Generic skills and the disciplinary landscape

This paper explores notions of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity in the context of generic skills. That generic skills have become of increasing importance in a changing educational environment is well documented (Assiter, 1995; Barnett, 1990; Barrie, 2004; Bligh, 1990; Clanchy & Ballard, 1995; Marginson, 1997; Scott, 1995). However, the nature of generic skills is unclear, as is the relationship between generic skills and the disciplinary context in which the skills are taught. There is an implicit assumption that generic skills are independent of disciplinary contexts even though they are taught within them. This leads to a more overt expectation that generic skills will be transferable between disciplines and beyond the university into the workforce. This paper is based on an empirical study that explores the nature of generic skills across three disciplines, history, economics and physics. However it presents a more theoretical discussion of the relationship between disciplinary epistemology and generic skills. It argues that the dominant epistemology of the discipline shapes the ways in which skills such as critical thinking are conceptualised and taught. Thus critical thinking in economics for example may be a somewhat different entity from critical thinking in history. This has implications for the ways in which generic skills are framed within the broader university community and indeed has implications for policy, both at a university and political level.