Christensen argued that great teaching not only engages students but makes them partners with the instructor in the learning process.18 That partnership requires a teaching and learning “contract” running both between instructor and student and also among the students themselves.19 The contract includes the course syllabus, with its assignments and grading standards, but goes much further. It embodies the expectation that students and instructors will come to class prepared to teach one another in an environment of mutual trust and respect.
