Imagination in Teaching and Learning : the Middle School Years
It is widely believed that a child's imagination ought to be stimulated and developed in education. Yet, few teachers understand what imagination is or how it lends itself to practical methods and techniques that can be used easily in classroom instruction. In this book, Kieran Egan--winner of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for his work on imagination--takes up where his Teaching as Story Telling left off, offering practical help for teachers who want to engage, stimulate, and develop the imaginative and learning processes of children between the ages of eight to fifteen. This book is not about unusually imaginative students and teachers. Rather, it is about the typical student's imaginative life and how it can be stimulated in learning, how the average teacher can plan to achieve this aim, and how the curriculum can be structured to help achieve this aim. Slim and determinedly practical, this book contains a wealth of concrete examples of curriculum design and teaching techniques structured to appeal specifically to children in their middle school years
1 online resource (189 pages)
9780226244136, 022624413X
1081000280
Intro; Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; I.A Very Short History of the Imagination; Introduction; Myth, Memory, and Emotion; Ancient and Medieval Imagination; Imagination in the Enlightenment; The Romantic Imagination; Imagination in the Modern Period: Philosophical Work; Imagination in the Modern Period: Psychological Work; Conclusion; II. Why Is Imagination Important to Education?; Introduction; Imagination and Conventional Thinking; Imagination in Learning; Imagination and Memory; Social Virtues; Imagination and Freedom; Imagination and Objective Knowledge Vizualization, Originality, and CreativityThe Narrative Mind; Conclusion; III. Characteristics of Students' Imaginative Lives, Ages 8-15; Introduction; The Affective Connection; Extremes and Limits; Romance, Wonder, and Awe; Associating With the Heroic; Revolt and Idealism; Matters of Detail; Humanizing Knowledge; Conclusion; IV. Imagination and Teaching; Introduction; A Planning Framework For Imaginative Teaching and Learning; Exploration of the Framework by Means of an Example; Less Formal Implementations: Fragmenting the Framework; From Characteristics to Principles of Learning; Conclusion v. Image and ConceptVI. Some Further Examples; Introduction; Mathematics; Science; Social Studies; Language Arts; Conclusion; Conclusion; The Role of the Teacher; The Imaginative Curriculum; Eliminating Social Studies and Humanities; Imagination and Entertainment; Interests and Abilities: Educational Clichés; The Moral Dimension; The Logic of the Heart; References; Index