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Just a century ago, John Dewey proposed that pedagogy be recognized as a university discipline. Significant progress is being made on 3 important fronts to promote pedagogy as a platform in higher education, though it is still not a distinct field of study. The first front is pedagogies of engagement-community-service learning, problem-based learning, and collaborative learning. The second is the assessment of student learning. And the third is the preparation of teachers for undergraduate teaching. In combination, these trends show significant potential for enhancing undergraduate education. Their full promise will be realized, however, only if they are linked together-only if preparation for teaching undergraduates includes both the pedagogies of engagement and attention to the assessment of student learning. That linkage would be inevitable if pedagogy were a university discipline along the lines that Dewey proposed. It is worthwhile, therefore, to speculate on what a school of pedagogy would look like if one were to be started today.
Chicago, September 31, 1996.-The University of Chicago today announced the establishment of the John Dewey School of Pedagogy, devoted to practice, experimentation, and demonstration in the art and science of teaching. Just 100 years after publication of Dewey's seminal article on "Pedagogy as a University Discipline," the university has begun a dramatic new effort to enhance teaching in all disciplines throughout the curriculum. Reactions were mixed. Many were surprised that teaching had not been a primary subject at the University for the past century. "I thought that preparation for a life of teaching was what graduate schools were about," said Mayor Daley, echoing a common sentiment. University faculty was skeptical at best, and some were frankly cynical. "We are a research university," said one professor who insisted on anonymity. "We train our graduate students to do research. Those who want to learn how to be teachers should go elsewhere. And anyway, I don't think that teaching can be taught." The president dismissed such comments and promised that the university was committed to going forward with its new school of pedagogy. "The challenge now," he said, "is to ensure that we implement the vision that John Dewey crafted a century ago."
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