Active and Inclusive Learning in a Western Civilization Course

This course has been a traditional mainstay of history departments. It is a requirement for lower division history majors and minors and also for lower division non-majors to fulfill a GE in comparative systems. In the past, barriers have been the wide variation in both student skill level and interest. My goal is to address both of these problems by flipping the class, transforming a course which was the epitome of exclusivity into an inclusive learning laboratory. In the process, I will minimize in-class lectures and incorporate team-based and active learning. This will allow me to move away from providing a narrative, and instead help students gain necessary skills and historical perspective so that they are empowered to critically evaluate dominant and competing narratives of Western Civilization and to become co-constructors of historical narratives.