing knowledge under a discipline means, defining the boundaries of
knowledge of different nature. Therefore, a discipline defines boundaries, and decides
whether a particular knowledge can be brought within or outside that particular discipline.
Today we are so familiar about these boundaries, that the moment one describes the structure
of a plant, we say he is talking about botany, the moment one speaks about the form of
government of a country, we say he is dealing with political science.
Why did people categorize knowledge under different disciplines? This may be
because people thought that this helps people to get specialized in that discipline. This
specialisation helps to identify principles, laws and also to form theories. The network of
laws and principles help to deduct new knowledge within disciplines. More exploration
into the discipline again leads to the growth or expansion of the discipline.
The need for segregation of knowledge can be identified as follows:
•
Due to continuous production of new knowledge in different fields the need of
its preservation and transfer was also inevitable.
•
The customs and knowledge of ancient civilizations also became more complex.
These different kinds of skills and activities were the earlier forms of human
knowledge. Each generation, since the beginning of human existence, has sought
to pass on cultural and social values, traditions, morality, religion and skills to
the next generation.
•
In pre-literate societies, education was achieved orally and through observation
and imitation. But with the passage of time, different skills and activities became
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more specialized due to generation of new knowledge and new discoveries.
Each such discovery and invention enriched human understanding in different
fields of knowledge.
This organized body of knowledge of a particular field was termed as ‘discipline’.
Disciplined study of different fields of human knowledge started with the beginning of
institutionalized study and research of these areas at different times. The knowledge that a
society possessed has been developed into the status of disciplines and its diversification
and specialisation results in further fragmentation of knowledge in to new disciplines. The
evolutionary process of disciplines might have gone through the following phases:
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Knowledge accumulation
•
Specialization and fragmentation of Knowledge
•
Formation of Disciplines
•
Diversification and further specialization of knowledge within the discipline
•
Breaking of disciplinary boundaries and emergence of more specialised new
disciplines
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Formation of New Disciplines, breaking of disciplinary boundaries and
emergence of more specialized new disciplines.
The same has been represented in the following diagram.
This may be occurred in one of the following ways:
(i)
Two or more branches of knowledge merge and develop own distinct characteristics
and form a new discipline. In interdisciplinary learning learners draw on two or more
disciplines in order to advance their understanding of a subject or problem that extends
beyond the scope any single discipline. Learners integrate and develop information,
concepts, methodologies and procedures from two or more disciplines to gain new