Discipline vs. Course — What's the Difference?
By Maham Liaqat & Urooj Arif — Updated on April 8, 2024
Discipline focuses on a broad field of study or practice with foundational theories and principles, whereas a course is a specific educational program within a discipline, designed to impart knowledge on a particular topic.
Difference Between Discipline and Course
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Discipline refers to an academic field that encompasses a comprehensive body of knowledge, theories, and research methods. It represents a broad area of study such as mathematics, science, or humanities. On the other hand, a course is a unit of teaching that spans a specific period within an academic term, focusing on a particular aspect of a discipline. It is structured around lectures, assignments, and examinations to facilitate learning.
While disciplines are foundational and guide the overall structure of academic inquiry, courses offer focused exploration within these broader fields. For instance, the discipline of biology covers a wide range of life science topics, whereas a course might specifically address genetics, ecology, or microbiology.
Disciplines often remain relatively stable over time, reflecting the slow evolution of academic fields. Courses, in contrast, can be more dynamic, changing in content and structure to reflect new discoveries, technological advances, and educational needs.
The study of a discipline can lead to a deep, comprehensive understanding of a subject area, emphasizing critical thinking and research skills. Courses, however, are designed to impart specific knowledge and skills, often with a practical application in mind, such as laboratory techniques in chemistry.
Engagement with a discipline often requires a long-term commitment, possibly culminating in advanced degrees and research opportunities. Meanwhile, completing a course typically results in the award of credits, certificates, or qualifications in a more immediate timeframe.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
A broad field of academic study or professional practice.
A specific program of study within a discipline.
Scope
Wide, covering general theories and principles.
Narrow, focused on particular topics or skills.
Duration
Ongoing, evolves over a long period.
Limited, defined by an academic term or schedule.
Outcome
Deep understanding and contribution to a field.
Acquisition of specific knowledge or skills.
Flexibility
Stable, changes reflect broader academic developments.
Dynamic, can quickly adapt to new information or technology.
Compare with Definitions
Discipline
A broad area of academic study or professional practice.
Psychology is a discipline that encompasses various theories of human behavior.
Course
A unit of study that covers a specific part of a discipline.
The biology course focuses on cellular processes.
Discipline
A field requiring specialized training or education.
Medicine is a discipline that requires extensive study and practical training.
Course
A learning pathway that may include various teaching methods.
The course utilized both classroom lectures and fieldwork.
Discipline
An organized branch of learning or body of knowledge.
The discipline of anthropology studies human cultures across the world.
Course
A series of lectures or lessons in a particular subject.
He enrolled in an online course for digital marketing.
Discipline
The study of theoretical underpinnings of a particular field.
The discipline of mathematics is fundamental to the sciences.
Course
A structured educational experience with a defined curriculum.
The course includes weekly assignments and a final exam.
Discipline
An academic category that defines departments and faculties in universities.
She chose to major in a discipline within the humanities.
Course
An offering within an academic program leading to a degree or certificate.
She completed a course in graphic design as part of her degree.
Discipline
Discipline is action or inaction that is regulated to be in accordance (or to achieve accord) with a particular system of governance. Discipline is commonly applied to regulating human and animal behavior to its society or environment it belongs.
Course
Development in a particular way; progress
The course of events.
Discipline
Training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement
Was raised in the strictest discipline.
Course
Movement in time; duration
In the course of a year.
Discipline
Control obtained by enforcing compliance or order
Military discipline.
Course
The direction of continuing movement
The boat took a northern course.
Discipline
Controlled behavior resulting from disciplinary training; self-control
Dieting takes a lot of discipline.
Course
The route or path taken by something that moves, such as a stream or vehicle.
Discipline
A state of order based on submission to rules and authority
A teacher who demanded discipline in the classroom.
Course
A designated route or area on which a race is held
The course of a marathon.
Discipline
Punishment intended to correct or train
Subjected to harsh discipline.
Course
See golf course.
Discipline
A set of rules or methods, as those regulating the practice of a church or monastic order.
Course
A mode of action or behavior
Followed the best course and invested her money.
Discipline
A branch of knowledge or teaching
The discipline of mathematics.
Course
A typical, natural, or customary manner of proceeding or developing
A fad that ran its course.
Discipline
To train by instruction and practice, as in following rules or developing self-control
The sergeant disciplined the recruits to become soldiers.
Course
A systematic or orderly succession; a sequence
A course of medical treatments.
Discipline
To punish in order to gain control or enforce obedience.
Course
A continuous layer of building material, such as brick or tile, on a wall or roof of a building.
Discipline
To impose order on
Needed to discipline their study habits.
Course
A complete body of prescribed studies constituting a curriculum
A four-year course in engineering.
Discipline
A controlled behaviour; self-control.
Course
A unit of such a curriculum
Took an introductory course in chemistry.
Passed her calculus course.
Discipline
An enforced compliance or control.
Course
A part of a meal served as a unit at one time
The first course was a delicious soup.
Discipline
A systematic method of obtaining obedience.
Course
(Nautical) The lowest sail on a mast of a square-rigged ship.
Discipline
A state of order based on submission to authority.
Course
A point on the compass, especially the one toward which a vehicle, such as a ship, is moving.
Discipline
A set of rules regulating behaviour.
Course
(Music) A string or set of two or more closely-spaced and usually identically-tuned strings, as on a lute.
Discipline
A punishment to train or maintain control.
Course
To move swiftly through or over; traverse
Ships coursing the seas.
Discipline
A specific branch of knowledge or learning.
Course
To hunt (game) with hounds.
Discipline
A category in which a certain art, sport or other activity belongs.
Course
To set (hounds) to chase game.
Discipline
(transitive) To train someone by instruction and practice.
Course
To proceed or move swiftly in a certain direction or along a course
"Big tears now coursed down her face" (Iris Murdoch).
Discipline
(transitive) To teach someone to obey authority.
Course
To hunt game with hounds.
Discipline
(transitive) To punish someone in order to (re)gain control.
Course
A sequence of events.
The normal course of events seems to be just one damned thing after another.
Discipline
(transitive) To impose order on someone.
Course
A normal or customary sequence.
Discipline
The treatment suited to a disciple or learner; education; development of the faculties by instruction and exercise; training, whether physical, mental, or moral.
Wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity.
Discipline aims at the removal of bad habits and the substitution of good ones, especially those of order, regularity, and obedience.
Course
A programme, a chosen manner of proceeding.
Discipline
Training to act in accordance with established rules; accustoming to systematic and regular action; drill.
Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part,Obey the rules and discipline of art.
Course
Any ordered process or sequence of steps.
Discipline
Subjection to rule; submissiveness to order and control; habit of obedience.
The most perfect, who have their passions in the best discipline, are yet obliged to be constantly on their guard.
Course
A learning programme, whether a single class or (UK) a major area of study.
I need to take a French course.
Discipline
Severe training, corrective of faults; instruction by means of misfortune, suffering, punishment, etc.
A sharp discipline of half a century had sufficed to educate us.
Course
A treatment plan.
Discipline
Correction; chastisement; punishment inflicted by way of correction and training.
Giving her the discipline of the strap.
Course
A stage of a meal.
We offer seafood as the first course.
Discipline
The subject matter of instruction; a branch of knowledge.
Course
The succession of one to another in office or duty; order; turn.
Discipline
The enforcement of methods of correction against one guilty of ecclesiastical offenses; reformatory or penal action toward a church member.
Course
A path that something or someone moves along.
His illness ran its course.
Discipline
Self-inflicted and voluntary corporal punishment, as penance, or otherwise; specifically, a penitential scourge.
Course
The itinerary of a race.
The cross-country course passes the canal.
Discipline
A system of essential rules and duties; as, the Romish or Anglican discipline.
Course
A racecourse.
Discipline
To educate; to develop by instruction and exercise; to train.
Course
The path taken by a flow of water; a watercourse.
Discipline
To accustom to regular and systematic action; to bring under control so as to act systematically; to train to act together under orders; to teach subordination to; to form a habit of obedience in; to drill.
Ill armed, and worse disciplined.
His mind . . . imperfectly disciplined by nature.
Course
(sports) The trajectory of a ball, frisbee etc.
Discipline
To improve by corrective and penal methods; to chastise; to correct.
Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly?
Course
(golf) A golf course.
Discipline
To inflict ecclesiastical censures and penalties upon.
Course
(nautical) The direction of movement of a vessel at any given moment.
The ship changed its course 15 degrees towards south.
Discipline
A branch of knowledge;
In what discipline is his doctorate?
Teachers should be well trained in their subject
Anthropology is the study of human beings
Course
(navigation) The intended passage of voyage, such as a boat, ship, airplane, spaceship, etc.
A course was plotted to traverse the ocean.
Discipline
A system of rules of conduct or method of practice;
He quickly learned the discipline of prison routine
For such a plan to work requires discipline
Course
The drive usually frequented by Europeans at an Indian station.
Discipline
The trait of being well behaved;
He insisted on discipline among the troops
Course
(nautical) The lowest square sail in a fully rigged mast, often named according to the mast.
Main course and mainsail are the same thing in a sailing ship.
Discipline
Training to improve strength or self-control
Course
Menses.
Discipline
The act of punishing;
The offenders deserved the harsh discipline they received
Course
A row or file of objects.
Discipline
Train by instruction and practice; especially to teach self-control;
Parents must discipline their children
Is this dog trained?
Course
(masonry) A row of bricks or blocks.
On a building that size, two crews could only lay two courses in a day.
Discipline
Punish in order to gain control or enforce obedience;
The teacher disciplined the pupils rather frequently
Course
(roofing) A row of material that forms the roofing, waterproofing or flashing system.
Course
(textiles) In weft knitting, a single row of loops connecting the loops of the preceding and following rows.
Course
(music) One or more strings on some musical instruments (such as the guitar, lute or vihuela): if multiple, then closely spaced, tuned in unison or octaves and intended to played together.
Course
(transitive) To run through or over.
Course
(transitive) To pursue by tracking or estimating the course taken by one's prey; to follow or chase after.
Course
(transitive) To cause to chase after or pursue game.
To course greyhounds after deer
Course
The act of moving from one point to another; progress; passage.
And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais.
Course
The ground or path traversed; track; way.
The same horse also run the round course at Newmarket.
Course
Motion, considered as to its general or resultant direction or to its goal; line progress or advance.
A light by which the Argive squadron steersTheir silent course to Ilium's well known shore.
Westward the course of empire takes its way.
Course
Progress from point to point without change of direction; any part of a progress from one place to another, which is in a straight line, or on one direction; as, a ship in a long voyage makes many courses; a course measured by a surveyor between two stations; also, a progress without interruption or rest; a heat; as, one course of a race.
Course
Motion considered with reference to manner; or derly progress; procedure in a certain line of thought or action; as, the course of an argument.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Course
Customary or established sequence of events; recurrence of events according to natural laws.
By course of nature and of law.
Day and night,Seedtime and harvest, heat and hoary frost,Shall hold their course.
Course
Method of procedure; manner or way of conducting; conduct; behavior.
My lord of York commends the plot and the general course of the action.
By perseverance in the course prescribed.
You hold your course without remorse.
Course
A series of motions or acts arranged in order; a succession of acts or practices connectedly followed; as, a course of medicine; a course of lectures on chemistry.
Course
The succession of one to another in office or duty; order; turn.
He appointed . . . the courses of the priests
Course
That part of a meal served at one time, with its accompaniments.
He [Goldsmith] wore fine clothes, gave dinners of several courses, paid court to venal beauties.
Course
A continuous level range of brick or stones of the same height throughout the face or faces of a building.
Course
The lowest sail on any mast of a square-rigged vessel; as, the fore course, main course, etc.
Course
The menses.
Course
To run, hunt, or chase after; to follow hard upon; to pursue.
We coursed him at the heels.
Course
To cause to chase after or pursue game; as, to course greyhounds after deer.
Course
To run through or over.
The bounding steed courses the dusty plain.
Course
To run as in a race, or in hunting; to pursue the sport of coursing; as, the sportsmen coursed over the flats of Lancashire.
Course
Education imparted in a series of lessons or class meetings;
He took a course in basket weaving
Flirting is not unknown in college classes
Course
A connected series of events or actions or developments;
The government took a firm course
Historians can only point out those lines for which evidence is available
Course
Facility consisting of a circumscribed area of land or water laid out for a sport;
The course had only nine holes
The course was less than a mile
Course
A mode of action;
If you persist in that course you will surely fail
Once a nation is embarked on a course of action it becomes extremely difficult for any retraction to take place
Course
A line or route along which something travels or moves;
The hurricane demolished houses in its path
The track of an animal
The course of the river
Course
General line of orientation;
The river takes a southern course
The northeastern trend of the coast
Course
Part of a meal served at one time;
She prepared a three course meal
Course
(construction) a layer of masonry;
A course of bricks
Course
Move swiftly through or over;
Ships coursing the Atlantic
Course
Move along, of liquids;
Water flowed into the cave
The Missouri feeds into the Mississippi
Course
Hunt with hounds;
He often courses hares
Course
As might be expected;
Naturally, the lawyer sent us a huge bill
Common Curiosities
How does a course differ from a discipline?
A course is a specific, focused program of study on a topic within a broader discipline, which is a comprehensive field of academic or professional study.
Can a course cover multiple disciplines?
Yes, interdisciplinary courses can cover topics that intersect multiple disciplines, offering a broader perspective.
What is a course?
A course is a specific educational program within a discipline, designed to impart knowledge on a particular topic through lectures, assignments, and exams.
How are courses structured within a discipline?
Courses are structured to cover specific topics or skills within a discipline, following a syllabus that includes lectures, assignments, and exams.
What outcomes can be expected from completing a course?
Completing a course typically results in the acquisition of specific knowledge or skills, often demonstrated through certificates or academic credits.
How does one choose a discipline to study?
Choosing a discipline to study often involves considering personal interests, career goals, and the potential for future research or employment opportunities.
Can a single course be relevant to multiple disciplines?
Yes, some courses, especially those focused on interdisciplinary studies, can be relevant to and draw upon multiple disciplines.
What is a discipline?
A discipline is a broad area of study or professional practice that encompasses a comprehensive body of knowledge, theories, and research methods.
Can disciplines evolve over time?
Yes, disciplines can evolve, reflecting shifts in knowledge, society, and technology, though they tend to change more slowly than courses.
What outcomes can be expected from studying a discipline?
Studying a discipline leads to a deep, comprehensive understanding of a subject area, critical thinking, and possibly contributing to the field through research.
Are courses always part of academic degrees?
While many courses are part of academic degrees, others can be standalone for personal development, professional training, or certification.
How does the dynamic nature of courses benefit students?
The dynamic nature of courses allows students to learn the most current content, methods, and technologies relevant to their field of study.
Is a discipline the same as a major?
A major is a specific concentration within an academic discipline that a student chooses to focus on during their undergraduate studies.
What role do courses play in professional development?
Courses can play a crucial role in professional development by offering up-to-date knowledge, skills, and certifications required in various fields.
What is the significance of disciplines in academic institutions?
Disciplines organize academic institutions into departments and faculties, guiding the structure of degrees, research, and teaching focus.
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Written by
Maham Liaqat
Co-written by
Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
