By Dr. Jennifer M. Gidley All education is the development of genius… The three factors of genius are the habit of action, the vivid imagination, and the discipline of judgment. (Alfred North Whitehead, 1916) When we offer children a lifeless, stale education, we not only destroy their vitality, but we dumb them down. Through […]
Imagination Matters
(Snippets from my recent post at Getting Smart: “Two Key Points For Understanding Imagination”) Here’s the odd thing… I have never actually met anyone who believes that being imaginative is a useless quality or that the imagination is a useless feature of the human mind. In reality, we constantly seem to acknowledge its importance. We want it […]
One Theme For The Entire Year?
Engaging The Philosophic Imagination: Concept-Centered Teaching By Marlene Roseboom Since completing my studies in Imaginative Education (IE) some years back, I keep refining my curriculum to try to more effectively engage my students’ imaginations. This includes English 10, a course I have taught for several years. While I have already incorporated several separate IE units […]
Teach Readers? Use These Tools To Fulfill Their Need For Adventure
Literacy Re-Wires The Imagination The punchline: It simply doesn’t make sense to teach non-readers and readers the same way. Their minds and imaginations work very differently. They are employing different cognitive tools to make sense of the world. Educators of readers (of any age), need to equip themselves with the tools of the literate mind to make whatever they […]
Register Today & Get Inspired
Learn How To Unleash The Power of Your Curriculum Workshops & Presenters Dr. Annabella Cant ELIEP.ca Wonderfully Connected Education: How To Prevent And Overcome Gaps In Early Childhood Education We, teachers, are privileged. We are some of the few adults who are still able to enjoy pure moments of wonder. We have not grown up by closing […]
Guerilla Geography: Engaging Imagination in Ecological Education
By Thomas Larsen and Lisa Tabor Millsaps Greetings! We are Thomas Larsen and Lisa Tabor Millsaps, self-proclaimed guerilla geographers. Guerilla geography is a free-form approach to place-based education that encourages learners to be creative and unconventional in their exploration and understanding of their local environment by focusing largely on what is meaningful to them (Askins […]
#imaginEDchat begins
What a rush! #imaginEDchat was a big success last night! I am so pleased to meet imaginative educators around the galaxy and to start to build connections. My “master plan” is to facilitate conversations about imagination that go deeper and, ultimately, to create a community where we can share resources and support each other’s imaginative work. Miss last […]
Unleashing The Imagination In The Natural Sciences With The Visual Arts
(Featured Artwork: “Quantum”) By Jailson Lima (Chemistry Department, Vanier College, Montreal, QC, Canada) Instructional strategies that are based on lecture, drill, and practice are commonly employed in traditional Chemistry courses to help students memorize collections of facts and procedures of increasing complexity. These strategies emphasize the acquisition of knowledge through the development of logical-mathematical skills […]
Doing Learning In Depth (LiD): 10 Tips For Success
By Courtney Robertson My Learning in Depth Journey I have always enjoyed the collaborative aspects of having a “buddy” class. Being a Kindergarten/Grade 1 teacher, I have been the younger buddy group in the pair, but have really enjoyed the many benefits of having a regularly scheduled buddy class. In the past I have done […]
Expanding & Enriching Relationships in Place-Based Education
No matter the program or topic, the context or curriculum, relationships matter in education. Educators know this. We know that the creation of positive relationships amongst all members of the school community is a foundation for student success. We know, too, that love of learning stems from students’ forming emotional connections with knowledge; relationships born […]
The Power of Comics
By Tim Smyth Gillian asked me to blog on “the power of comics” – I love that she termed my passion in such a way – I could not agree more! This is my mantra – just add in the power of social media and Twitter as well. I firmly believe in the power of comics, […]
Ironists Get More Laughs
By Dr. Kieran Egan If you spend a significant chunk of your early life being taught and largely failing to learn Latin you will, despite the learning failures, be unable to use “data” or “media” as singular nouns. Hearing “the data tells us . . .” will cause something in your mind to curl rapidly in […]
NEW! Canada Foundation For Innovation Reports On Learning In Depth (LiD)
Engaging students’ imaginations & emotions to explore the world. (Source: Canada Foundation For Innovation) School can be boring, but it doesn’t have to be. Kieran Egan, founder of the Imaginative Education Research Group, talks with third grader Ashley Srdanovic about her portfolio on bees. He and his fellow researchers at Simon Fraser University are working on finding […]
Three Toolkits To Help Maximize Student Engagement
By Gillian Judson – Feelings and imagination are rarely associated with curriculum discussions, but addressing emotion can help with student engagement. Source: Three Toolkits To Help Maximize Student Engagement
What is Gamification?
By Savas Savides (@SSavides) ‘OK, whoever finds the correct answer will get 5 points and a sticker. I’m writing the names of the students with the most points on the board. Let’s see who will be on the top!’ If you regularly set up in class mini competitions like that, you are already using gamification […]
