From the beginning of my teaching career I had been drawn to class participation (Cohen
1991; 1993). I enjoyed posing questions and problems to the class, and they seemed to
enjoy the interaction. At the same time, intuitively I was drawn to discussion and
participation as ways to enhance learning. Later I learned that these were part of what was
known as “active learning,” and they really did have the ability to enhance student learning
(Barr and Tagg 1995; Chickering, Gamson, and Barsi
1989; Pascarella and Terenzini 2005, 101–2). My faith bolstered, I continued to
explore ways to actively engage students through developing thought-provoking questions,
assigning in-class writing, utilizing small group work, and integrating short presentations.
Eventually I began to share my ideas with colleagues at conferences and publish them in
respected journals. I discussed what I was doing in class, the basic principles underlying
my approach, the challenges it provided, and the hoped-for results when it came to student
learning.