Impact Of Undergraduates’ Double Major On Their Creativity

With the development of knowledge and economy,creativity plays an important role in the development of science and technology.Creative talents with multidisciplinary backgrounds have gradually become an important force to promote the development of productivity.The double major is an important part of the chinese talent cultivation system with interdisciplinary knowledge background,the training effects of which determines whether the double major can be an effective way to train the top-notch innovative talents for universities.This study uses the data from the "Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Joint School Running in Seven Schools" project,based on creativity investment theory,combined with quantitative methods,to explore the impact of double major on the creativity of undergraduates.In the end,this study will provide a reference for improving the training models of double major and the innovative talent of universities.The study found that: Frist,the double major significantly affects the creativity of undergraduates.The reason for the impact is that the double major with the three characteristics of knowledge accumulation,pioneering thinking and cognitive connection has the "in-depth effect","open effect" and "convergence effect" on the development of students’ creativity.Second,there are different influences on undergraduates’ creativity for the different types of schools and double major is more useful for students’ creativity in the "first-class disciplines" universities compared with that of students of "first-class" universities.But,there is no difference on the gender or type of the first major in the impact of double-degree on the creativity of undergraduates.Third,for students whose first major is liberal arts,their creativity level is higher when their second major is science.For students whose first major is science and engineering,their creativity level is higher when their second major is economics,literature and science.According to the above findings,this study proposes three practical strategies for improving the training mode of double major,and provides a reference for the development of universities to broaden the creativity of student: Frist,students should carefully choose double major and be good at finding interdisciplinary innovation.Students should maintain the "initial heart" of the double major and focus on looking for the divergence,convergence and innovation of the two majors.Second,teachers should guide students opportunely and improve the teaching quality of the double major.Teachers should help students to make scientific assessments of the double major,guide students to conduct multi-disciplinary thinking training in the teaching process,and guide students throughout the double major study.Third,the school should weigh the development of double major and improve the training mode of double major.The school should promote the reasonable development of the double major training model and optimize the double major training model according to the demands of students.