Towards an emancipatory pedagogy in service courses and user departments

Abstract

Critical thinking has led teachers of service courses and their user departments into common pedagogies. Motivated by calls from industry for students with problem‐solving abilities, both service courses and their user departments have incorporated higher‐level thinking modes into their assignments. Applying the interpretive mode of rationality posited by Habermas, innovative teachers are changing their pedagogical methods from the simple transference of information from teacher to student to assignments requiring team projects where students grapple with parametric problem solving that demands interpreting complex data. Applying the emancipatory mode of rationality, some assignments involve outside clients and working with community‐based social and political issues.