DYAD PEDAGOGY by Lloyd R. Sherman

American public education which was intended to create a literate public that is able to participate more fully in the social, political and economic life of the country, is now giving way to market forces and cultural shifts requiring a more singular “practical-oriented” rationale.

Contemporary student values equate happiness with comfort, status, and a solid, well-paying job.

This has created a sea change in the goal of education – transforming the school-university continuum, its intent, curricula and methodologies from an end in itself to “marketplace training.”

In order to meet this new demand for workplace savvy, how one learns is rapidly evolving as well. Both parents and students are now looking for a return on their 16- to 20-year investment. Learning at the feet of a master who dispenses knowledge to passive learners is on its way out. Active learning that engages the student in problem-solving, that is keyed to the workplace and one’s daily life, is now transforming academic into practical education.

Practical education requires pedagogy that results in practical learning. Practical learning is the natural means used by individuals to learn most of what they know – gained from others and spurred by individual curiosity, inquiry, and creative use of resources. At the core of these natural learning habits is personality with its key interests around which the individual builds personal knowledge and skills.

Dyad Pedagogy is a practical, goal-directed, learning methodology based on mutual interest – in the systematic pursuit of knowledge and skills. It uses the concept of TWO – a natural arrangement in which interactive processes create new knowledge and skills in both. The methodology makes use of learning and management theories that set in motion a three-dimensional learning/teaching model, incorporating simultaneous development in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of human behavior. It transforms the teacher in a growth continuum – from dispenser of information to facilitator/coach/mentor.

Dyad Pedagogy focuses on semester-long arrangements of students working in pairs, linked as a single learning unit. Spurred by the facilitator’s framing questions, organization of materials, creative use of context (including intra-dyadic interactions), Dyad Pedagogy keys in on learning outcomes and creates activities congruent with the goals and objectives of a course or program. Project-type activities underpin the learning process. Learning is measured by pre-post tests and performance in real time and through various other formats – with criteria calibrated by the instructor’s self-designed metrics.

Each dyad receives a single grade, just as Watson and Crick received one Nobel Prize for the both of them.

lloyd.sherman@mssm.edu