Reconsidering the Concept of Cross-Disciplinarity in the Context of Liberal Arts Education and the Possibility for Theme-Based Education

The purpose of this study is to critically examine the concept of cross-disciplinarity as it has been used in the context of liberal arts education and to explore the theoretical possibility of implementing cross-disciplinary education through theme-based learning. To this end, this study investigates what cross-disciplinarity means in liberal arts education and how it can be conceptually differentiated. Based on this analysis, it proposes and explicates the theoretical structure and educational principles of C-TBL(Crossover-Theme Based Learning), a theme-based model of cross-disciplinary education. First, this study shows that the concept of cross-disciplinary education in liberal arts education needs to be reconceptualized within the conceptual framework of integration, cross-disciplinarity, and cross-disciplinary education. Integration represents the most comprehensive overarching concept, whereas interdisciplinarity can be understood as a subcategory that focuses on connections and reconfigurations across disciplinary boundaries. Cross-disciplinary education, in turn, refers to the educational practice of implementing such interdisciplinary integration. Second, this study establishes cross-disciplinary as an overarching category encompassing educational practices that transcend disciplinary boundaries, and reconceptualizes multidisciplinary(MD), interdisciplinary(ID), and transdisciplinary(TD) as its subtypes. It also points out the limitation of existing classifications of cross-disciplinary education, which have largely relied on outcome-based criteria such as the degree of knowledge integration. Instead, the study suggests the need to reconceptualize the typology of cross-disciplinary education by focusing on differences in educational practice, including learning outcomes, learning objectives, task structures, modes of problem solving, and the configuration of participating actors. Third, this study proposes C-TBL(Crossover-Theme Based Learning), a theme-based model of cross-disciplinary education that consists of three core elements: theme, crossover, and capability. The model is formalized through a four-stage learning structure—theme exploration, theme understanding, theme deepening, and theme application. Fourth, the study suggests that C-TBL can organize diverse learning experiences across multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches around a shared theme. Through this process, learners are encouraged to connect and compare different disciplinary perspectives and to develop both integrative capability and reflective judgment capability grounded in reasoned evaluation. This study is significant in that it reexamines cross-disciplinary education in liberal arts education as a matter of educational principle that reshapes learners’ cognitive structures and proposes an instructional design model that organizes disciplinary perspectives around a shared theme.