The growth in active learning classrooms represents a major shift in the pedagogy and built environment of higher education. While a robust literature exists to discuss the development, use, and evaluation of these innovative learning spaces, the practical considerations of managing innovative learning spaces has not received the same level of…

One outcome of the increasing interest from philosophy of education circles in the work of Giorgio Agamben has been the possibility of apparently small alterations to enact a radical emancipatory change. This 'weak utopianism' (Lewis, 2013) found in Agamben's work means that traditionally radical changes are viewed with skepticism, as grand…

Instructors seeking to add active learning elements to their courses encounter an "evaluation challenge" when trying to assign grades to discussion-based activities that do not produce a final product. By creating a way to incorporate evaluation into hard-to-observe activities, the protocol presented here can help instructors make active…

Beginning in earnest in the late 1990s, educational researchers devoted increasing attention to the study of "active learning," leading to a robust literature on the topic in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Meanwhile, during largely the same period, political theorists discovered the radical philosophy of Giorgio Agamben, which…

In addition to their pedagogical benefits, active learning classrooms constitute an important topic of research and have renewed debates on the impact of the built environment on education. However, this literature sometimes overlooks the experiences of learners by focusing on the design and practice of teaching in active learning classrooms. The…

The "Curator's Curiosities" program was launched at Fort Henry National Historic Site in the summer of 2017 as an object-based interpretive program. In addition to learning the history of an artifact from the collection, participants were taught how to properly handle and catalogue the artifact, under the supervision of trained museum…

This article presents an evaluation of an active learning classroom (ALC) initiative at the University of Ottawa. Preliminary results indicate three broad trends to inform future practice and classroom design: 1) Despite advances in educational technology, there remains a strong appetite for low-tech, interactive learning opportunities; 2)…

Building on prior research into active learning pedagogy in political science, I discuss the development of a new active learning strategy called the "thesis-building carousel," designed for use in political theory tutorials. This use of active learning pedagogy in a graduate student-led political theory tutorial represents the overlap…