Eliciting Meaningful Engagement in an Art History Survey Course: Reacting to the Past and Active Learning

Abstract

This chapter explores two sections of an introductory art history course—the first, playing the Reacting to the Past (RTTP) Duomo game and, the second, utilizing other types of active learning pedagogies. Course sections were randomly assigned to the research conditions. Pre-unit and post-unit essays were evaluated by authors to assess the level of meaningful engagement achieved by the students in both the RTTP course and the non-RTTP class. Although the authors found inconclusive results regarding RTTP’s differing effect on meaningful engagement than instructing students using other active learning techniques, they believe the chapter provides a framework for additional, and perhaps, longitudinal studies.