Yesterday I posted a 42 minute podcast of William Arrowsmith’s “The Future of Teaching: The Molding of Men.” It addresses, in part, the growing trend to spend more time on the technical details of scholarship than on teaching students how to teach.

Well, Arrowsmith was pointing to that trend in 1967, but he could’ve made an even stronger case in 2008.

My alma mater, Boston University, put out a notice today about an on-campus event called “Teaching Doctoral Students How to Teach.”

Providing opportunities for doctoral students to learn and refine successful pedagogical practices has many short and long term benefits for the advisor, student, and institution. Many researchers prefer that their doctoral students do not invest the time to be effective teaching assistants due to the time it takes away from their laboratory endeavors. This self-serving philosophy does the doctoral student a disservice and is a myth. Please join Dr. Hoagland as he shares how his experience with the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate improved the focus on teaching in the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology and how this improvement led to strengthening the graduate program. [emphasis mine]

Drawing pedagogy - really, developing mastery in teaching - out of graduate students is tougher in some disciplines than in others. The history student will simply find it an easier logistical fit than the budding neuroscientist.

But I can’t help pointing out that the content of this event, hosted by the Center for Excellence in Teaching in 2008, has been covered several times before - including by the University’s own former Professor Arrowsmith in The Future of Teaching and The Shame of the Graduate Schools.

An afternoon-long event is a start and I’m pleased to see it. But can we, as a University community, look to the past to make stronger commitments in the present and future on an issue that really matters - teaching - and make the event open to more than just faculty?

I sure hope so.