A Guide to Teaching in the Active Learning Classroom

"The book advocates a particular physical organization of the classroom. This is not up to the individual professors, but to the institutions in which they work. Even if one does not have the particular physical layout advocated in this book, there are a number of helpful tips for professors who seek to more actively engage their students. With chapters titled, 'Assignments and Activities,' 'Managing Student Groups,' and 'Assessment and Feedback,' it is easy to find practical suggestions on how to make the classroom less didactic and more engaged. Each chapter has helpful and clear subheadings that make it easy to scan for the topic that one needs. The examples in the book range from the sciences through to the humanities, helping a humanities professor get ideas on means of implementing the method in their own classroom."

Reflective Teaching (Wabash Center)

"This perfectly timed book provides a much-needed and extremely useful road map of the history, innovative research, and emerging practices in active learning classrooms. The authors’ extensive knowledge and lived experience as teachers, faculty developers, and educational researchers is palpable on every page. Collectively they cover all the bases, identifying key teaching challenges in the active learning classroom and generating evidence-based suggestions and solutions. Every teacher, scholar, and administrator who seeks to understand the transformations in learning environments that are reshaping how teachers teach and students learn will find this volume a must-read and an indispensable companion."

Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Mount Holyoke College

Founding Director, Center for Teaching & Faculty Development, University of Massachusetts Amherst

“Active learning in the college classroom can be a particularly effective pedagogical practice. Paul Baepler, J. D. Walker, D. Christopher Brooks, Kem Saichaie, and Christina Petersen have produced and excellent, and very practical and hands-on, guide to maximizing the impact of the active learning classroom. A Guide to Teaching in the Active Learning Classroom should be read by every faculty member or college administrator concerned with student learning.”

Ernest Pascarella, Mary Louise Petersen Professor of Higher Education

The University of Iowa

"This book delivers exactly what is promised by the title. It is full of practical advice but also includes pointers to the research those teaching methods are based upon. There are sample learning materials and help with assessing students and supporting faculty. One book collects everything you need to get started teaching in one of these state-of-the-art spaces and presents it in a clear, organized fashion. Highly recommended!"

Robert J. Beichner, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Physics

North Carolina State University

“Experiential, integrative, and reflective education is enabled through the redesign of space and interaction. A Guide to Teaching in the Active Learning Classroom provides both the conceptual framework and practical advice educators can use to accomplish this.”

Diana Oblinger, President Emeritus

EDUCAUSE

“If you are realizing the need for a new kind of learning space on your campus, or if you have new learning spaces but are unsure how to use them well or want to know how well you are using them, you could ask for no better guide than this one.”

Bradley A. Cohen

University of Ohio