An Imaginative Approach to Teaching

by Kieran Egan (Simon Fraser University )

• ISBN13: 9780787971571
• ISBN10: 078797157X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-02-01
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

Praise for an imaginative approach to teaching "As we come to expect from Kieran Egan, this book is imaginative, engaging, wise, and practical. A terrific resource for teachers at every level." -- Nel Noddings, author, Happiness and Education and Lee Jacks Professor of Education Emerita, Stanford University "Kieran Egan's work on imagination and learning has addressed our needs as teachers to foster more creative thinking within our classrooms. Tapping into this creative energy has added a whole new level of fascination, not to mention fulfillment, to our 'middle years' teaching. We encourage all educators to use the book to put this unbelievable theory into practice in the near future!" -- Anne-Marie Dooner, Peter Obendoerfer, Nicole Marie Kerbrat, and Principal Verland Hicks, middle school educators, Ecole Leila North Community School, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Author Biography

Kieran Egan is professor of education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His work focuses on teaching practices that develop a child's imagination. Dr. Egan is recipient of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award and a member of the National Academy of Education. He is also author of numerous books, including The Educated Mind and Teaching as Storytelling.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments.

Introduction: Imagination Underfoot.

Chapter One: A Tool Kit for Learning.

Story, Metaphor, Binary opposites, Rhyme, rhythm, and pattern, Jokes and humor, Mental imagery, Gossip, Play, Mystery, Embryonic tools of literacy.

Chapter One and a Half: Examples in Everyday Classrooms.

Chapter Two: A Tool Kit for Literacy.

Sense of reality, Extremes of experience and limits of reality, Association with heroes, Sense of wonder, Collections and hobbies, Knowledge and human meaning, Narrative understanding, Revolt and idealism, Changing the context, Literate eye, Embryonic tools of theoretic thinking.

Chapter Two and a Half: Examples in Everyday Classrooms.

Chapter Three: A Tool Kit for Theoretic Thinking.

Sense of abstract reality, Sense of agency, Grasp of general ideas and their anomalies, Search for authority and truth, Meta-narrative understanding.

Chapter Three and a Half: Examples in Everyday Classrooms.

Conclusion: Imagination Every Day.

Glossary.

Appendix A: Mythic Framework.

Appendix B: Romantic Framework.

Appendix C: Philosophic Framework.

Bibliography.

The Author.

Index.