An Empirical Study on Students’ Perceptions and Academic Outcomes of Discipline

This research explores undergraduate students' perceptions of their learning experiences and academic outcomes in two prevalent types of first-year courses - discipline-based and interdisciplinary courses – found in many university curricula. Discipline-based courses focus on specific subject knowledge, whereas interdisciplinary courses address issues across multiple academic fields. First-year students are often required to complete several courses from different academic departments with the aim of broadening their knowledge and exposing them to various disciplines, laying down a strong intellectual foundation for their academic growth. To gain a deeper understanding of students’ perceptions of the two types of courses, a large-scale quantitative survey was conducted in one academic year, gathering data on student learning experiences from 128 courses of a General Education programme, which is a common curriculum for all undergraduate students. An empirical analysis was performed on the 7,488 data collected, focusing on five learning aspects: course design, encouragement to be creative/innovative, encouragement to think critically, course difficulty, and overall learning experience. The independent t-test results suggested that students perceived discipline-based courses to provide marginally superior learning experiences in four out of the five aspects. However, these courses were also considered as significantly more difficult than interdisciplinary ones. Conversely, statistical analysis indicated that there was no disparity in academic performance between the two types of courses. We suggest proper academic advising to rectify students’ misconceptions about these courses. The results of this work provide data-driven insights for university administrators to manage the curriculum and student satisfaction better.