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The steps suggested here for integrating writing and critical thinking assignments into a course can increase students' engagement with subject matter and improve the quality of their work. Moreover, these suggestions do not call for rapid, complete makeovers of a course. It is possible to make changes in a course gradually—trying a few new activities at a time, looking for strategies and approaches that fit your discipline and subject matter—that work for your students and that accord with your own personality and teaching philosophy.

Some teachers make only minimal changes in their courses. We know of one teacher, a brilliant lecturer, who has changed nothing in his course except for adding a series of three microtheme options (students must choose any two) that he grades using models feedback (see chapter 14). Each microtheme assignment focuses on what he considers a threshold concept for his discipline. From each microtheme set, he selects examples of good responses as well as examples of different kinds of misunderstandings. In‐class discussion of these samples lets him focus again on helping students understand the threshold concept. He is happy with this minimalist approach, which he thinks has improved student learning.

But we know of other teachers who have radically transformed their classrooms, moving from a teaching‐centered to a learner‐centered pedagogy, from lecture‐based courses to active learning courses that use exploratory writing, collaborative learning, lively discussions, and other strategies for engaging students in inquiry and debate.

In the pages that follow, we invite readers to find what works for them and for their students.