As Howard Gardner argues, students

As Howard Gardner argues, students need an education that is deeply rooted in what is known about the human condition, in its timeless aspects, and what is known about the pressures, challenges and opportunities of the contemporary and coming scene.

Without this double anchoring, we are doomed to an education that is dated, partial, naïve, and inadequate.32
Learning through disciplines entails learning not only the knowledge of the discipline but also the skills associated with the production of knowledge within the discipline.
Through disciplinary curriculum and instruction students should learn why the discipline is important, how experts create new knowledge, and how they communicate about it.
Each of these steps maps closely to the development of 21st century skills and knowledge.33 For example, through scientific study, students should learn why science is relevant and what kinds of problems they can solve through scientific methods, as well as how scientists carry out experiments, how they reach conclusions, what they do with the knowledge they gain from the process, and how they communicate their findings.
Informed by this perspective, to foster students’ enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics(STEM)studies, Japan’s Zest for Living reform legislation increased emphasis on teaching science and mathematics topics through foundational disciplinary study processes like those described above.34