Description
Minds on Fire is a book about how role-immersion games can be used to transform the way students learn. The book is based on interviews with students and faculty who have used this type of teaching method, which features games set during different historical moments. The book is well-written and inspirational, and it argues that if we are willing to explore student-centered approaches like Reacting to the Past, we might just find that the spark of student engagement we have been searching for in higher education might catch fire in the classrooms of the present.
A
Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the YearIn
Minds on Fire, Mark C. Carnes shows how role-immersion games channel students competitive (and sometimes mischievous) impulses into transformative learning experiences. His discussion is based on interviews with scores of students and faculty who have used a pedagogy called Reacting to the Past, which features month-long games set during the French Revolution, Galileos trial, the partition of India, and dozens of other epochal moments in disciplines ranging from art history to the sciences. These games have spread to over three hundred campuses around the world, where many of their benefits defy expectations.[
Minds on Fire is] Carness beautifully written apologia for this fascinating and powerful approach to teaching and learning in higher education. If we are willing to open our minds and explore student-centered approaches like Reacting [to the Past], we might just find that the spark of student engagement we have been searching for in higher educations mythical past can catch fire in the classrooms of the present.
?James M. Lang,
Chronicle of Higher EducationThis book is a highly engaging and inspirational study of a new technique that just might change the way educators bring students to learning in the 21st century.
?D. D. Bouchard,
Choice