Introduction

There is growing evidence to show that engaging students is a pre-requisite to enhancing student learning, retention and achievement (Healey et al., forthcoming, 2010; Healey & Roberts, 2004; Ramsden, 2003). There appears to be a desire by virtually all educators, almost as a cri de coeur, for more student engagement (Bryson & Hand, 2007). Bryson et al. (2008, 1) define engagement as a concept which “encompasses the perceptions, expectations and experience of being a student and the construction of being a student”. Barnett & Coate (2005, 165), furthermore, suggest that “the test of an effective curriculum is ‘engagement’: Are the students individually engaged? Are they collectively engaged?” The chapters in this book show that active learning is a key way in which to engage students. The challenge, according to Barnett & Coate, is that: “A complex and uncertain world requires curricula in which students as human beings are placed at their centre … A curriculum of this kind has to be understood as the imaginative design of spaces where creative things can happen as students become engaged” (2005, back cover). This volume presents many creative ways of engaging students through active learning, both in the classroom and beyond.