Primary Research Argument
March 8th, 2022 - Draft
Good use of Snow's ideas here.
What are the up and downsides of talking about this as a class project explicitly? Meta- question: what does it say about academic writing that we very rarely do this?
Though linguistics can be VERY scientific - it's sometimes in the social sciences divisions of schools. As an applied linguist, I def talk about significance differently than my Literature colleagues.
Oh, this would be an interesting thread to pull!
I wonder if you could dive deep into these specific wordings to show that there is still a resonance of disciplinary difference underlying peoples' conceptions of significance, even though none mentioned stat terms. For instance, is "making a difference" closer to stat sig than "longevity"?
I could imagine a chart that lists majors and then quotes the typical response for that major.
This might be another example of how you might organize representative responses in a table - you could break it down by themes, then include some bits of these quotes.
Nice point here. I would end the section on making some meaning from this quote instead of just with the quote itself.
Introduction
In education, there is an apparent distinction between the sciences and humanities. Since elementary school, I witnessed the science and humanities subjects divided between two teachers. In middle school, people start to become “science” or “english” people. When my friends did their math homework, they would complain that they couldn’t do the problems because they weren’t “STEM people.” In my high school friend group, one friend always dreaded the English essays because she was a strictly science and math person. This divide between the sciences and humanities isn’t unique among the modern American school system. In 1959, novelist and physicist C. P. Snow delivered his famous lecture at the University of Cambridge, in which he discussed the divide between the sciences and humanities. In his book titled “The Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution,” Snow mentions how British schools create an especially sharp schism because they believe students should have “educational specialization.” He claims the separation is now “less bridgeable” compared to years ago, and we are still increasing that gap.
Earlier this semester in English 225, I chose to analyze the word “significance” because of how differently it is used in STEM compared to the humanities. In my research and the classes I take, significance is often paired with statistics and data analysis. I’ve rarely encountered this word by itself in my humanities classes. I decided to take a look at the usage of the word and found that there were potentially three definitions of the word. One was clearly used in the sciences to represent a noticeable difference due to a “treatment.” While the other was more similar to the general use of significance—that something was more important than another.
I have decided to take my analysis a step further by asking what people in the sciences and/or humanities think about the word. I’ve always wondered what people in different fields think about when they hear the word significance. Was there really a gap that Snow claimed? Can I prove that this gap exists/doesn’t exist? My assumption is that people in the STEM field are likely to think about statistical significance first and foremost while those in the humanities associate significance with particular scenes/events/information.
To investigate the dichotomy between the Science and Humanities, I interviewed 23 college students pursuing majors in the wide spectrum of Humanities and the Sciences from University of Michigan’s College of Literature Science, and the Arts (LSA) and School of Public Health (SPH). I asked them about their first thoughts when they hear the word significance and their opinions about what someone from a different major would think about the word.
Methods
Initially, I wanted to interview both professors and students about the word “significance” by asking them 1) their initial thoughts about the word; 2) their association with the word; 3) what do you think about the other major spectrum; and 4) if there’s anything they wanted to say about the word. Due to logistical constraints, I decided to only interview students within LSA and SPH.
To create my sample, I asked to interview people who are around me either through my learning community, classes, or social media. I used the social media application Instagram and created a post for students to contact me if they would like to participate. Using another application called GroupMe, I advertised my project in various group chats that I was a part of. During my study groups, I also asked my classmates if they were interested in participating in my project. My interviews were conducted both in person and on the phone via text or call.
My original plan was to ask only students from the far and middle of the humanities and sciences spectrum to participate in this project. I had defined “hard'' humanities subjects as English/Linguistics and the “hard” STEM subjects as Math, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Neuroscience, Biochemistry, and Statistics. I then incorporated interviews of students who are majoring in the social sciences, or “the middle,” which includes public health; psychology; biopsychology, cognition, and neuroscience (BCN); and economics. Within public health, I was interested in whether students pursuing a Bachelors of Science (BS) or Bachelors of Arts (BA) thought about “significance” differently. I created another question that asks public health students what they thought a student pursuing the two separate bachelors degrees thought about the word. Unfortunately, I was unable to interview a BA student so I cannot include their perspective.
Towards the end of my research, I added a question asking what students thought people studying social sciences thought about the word “significance.” I also looked especially for students who plan to/are double majoring, with one major in a STEM field and the other in humanities ideally. I asked these students the same questions mentioned above. My reasoning to seek out double majors was that I thought these students could provide a more interesting perspective of how humanities and sciences coincide yet differ since they take classes in both subjects. I had also interviewed some double majors who have both majors in STEM, social sciences, or humanities.
My study is completely qualitative and the interviews conducted were voluntary and responses are anonymous. I acquired my interviewees through both convenience and voluntary sampling methods. I attempted to exclude students who knew of my interest in statistics so they wouldn’t be biased in their answers and conducted interviews mainly privately so other interviewees wouldn’t overhear. However, some of the interviewees are my friends whose answers could be biased because they know me well. I also did not account for age, gender, SES and what minors, etc. students were pursuing.
Results
I interviewed a total of 22 students. At the time of the interview, six students are primarily STEM majors (Math, Statistics, Biochem, and Neuroscience), one strictly a Humanities major (English), and 15 students who are in the social sciences. Within the social sciences, I interviewed one psychology, one BCN, four Public Health, and one economics student. Of the double majors I interviewed, three are majoring in STEM and Humanities; three are majoring in two social sciences; and one is majoring in two humanities.
[Maybe a table of statistics like age group, majors, etc.?]
First Associations
Contrary to my hypothesis, a lot of STEM majoring students did not mention statistical significance as their first thought when hearing the word. Most indicated the generic definition of importance. Three neuroscience majors and one biochemistry major said they first thought of importance. A math major and a neuroscience major described significance as hidden, unseen meaning and subjective. The same neuroscience major and a statistics major referred to significance as associated with a person.
The most common reason for people’s association of the word significance is due to classroom interaction. The students recalled being asked in class about the significance of the material they learned or used significance in their mathematical calculations and lab reports. One student mentioned that significance meant to them making a meaningful difference in people’s lives. Another student said the people he cares about are significant to him. Finally, one neuroscience student said significance is needing to be aware of the value and meaning of the choices she makes.
While I only interviewed one strictly Humanities Major, the interviewee cited “longevity” as the first definition that comes to mind. She gave an example of significant books such as Frankenstein that has lasted through time and is still taught in English classes today.
Most of my interviewees are majoring in the social sciences field. Possibly due to the large sample size relative to the other majors, social science majors provided a wide variety of answers regarding significance. Three public health students and one psychology student associated significance with statistics. One BCN major said that significance has to do with data. One public health and one econ major said significance has to do with importance; that public health student continues to also say that significance is also influential and signifies making a change.
Almost all of the social sciences majors mentioned classes, research, and school in general for reasons for their first association of the word. One public health student said she had always had an interest in science, so she associated significance to statistics.
Within the double majors, two STEM/humanities (S/H) majors mentioned statistics as their first association. A social sciences (SS/SS) major and a humanities (H/H) major talked about how significance is based on the individual or subjective. One S/H major immediately thought of importance and a H/H major mentioned impactful, which are both general definitions of the word. One SS/SS major talked about relevancy and how significance “advances something.”
Similarly, the majority of respondents said that classes and research are primarily why they associate the word significance with their first thought. Three double majors gave unique responses. A S/H major said that people tend to “associate sounds with the words they index.” Hence, she gave multiple synonyms when asked the first interview question. A SS/H major credited her parents for her definition of significance such that they used significance when asking her about what she wanted out of life. Finally, the SS/SS major provided context that she had once viewed something as insignificant but someone else saw it as significant. Therefore, significance, to her, has that subjectivity to it.
STEM Major Assumptions
Majority of my interviewees associated these words and phrases with what a strictly STEM major thought of significance: quantitative, has data to prove/back up, fixing problems analytically, context-based, future, novel/discovery, agreed upon, scientific/formulaic, academic validation.
Here are a few responses that were representative for a lot of my interviewees:
● Fixing problems/Medicine
“The significance of [neuroscience] would be to better the medicine in the world, to help other people to improve our technology of treating certain illnesses and various other injuries.”
● Future
“I think in the STEM fields, [it] is focused [mostly] on…how can we use it to build a different future? And what pieces do we want to use to build that future?”
● Proven/Backed up by data
“From a scientific perspective, the word significant should only be used to describe something when you have the data to back up its use.”
● Novel, Discovery “They would associate things that are totally novel and never been seen before. Things to the extreme. Because when you see something, like a significant discovery, it’s a cure to cancer, it’s something huge, something we’ve never seen before.”
Some unique responses include one SS/H double major’s linking of a STEM major’s perception of the word significance to academic validation.
“I think oftentimes people in the STEM fields are doing so because they think that is what they need to do in order to accomplish a certain goal. This goal can either be something they want to achieve or something they feel they need to achieve in order to live up to certain expectations.”
Humanities Major Assumptions
My interviewees associated these words and phrases with how a strictly humanities major thinks about significance: meaning/value, past-focused/time, conceptual, fluid, humanistic/life-related, creative, context-based, unquantifiable, communication, and personal.
Here are a few responses that were representative:
● Meaning/Value
“I would think that people studying primarily humanities might think about significance in a more qualitative way and that it is more of a way to describe feelings or values.”
“I’d imagine a humanities major might look at significance with a more ‘people-focused’ lens. Perhaps looking at what types of things are significant in different peoples’ lives like values, beliefs, memories, etc. that are impactful for who they are and how they live their [lives].”
“What is its meaning, why does it have value, what is it trying to tell, its purpose essentially.”
● Humanistic
“I think a person studying humanities would think of significance as a way to measure how much a particular topic reveals about the human experience, such as character and alliance of characters. As in, they would say that something is significant if it exposes something general about what a human does in a given context.”
● Past-focused/Time
“But it seems more like it’s present and past focused. In that, like sentimental value. It's [the] past and reminiscing. And what has something, like something’s history, done to build it up to what it is today and how do your perspectives, so like your history, your life so far, how does that affect your perspective on something.”
● Conceptual
“Humanities is definitely more focused around ideas and how long concepts like freedom and liberty last.”
● Fluid
“I feel like they’re all about abstraction and coming to your own conclusions…In humanities, you get to make your own answer. So, maybe significance is, I don’t want to say fluidity, but the idea of being fluid. The idea that there’s no one set path.”
Social Sciences/Public Health BA and BS Assumptions
Since I had asked about people’s perception of a social sciences major’s response to significance quite late, there are only a couple of responses. The keywords and phrases vary a lot: impact on people/society, importance, solving past and present issues, together and the same, and enjoyment.
Furthermore, when I interviewed public health students, many of them indicated that the BA and BS track are quite similar with only a few differences. A senior public health student said that she doubts there is a difference since they share similar coursework. Public health students have to take many overlapping classes in their curriculum and only a few major-specific classes. She said that there might be a difference in “regular engagement with statistics.”
Meanwhile, the junior public health student feels that someone’s perception of the word significance is not related to someone’s coursework but rather their life experience. This sentiment is shared by other interviewees and will be discussed in more depth in the next section. Two public health underclassmen, who haven’t taken any SPH courses, agree that there would be a difference between the BS and BA. But still, a public health student needs to be proficient in both.
“Public health has both sides of the coin to significance.”
“Because even if you’re getting a BA in public health it’s definitely grounded in science and scientific studies.”
Interesting Remarks
The most interesting responses I have received are from asking if people had anything else they would like to say about significance. A couple of interviewees pointed out that someone’s view of the word is more likely to be affected by their upbringing and not necessarily from their major.
A neuroscience major said that she developed her definition of significance from her teachers in high school who told her to view things from different angles. A public health student and SS/H major said their definition of significance was from people they associate with such as friends and parents. The public health student added that the things people read could influence what someone perceives as significance.
Two neuroscience majors also talked about the importance of context and how it changes the meaning of significance. One of them gave an example of how the p-value of 0.05 could mean a lot for medical trials but in other cases that number would not be significant at all. The other neuroscience major compared the humanities and STEM field. Relevant to the previous discussion about life experiences, she mentioned how someone’s perception could come from whether they spend most of the time in their classes looking at literature as opposed to studying human physiological functions.
A S/H major also went on to explain how STEM and Humanities are different but also the same.
“I would define it differently, but it’s different but the same. They overlap and intertwine in so many ways. The further you get into each field, the more you feel they’re exactly the same.”
Conclusions
This qualitative study leads into answering whether there’s actually a difference between STEM and humanities. The results of my study suggest that there actually isn’t as big of a separation between the sciences and humanities based around the word “significance.”
The results reinforced that people perceive there is a large difference between STEM and Humanities. The keywords and phrases my interviewees associated with strictly science and humanities majors were not always the first things students in those fields thought of first.
What I found interesting was that a lot of STEM students didn’t immediately associate significance with numbers and data. Most STEM majors talked about importance (what I would consider the generic definition) and the effect STEM has on people. These sentiments are also shared by social sciences and double majors. Since I was unable to find more than one strictly Humanities major, I cannot make any generalizations about what their immediate association of the word significance would be. In one of my sub-questions, I inquired whether students perceive a public health BS and BA education to be different. The students indicated both curriculums include necessary skills for a public health student. When students think about the word “significance” in the context of their majors/studies, they most often relate it back to how what they’re learning will impact themselves and/or others.
A disparity exists between what people believe the other major concentration would say and what the students in the majors. In reality, the students in most of the majors have the same or similar thoughts about the word significance. [Add the so what]
[Upbringing]
Some future directions for this project would be pursuing a research question one of my interviewees brought up. She wanted to examine how someone who has not had that much exposure to schooling and the education system would perceive the word “significance.”
PDF:
I often hear students refer to this as the "creative" people, as if the humanities are inherently more creative than the sciences. That might be a bear to poke?
Because you have such a detailed methods section, some of this does seem a bit redundant. How much of this could be streamlined into the methods, leaving just the parts about your questioning/wondering in the intro?
That's too bad - not even from your minor in writing peers?
I think that would be helpful AND it tends to be something that editors might ask about.
Is it worth quoting their specific words in here?
THIS is interesting, right? Is statistics more front row center for a social science person?
THIS is the only one that matches the narrower definition of the term, right?
I totally LOVE that you ask what they think other people think - that might tell us more about how they understand their own differences from the humanities than anything else! It's interesting that they assume the humanities cares more about individual experience than other fields. That's a really common thread here, right?
I would definitely talk a bit about these examples to tell what they show us about how people think about significance and how they think OTHER people think about significance. The important thing here is that, like you when you started this project, these STEM majors assumed that significance was a concept that might divide people along disciplinary lines. But the results seem a bit more complicated than that, right?
I was thinking this too, especially since we have a little research suggesting that people aren't limited by disciplinary identities
Nice point here. I would end the section on making some meaning from this quote instead of just with the quote itself.
March 22nd, 2022 - Reflection
For this primary research piece, I decided to look at the differences between a STEM person’s perception of the word “significance” compared to a Humanities person’s primarily. To answer this question, I divided my research into a couple of sections that include asking a person’s first thoughts when they heard the word significance, what they think the other discipline thinks about the word, and if they perceive a gap between STEM and Humanities. My thought process is that the word “significance” can be perceived differently depending on someone’s discipline. I had hypothesized that a STEM person is likely to think of statistical significance as their first impression regarding the word. Meanwhile, a humanities person would think of symbolism and themes like in literature and history. The sectioning of quotes is a great way to show trends, support my argument, and/or present an interesting twist to my hypotheses.
In my previous writing experience, I really enjoy writing academic papers which deeply analyze and interpret specific scenes and events in novels. However, in the primary research piece, I’m the author presenting an argument and defending it with evidence. My role has been essentially reversed. Instead of reading the quotes of STEM and Humanities students and then piecing together my own conclusion based on those quotes, I’m the one collecting and using them to support my argument. Ultimately, I want to start a conversation among academics about the perceived division between STEM and Humanities as my writing goal. As a reader before, I recognize what tactics and techniques authors use in argumentative papers to make compelling arguments. I know that I need to break down my quotes and fully explain and connect them back to my thesis.
This knowledge also leads into the weak areas of my primary research paper. In my honest opinion, I don’t think the paper was as well written as it can be. I focused a lot of my energy collecting data and finding trends rather than properly planning out how to present my argument. One significant area of improvement would be making it clear what I’m trying to do in the paper. There is a discord between my thesis and the quotes. In fact, I had just inserted the quotes without connecting them back to a main point. This issue brings me back to a point I discussed earlier. I know that an audience needs to know why this paper I’m writing is important. I can’t seem to tie the paper back to an issue since my primary motivation was to just satisfy my own curiosity. While I need to continue to fix this issue, I realize that this missing “so what” in my paper has been consistent in the definition argument paper and in other past writings.
Another aspect I need to consider is my audience. During peer review, I noticed that the other peer reviewers couldn’t tie together why I use “significance” to show my point. They didn’t really understand how the word was related to STEM and Humanities. Since these peer reviewers were different from my definition argument peer reviewers, they don’t have that background of how significance can mean different things depending on the context. I need to be more mindful in my writing that my audience cannot read my mind. These peer review sessions were crucial for me to realize I’m making assumptions about my audience. In my definition reflection, I had also discussed this issue and it seems like I need to pay more attention to those moments. I think that I really need to be specific about my audience as one of my peer reviewers had brought up that he is a nontraditional student. While the paper wasn’t clearly stated for a certain demographic, my paper seemed to cater towards traditional students since I only interviewed those students. I think that audience is important because certain readers will be tuned in if they feel like the paper is for them. Having a specific audience but also thinking about the unintended audience will likely improve my paper’s purpose as well.
PDF:
April 28th, 2022 - Final
Introduction
In education, there is an apparent distinction between the sciences and humanities. Since elementary school, I witnessed the subjects in STEM and humanities divided between two teachers. In middle school, people started to become “scientific” or “artistic” people. When my friends did their math homework, they would complain that they couldn’t do the problems because they weren’t “STEM people.” In my high school friend group, one friend always dreaded the English essays because she was a strictly science and math person. This divide between the sciences and humanities is not unique among the modern American school system. In 1959, novelist and physicist C. P. Snow delivered his famous lecture at the University of Cambridge, in which he discussed the divide between the sciences and humanities. Snow mentions how British schools create an especially sharp schism between the two disciplines because they believe students should have “educational specialization.” He claims the separation is now “less bridgeable” compared to years ago, and we are still increasing that gap.
I chose to analyze the word “significance” because of how differently it is used in STEM compared to the humanities. Significance is often paired with statistics and data analysis in my research and STEM classes. I’ve rarely encountered this word by itself in my humanities classes. I decided to take a look at the usage and found that there were potentially three definitions. One was clearly used in the sciences to represent a noticeable difference due to a “treatment.” While the other was more similar to the general use of significance — that something was more important than another.
I have decided to take my analysis a step further by asking what people in higher education with a focus in either the sciences and/or humanities think about the word. Since significance is a word that has a unique meaning in each of the two disciplines, I wanted to see if my research could reveal one-sided uses of the word depending on what each person is studying. My hypothesis is that people in the STEM field are likely to think about statistical significance first and foremost while those in the humanities associate significance with particular scenes/events/information.
Methods
Initially, I wanted to interview both professors and students about the word “significance” by asking them 1) their initial thoughts about the word; 2) their association with the word; 3) what do you think about the other major spectrum; and 4) if there’s anything they wanted to say about the word. I chose this word because “significance” is associated with importance, so I could examine what each person views as important to them in their subject area. Due to logistical constraints, I decided to only interview students within LSA and SPH.
My plan was to ask only students from the far and middle of the humanities and sciences spectrum to participate in this project. I had defined “hard'' humanities subjects as English and the “hard” STEM subjects as Math, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Neuroscience, Biochemistry, and Statistics. I then incorporated interviews of students who are majoring in the social sciences, or “the middle,” which includes public health; psychology; biopsychology, cognition, and neuroscience (BCN); and economics. Within public health, I was interested in whether students pursuing a Bachelors of Science (BS) or Bachelors of Arts (BA) thought about “significance” differently. I created another question that asks public health students what they thought a student pursuing the two separate bachelors degrees thought about the word. Unfortunately, I was unable to interview a BA student so I cannot include their perspective.
To create my sample, I asked to interview people who are around me either through my learning community, classes or social media. I used the social media application Instagram and created a post for students to contact me if they would like to participate. Using another application called GroupMe, I advertised my project in various group chats that I was a part of. During my study groups, I also asked my classmates if they were interested in participating in my project. My interviews were conducted both in person and on the phone via text or call.
Towards the end of my research, I added a question asking what students thought people studying social sciences thought about the word “significance.” I also looked for students who plan to/are double majoring, with one major in a STEM field and the other in humanities. I asked these students the same questions mentioned above. My reasoning to seek out double majors was that I thought these students could provide a more interesting perspective of how humanities and sciences coincide yet differ since they take classes in both subjects. I had also interviewed some double majors who have both majors in STEM, social sciences, or humanities.
My study is completely qualitative and the interviews conducted were voluntary and responses are anonymous. The scope of the study is traditional students who are currently in academia. I acquired my interviewees through both convenience and voluntary sampling methods. I attempted to exclude students who knew of my interest in statistics so they wouldn’t be biased in their answers and conducted interviews mainly privately so other interviewees wouldn’t overhear. However, some of the interviewees are my friends whose answers could be biased because they know me well. I also did not account for age, gender, SES and what minors students were pursuing.
Results
I interviewed a total of 23 students. Seven students are primarily STEM majors (Math, Statistics, Biochem, and Neuroscience), one strictly a Humanities major (English), and eight students who are strictly in the social sciences. Within the social sciences, I interviewed one psychology, one BCN, five Public Health, and one economics student. Of the double majors I interviewed, three are majoring in STEM and Humanities; three were majoring in two social sciences; and one was majoring in social sciences and humanities.
*S = STEM, H = Humanities, SS = Social Science*
First Associations
Contrary to my hypothesis, a lot of STEM majoring students did not mention statistical significance as their first thought when hearing the word. Most indicated the generic definition of importance. Two neuroscience majors and one biochemistry major said they first thought of importance. A math major and a neuroscience major described significance as hidden, unseen, subjective meaning . The math major specifically states: “It was hard to put into words, but the first thing I think of is ‘large, but unseen subjective value,’ with a bit of emphasis on ‘unseen.’” The same neuroscience major and a statistics major referred to significance as associated with a person.
The most common reason for people’s association of the word significance is due to classroom interaction. The students recalled being asked in class about the significance of the material they learned or used significance in their mathematical calculations and lab reports. One student mentioned that significance meant to them making a meaningful difference in people’s lives. Another student said the people he cares about are significant to him. Finally, one neuroscience student said significance is needing to be aware of the value and meaning of the choices she makes.
While I only interviewed one strictly Humanities Major, the interviewee cited “longevity” as the first definition that comes to mind. She gave an example of significant books such as Frankenstein that have lasted through time and are still taught in English classes today.
Most of my interviewees are majoring in the social sciences field. Possibly due to the large sample size relative to the other majors, social science majors provided a wide variety of answers regarding significance. Three public health students and one psychology student associated significance with statistics. One BCN major said that significance has to do with data. One public health and one econ major said significance has to do with importance; that public health student continues to also say that significance is also influential and about making a change.
Almost all of the social sciences majors mentioned classes, research, and school in general for reasons for their first association of the word. One public health student said she had always had an interest in science, so she associated significance to statistics.
Within the double majors, two STEM/humanities (S/H) majors mentioned statistics as their first association. A social sciences (SS/SS) major and a humanities (H/H) major talked about how significance is based on the individual or subjective. One S/H major immediately thought of importance and a H/H major mentioned impactful, which are both general definitions of the word. One SS/SS major talked about relevancy and how significance “advances something.”
Similarly, the majority of respondents said that classes and research are primarily why they associate the word significance with their first thought. Three double majors gave unique responses. A S/H major said that people tend to “associate sounds with the words they index.” Hence, she gave multiple synonyms when asked the first interview question. A SS/H major credited her parents for her definition of significance such that they used significance when asking her about what she wanted out of life. Finally, the SS/SS major provided context that she had once viewed something as insignificant but someone else saw it as significant. Therefore, significance, to her, has that subjectivity to it.
Representative Quotes from students:
Opposite of my initial hypothesis, STEM students barely mentioned statistical significance at all. Only one statistics student explicitly said p-value was the first thing that came to his mind when heard the word. One neuroscience student had started to veer in the direction of statistical significance as well, describing significance as a difference between two categories. She had added that she thought about this definition because she was thinking about statistics in lab reports. However, the majority’s first associations of the word significance had to do with importance and meaning. This result was very surprising.
Despite receiving only one response from a Humanities major, her association most aligns with my initial assumptions that Humanities majors think about significant events and people.
It is intriguing that social science students were the ones who thought about statistical significance the most. My reasoning is that many of these students’ disciplines require the use of statistics in research and coursework. STEM students could be more focused on the theories and proofs of math and statistics, or there are other factors in their life that could impact their responses.
S/H majors differ in response compared to the SS/SS and S/H majors as more students emphasized statistics. The SS/SS and S/H majors indicated what I considered a more “Humanities” response, with keywords like relevance, meaning, impact, and subjectivity. I cannot make a conclusion from these responses but it seems like the STEM side for double majors leads to associations to statistical significance. On the other hand, social sciences majors focus more on the importance aspect, whether it ties into their relationships or the impact of their major on society and the world.
STEM Major Assumptions
Majority of my interviewees associated these words and phrases with what a strictly STEM major thought of significance: quantitative, has data to prove/back up, fixing problems analytically, context-based, future, novel/discovery, agreed upon, scientific/formulaic, academic validation.
Here are a few themes that were representative for a lot of my interviewees:
One unique response includes one SS/H double major’s linking of a STEM major’s perception of the word significance to academic validation.
“I think oftentimes people in the STEM fields are doing so because they think that is what they need to do in order to accomplish a certain goal. This goal can either be something they want to achieve or something they feel they need to achieve in order to live up to certain expectations.”
Both humanities and STEM majors have this perception that STEM is about data-related and improvement of the future. Even science majors themselves often associate STEM majors as quantitative, data-driven, and problem-solving. Quite notably, when I had asked STEM majors about what they think of first when they hear the word “significance,” a popular response was making a difference in people’s lives and meaning/value. I asked them what significance meant for most STEM students, and some interviewees seemed to isolate their own ideas about STEM from the general conception of STEM. They answered my second question by mentioning technology and data that will lead to the betterment of society which was different from their initial association of the word significance. A new question is raised: why do STEM majors believe that other STEM students find significance in changing the world when they themselves think of significance as associated with people and meaning?
Regarding the unique response cited above, I did not expect someone to associate significance in STEM as living up to a certain standard. However, it’s understandable that in a world where STEM jobs are paid well but highly competitive that many students might feel pressured to compete with others to work in STEM.
Humanities Major Assumptions
My interviewees associated these words and phrases with how a strictly humanities major thinks about significance: meaning/value, past-focused/time, conceptual, fluid, humanistic/life-related, creative, context-based, unquantifiable, communication, and personal.
Here are a few themes that were representative:
The responses to what students thought were significant for Humanities majors are eerily reminiscent of what a few STEM students had said for their first associations. Multiple STEM majors had cited significance for them as making a meaningful contribution to people’s lives and the value and meaning of something. Humanities to them is also impacting others and meaning/value. One neuroscience student had first associated significance with being aware of the value and meaning of her choices; she mentioned meaning and value again when asked what a humanities major views as significant.
At first glance, these associations were not very similar to what the Humanities major had first associated with significance. But if we take a closer look into her association of significance with longevity, seen through books like Frankenstein, there is a subtle similarity. Frankenstein had lasted in time because it meant something; it was the first science fiction novel and was based around scientific discourse at the time. Some of the themes such as “playing God,” and rejection are still prevalent in society today. So, in a sense, the neuroscience major’s point about meaning and value is very relevant to what this English major’s perception of significance was.
Social Sciences/Public Health BA and BS Assumptions
Since I had asked about people’s perception of a social sciences major’s response to significance quite late, there are only a couple of responses. The keywords and phrases vary a lot: impact on people/society, importance, solving past and present issues, together and the same, and enjoyment.
Furthermore, when I interviewed public health students, many of them indicated that the BA and BS track are quite similar with only a few differences.
A senior public health student said that she doubts there is a difference since they share similar coursework. Public health students have to take many overlapping classes in their curriculum and only a few major-specific classes. She said that there might be a difference in “regular engagement with statistics.”
Meanwhile, the junior public health student feels that someone’s perception of the word significance is not related to someone’s coursework but rather their life experience. This sentiment is shared by other interviewees and will be discussed in more depth in the next section.
Two public health underclassmen, who haven’t taken any SPH courses, agree that there would be a difference between the BS and BA. But still, a public health student needs to be proficient in both.
“Public health has both sides of the coin to significance.”
“Because even if you’re getting a BA in public health it’s definitely grounded in science and scientific studies.”
I think what is quite odd based on these responses is that the curriculum is divided in the way that there are two majors, one that is supposedly more focused on the science aspect while the other on the humanities. However, a lot of students find that it is necessary to be proficient in both sides to be a good public health professional. Another question that is raised is whether society’s need to divide the two subjects is the reason why many students have these notions that STEM and Humanities need to be separate. Where did the idea that they’re either a STEM or Humanities student come from, when a lot of professions require skill sets from both fields?
Additional Factors?
The most interesting responses I have received are from asking if people had anything else they would like to say about significance. A couple of interviewees pointed out that someone’s view of the word is more likely to be affected by their upbringing and not necessarily from their major.
A neuroscience major said that she developed her definition of significance from her teachers in high school who told her to view things from different angles. A public health student and SS/H major said their definition of significance was from people they associate with such as friends and parents. The public health student added that the things people read could influence what someone perceives as significance.
Two neuroscience majors also talked about the importance of context and how it changes the meaning of significance. One of them gave an example of how the p-value of 0.05 could mean a lot for medical trials but in other cases that number would not be significant at all. The other neuroscience major compared the humanities and STEM field. Relevant to the previous discussion about life experiences, she mentioned how someone’s perception could come from whether they spend most of the time in their classes looking at literature as opposed to studying human physiological functions.
A S/H major also went on to explain how STEM and Humanities are different but also the same.
“I would define it differently, but it’s different but the same. They overlap and intertwine in so many ways. The further you get into each field, the more you feel they’re exactly the same.”
Throughout this paper, there have been many moments where STEM and Humanities are intertwined. Students in both fields separate themselves from the other discipline, but seeing each other’s first associations, many students view significance similarly. However, someone’s view of significance may not necessarily be influenced by their major but more about how they were raised and taught what was important.
Conclusions
This qualitative study has shown that people perceive the word “significance” outside the academic context; there is no “black and white” in either STEM or Humanities association with the word itself. The results also reinforced that people perceive there is a large difference between STEM and Humanities. The keywords and phrases my interviewees associated with strictly science and humanities majors were not always the first things students in those fields thought of first.
What I found interesting was that a lot of STEM students didn’t immediately associate significance with numbers and data. Most STEM majors talked about importance (what I would consider the generic definition) and the effect STEM has on people. These sentiments are also shared by social sciences and double majors. Since I was unable to find more than one strictly Humanities major, I cannot make any generalizations about what their immediate association of the word significance would be. In one of my sub-questions, I inquired whether students perceive a public health BS and BA education to be different. The students indicated both curriculums include necessary skills for a public health student. When students think about the word “significance” in the context of their majors/studies, they most often relate it back to how what they’re learning will impact themselves and/or others.
A disparity exists between what people believe the other major concentration would say and what the students in the majors. In reality, the students in most of the majors have the same or similar thoughts about the word significance. This jarring contrast is important and supports Snow’s discussion on the separation between the two fields. While there really is not a difference in what is significant for people in different fields, students perceive there to be a huge gap between the sciences and humanities. Because they have this divide in their mind, they’re likely to seclude themselves to what they are more inclined to learn and avoid subjects in other fields that don’t fit with their studies.
Some future directions for this project would be pursuing a research question one of my interviewees brought up. She wanted to examine how someone who has not had that much exposure to schooling and the education system would perceive the word “significance.” This research is just a beginning to a potentially wider study involving non-traditional college students and students from other schools. Also, an expansion can be directing my research to asking more people about the upbringing which was a unique point.
STEM and Humanities are like Yin and Yang. They are considered complete opposites but cannot exist without each other. Social Sciences is an example where both fields are applied. For instance, public health students are required to learn skills that will help them better the current world for many people. The University of Michigan along with many other colleges recognize the importance of both fields and promote a liberal arts education, requiring students to fulfill writing, humanities, race & ethnicity, and quantitative analysis skills.
Citation:
Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1961.
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