Double-Majors Produce Dynamic Thinkers: New Study from Vanderbilt University!

Dear Commons Community,

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article reporting on the results of a new study of students who take a double-major as undergraduates.  The article states:

“An undergraduate education is traditionally supposed to provide students with both breadth and depth of knowledge, which derive from their general-education requirements and major, respectively.

Increasingly, education experts also want students to develop a third skill, integrative thinking. It entails learning the deeper, underlying meaning of a discipline, making connections across courses and subjects, and applying different intellectual perspectives. Even better, some researchers say, is creative thinking, in which students master multiple disciplinary approaches to generate fresh and original ideas.

Students who major in two fields are more apt than their single-majoring peers to think both integratively and creatively, according to a new study. But they achieve those goals largely on their own, often despite the obstacles put in their way by academe.

“Double majors give students the opportunity to build bridges between domains of knowledge, and many students travel those bridges regularly,” said Steven J. Tepper, an associate professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University and a co-author of “Double Majors: Influences, Identities, and Impacts,” a report describing the study. The report was published on Friday by the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt, and was supported by the Teagle Foundation.”

This report supports the views and observations of many of us involved with interdisciplinary work.

Tony

Note:  The link to The Chronicle article requires a subscription but the full report is available as a free download at the Curb Center website.