Why Design Majors Enjoy a Better Competence in Interdisciplinary Integration than Majors in Other Disciplines?: A Comparative Study on the Effect of Teaching Models of Department-based Capstone courses on the Cultivation of Students’ Competence in Interdisciplinary Integration

Abstract

In recent years, it is common to combine interdisciplinary education with the capstone curriculum of a host of disciplines to cultivate students’ competence in interdisciplinary integration. However, few related research reports on its effectiveness have been carried out. Therefore, this thesis, based on the previous studies on interdisciplinary education, invites total 143 senior students from Department of Design, Department of Materials Engineering, and Department of Electrical Engineering in an University from Taiwan as volunteer participants, and conducts a study by using “Core Competence in Interdisciplinary Integration Scale” to measure and compare the participants’ interdisciplinary skills. The results have demonstrated that the thematic capstone courses integrated with interdisciplinary education implies positive impacts on students’ acquisition of core competence in interdisciplinary integration. Meanwhile, the study result shows that, compared with students from Department of Materials Engineering and Department of Electrical Engineering, those from Department of Design present better performance in terms of their core competence in interdisciplinary integration, including the capacity of communication, reflection, and practice. As further research goes, this thesis will prove that the reason lies in the fact that Department of Design highlights the importance of core competence in interdisciplinary integration and the implementation of the interdisciplinary thematic integrated courses offered from the junior grade to the senior year. Finally, this research will demonstrate on this basis that interdisciplinary education should be a continuous process with exact stages for university education. Its implementation will boast better outcomes if it is carried out from the junior grade and different goals and connotations are required in different stages. With such a conclusion, this thesis provides a reference for the cultivation model of interdisciplinary integration ability and innovation ability in university, so as to prepare contemporary university students for global challenges and opportunities.