Academic Disciplines As Sub-Cultures:The Need To Adapt

Certain spiritual traditions. Thus, although in each case the content is the same, each discipline analyses and uses the folktale in different ways and for different purposes.

University students, as we saw in Chapter 3, normally study four subjects in separate disciplines (four courses in different depart ­ ments) in their first year. You can see, therefore, that one of the ­adaptations required for successful study is learning to recognize the special interests of each of your disciplines. That takes time, just as it takes time to learn the special `language', particularly the vocabulary, which each discipline uses. What you are doing is learning w `culture' of each discipline.

Understanding and handling the differences underlying academic ­ disciplines is hard for all new students. At our university, for example, we have tried to identify the special problems first-year students have in bridging the gap between secondary and tertiary studies.

Here are some of the main problems from our list.

Many first-year students have difficulty in:

1. Distinguishing between disciplines, i.e. recognizing that discipline has its own method of analysis;
2. Learning to use competently the highly specialized language of these methods of analysis;
3. Adjusting to unfamiliar disciplines;
4. Learning to think critically and analytically.

Clearly you should not expect to make all of the adjustment we have been describing at the same pace or with the same degree of success. You may find it easier, because of previous training or for some other reason, to adjust to the sub-culture of Accounting than, say, that of Economics. In our own work we frequently see students who are receiving very high grades for essays and tests in two of their courses and quite low marks in the others - yet they claim they are putting equal time and energy into each.

By the end year much of this unevenness disappears as students adjust to all four disciplines. But some differences can persist, or become even more pronounced. You may find, for example, that, de ­ spite your best efforts, you simply cannot do or do not want v the necessary adjustments to succeed in Economics; if so, this is a discipline you might decide to drop in your later years of study.

Later undergraduate years and Honours year studies

After your first year, courses become more specialized and classes ­are smaller. Now you are expected to work more independently of ­your lecturers. For example, you are no longer given a list of suggested readings for an essay; now you must find your own source in