The Thinking Past by Adrian Cole, Paperback | Indigo Chapters

Changes in the 21st century classroom and recent shifts in academic pedagogy suggest that information for information sake's in the process of being phased out for a problem/case based approach to learning. Students now are being asked to learn material outside of the class so they can engagein active classroom discussion and participate in different group activities. Not only content, therefore, but style in the classroom is changing fast; the "flipped classroom" being ever more popular. Part of the challenge for the world historian is figuring out how this type of pedagogy can be applied in a setting where the "sage on the stage" approach is being replaced by more interactive forms of learning. Asked to regularly participate, students are being asked not to memorize but how tothink and how to evaluate the reliability of different sources of information. Looking to build on interactive learning, The Thinking Past is based on the premise that asking questions and evaluating sources represents a new and an insightful way of presenting material on world history. While content on states such as the Songhay, the Ming, and the Aztecs and on nomadic peopleremains an important part of the work, we believe that the classroom experience of debating different issues such as the origins of war and the nature of empire serves as a solid foundation for actually thinking about world history. | The Thinking Past by Adrian Cole, Paperback | Indigo Chapters