OVERVIEW

"Reacting to the Past" has been featured in Change magazine ("Inciting Speech" by Mark C. Carnes, Mar./Apr. 2005, winner of the 2006 William Gilbert Award [AHA] for the Best Article on Teaching History), the Chronicle Review (“Being There: The Liminal Classroom” by Mark C. Carnes, Oct. 8, 2004); the New York Times ; the Chronicle of Higher Education; the Christian Science Monitor; and elsewhere. | View publication list. . . 

The success of the "Reacting to the Past" pedagogy in engaging undergraduate students has been confirmed by faculty reports, student evaluations, and independent observations. Classroom footage and interviews have been compiled into streaming videos to help interested faculty and administrators understand the dynamics of the "Reacting" classroom, | View streaming videos now. . .

The pedagogy has also been the subject of formal double-blind assessment studies conducted on multiple campuses. The studies show that "Reacting" students, when compared with those enrolled in other general education courses, improved in certain salient categories associated with learning, including the development of an appreciation of multiple points of view on controversial topics and a belief in the malleability of human characteristics over time and across contexts. Speaking skills also improved substantially.