DIRECTIONS:

Put simply, an academic discipline is a field of study that can be characterized by three elements:

• Each discipline has an object of study, the thing the field devotes time and attention to, usually through research.
• Each discipline has foundational questions that drive the research.
• Each discipline has research methods (quantitative, qualitative, etc.) appropriate investigating the object of study and answering the foundational questions.
For example, these three elements would look like this for the discipline of philosophy:
• Object of Study: philosophy systematically studies the fundamental truths of human existence, such as the nature of reality, the creation of knowledge, ethics, and logic.
• Foundational Questions: What is the relationship between the mind and the body? What is knowledge and how do we know what it is? How do we distinguish right from wrong? What constitutes good reasoning?
• Research Methods: Primarily qualitative because the object of study does not lend itself to empirical investigations
Below is a sample paragraph you can reference for part 2 of Exercise 2.

Discipline: Literature

In my discipline of Literature, the purpose, or object of study, is to learn about ourselves as humans by reading about the lives of other people across hundreds of cultures and time periods. Before many social sciences even existed, people were writing novels and other pieces of fiction and non-fiction, so by studying these records we can gain insights on how people have changed and how they have stayed the same. What can we see in people from hundreds of years ago that answer questions about ourselves? How have languages changed to adapt to larger cultural shifts? What are the most important periods in history for learning about the growth of human communication? These are some of the fundamental questions professionals in Literature ask every day as they conduct qualitative research. Since Literature deals with a more flexible subject matter separate from hard numbers, the research would most likely steer clear of quantitative studies. Some examples of qualitative research would be a study into the changing cultural norms in Victorian Literature, or the compilation and analysis of religious norms in Early American Literature.

The brief video, An Animated Introduction to the Social Sciences, included in this lesson explains, albeit in claymation, how different disciplines differentiate themselves from each other even though they are all members of the major field of study, the social sciences.
How disciplines get classified is useful clue that can help you identify the three elements for your own field of study. Biglan's Classification of Disciplines, included in this lesson, illustrates how fields of study are organized according to type.
"Major," "Discipline," and "Profession"

In academia, the major is a program of study, but the discipline is a field of study. Neither are the profession, and yet these terms are often used interchangeably. For example, "management" is an academic major, a discipline, and a profession.

Differentiating among the major, the discipline, and the profession will be challenging for those of you in disciplines closely aligned with a profession, such as applied information technology or tourism. Understand, however, that there is a body of scholarly research for disciplines such as these, and your task is to explore the discipline, not the profession. You came to college for a degree rather than a professional certificate, so you will need to focus on the discipline that is the foundation of that degree.

Learning about the nature of your discipline, its origins, the kinds of questions that drive the research in the field, as well as the ways in which all the knowledge in the discipline gets shared will help you in the preparation of your final project.

DIRECTIONS: Put simply, an academic discipline is a field of st...