The best students will learn, retain and understand the material they are taught in class no matter how it is presented. However, there are many students in the class who do not have the attention span to concentrate for the whole lesson, who get distracted or do not do the required reading because they are simply not interested. It is these students who benefit from the circus approach to teaching. —Marc Zimmer —Life in the Circus (Inside Higher Ed)

This observation of Zimmer’s isn’t presented as a complaint; instead, he sees the situation as an audience awareness issue, and analyzes the various ways that professors can meet the students’ desire for inspiration and spectacle.