The Relationship Between First-Year University Students’ Characteristics and Their Levels of Interdisciplinary Understanding

Abstract Emphasis on teaching interdisciplinary understanding in university education has increased considerably in recent years. However, the presage student factors related to university students’ entry levels of interdisciplinary understanding remain underexplored. This is relevant because examining how student characteristics influence interdisciplinary understanding can provide valuable insights for improving interdisciplinary teaching, learning, and curriculum design. This quantitative study focused on the relationships between first-year Bachelor’s students’ ( N = 505) background characteristics, Big Five personality traits, need for cognition, and academic self-efficacy and their levels of interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. After having conducted multivariate multiple regression analyses (MMR), our study revealed international student status, openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and need for cognition as significant predictors of interdisciplinary understanding. Ordinary least squares models showed that international student status, openness to new experiences, and need for cognition were significant positive predictors of interdisciplinary knowledge ( R 2 = .33), while all six variables positively predicted interdisciplinary skills ( R 2 = .37). Across both models, openness to new experiences and need for cognition demonstrated the strongest effects. These findings suggest that incorporating teaching activities that foster openness and intellectual curiosity may be crucial for enhancing interdisciplinary understanding.