engineering, biology, chemistry and physics were chosen to be studied.
During the twentieth
century when the development of the whole world was very rapid, new academic sciences
were needed to be studied. New level of life and social conscience demanded that psychology,
sociology and education disciplines were added into the normal curriculum. In the end of
the
twentieth century, a new explosion of scientific interest was observed. There appeared
rather new disciplines focusing on particular fields of knowledge or specific questions.
Many disciplines were intended to prepare students for profession and career building. The
development of Medicine led to new medical departments such as hospitality management
and nursing. At last, the achievements in geophysics and biochemistry increased so much
that there appeared the necessity to outline specific professions in this field because the
scientist contribution to this branch was great and became widely known.
The evolution of disciplines is a continuous process. As
the human beings, societies
and technologies develop. Human understanding and interpretations also develop and results
in the formation of new knowledge and emergence of new disciplines. As scientific
knowledge, understanding and practices advances, some old
disciplines may deprive off
its dominance or such disciplines are subjected to different forms of adaptations.
The disciplines, where we find a wealth of specific knowledge, are the building blocks
of Interdisciplinary Studies. Understanding the past disciplines is relevant to understand
the future disciplines. For example,
while learning about medicine, it is important to reflect
on the past use of herbs and how far we have come with modern pharmaceuticals
today. When reflecting, we are able to see what has worked and what has not worked. This
is why disciplines are changed and new disciplines are formed. Academics have been
constantly changing based on what society feels as important for
the students to learn from
the beginning of time.
Education has evolved from past centuries to allow students to learn about the past
and take it into consideration when learning about the present and future. All disciplines
are built on what they used to be when they were first recognized in the seventeenth,
eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries – especially for arts, history,
and humanities majors
since these disciplines were so prominent in earlier centuries. The great aspect of the twenty-
first century is that mostly all disciplines encompass aspects of other disciplines creating a
multidisciplinary approach. By combining disciplines, we are able to learn a vast majority
of new information
in a shorter amount of time, rather than studying each subject separately
like students did in the early days. This allows for more skilled and diversified employees
in today’s society.
In the early days, students were almost forced into higher education based on societal
demands. With fewer
fields of study available, most students were taught humanities and
43
religious studies. Nowadays students are allowed to choose what they want to learn based
on their own likes and dislikes. Students are able to take courses from many different
disciplines and integrate them together to form their own new discipline. This approach is
called Interdisciplinary Studies.
Without the disciplines, Interdisciplinary Studies would
have nothing to build on, nothing to incorporate or weave together in order to find solutions
to societal problems.
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