BRIDGING SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND BUSINESS EDUCATION: EFFECTS OF INTERDISCIPLINARY CASE-BASED LEARNING ON STUDENTS' ANALYTICAL AND ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES

Özet

The integration of business contexts into science and mathematics curricula represents a promising yet underexplored pedagogical frontier. This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of an Interdisciplinary Case-Based Learning (ICBL) approach on the analytical and entrepreneurial competencies of 242 undergraduate students across two Turkish universities. Because the study was fully embedded within routine course delivery, collected only anonymized academic performance data, and posed no foreseeable risk of harm, it was classified as exempt from formal institutional ethics committee review in accordance with the Turkish Higher Education Quality Council (YÖKAK, 2020) guidelines and the policies of both participating institutions. In keeping with principles of research integrity, all data collection was conducted on a strictly voluntary basis: students received a detailed written information sheet at the outset, were free to decline or withdraw at any time without academic penalty, and non-participants continued to receive identical instruction. Voluntary participation rates exceeded 93% at both sites, and baseline comparisons confirmed the absence of systematic self-selection bias (GPA: p = .47; gender: p = .61). Participants were assigned to either an ICBL experimental group (n = 124) or a traditional instruction control group (n = 118) at the course-section level over a 14-week intervention period. Instruments included the Analytical Competency Assessment Scale (ACAS), the Entrepreneurial Competency Inventory (ECI), and structured reflective journals analysed via thematic analysis. Findings revealed statistically significant gains across all five measured competency dimensions in the experimental group (p < .001, Cohen's d range = 0.81–1.21), substantially exceeding gains in the control group. Qualitative analysis identified three emergent themes: contextualized meaning-making, cross-disciplinary transfer, and real-world problem ownership. These results suggest that ICBL effectively cultivates both analytical rigor and entrepreneurial mindset within a transparent, participant-centred research framework, offering a replicable model for STEM educators seeking to integrate business literacy. Implications for curriculum design, teacher professional development, and future research directions are discussed.