“People have long harboured a touch of disdain toward walking.” (Rubinstein, 2015, p. 96) Walking With Secondary Students The Walking Curriculum offers learning activities designed to simultaneously develop students’ sense of place and to enrich their understanding of cross-curricular topics and core competencies. It reflects principles and practices of Imaginative Ecological Education bringing engagement of the body, imagination and […]
Creative Thinking In Math Classrooms
By Matthew Oldridge (Father, TEDx speaker, mathematics educator, and thinker.) When I was first thinking about mathematics as a critical and creative endeavour, I wrote this piece for The Learning Exchange (Ontario Ministry of Education) blog. It is upsetting that kids don’t see mathematics as a creative, living and vibrant subject. (Some don’t, at least.) […]
I’m A LiD Kid: I Study Pests
By Kristen Swaren (Grade 6 Student; LiD topic: Pests) Learning In Depth, or LiD, is a collaborative hour block every Tuesday at my school. Everyone has a topic. My topic is pests. Some people choose to work together, and some people choose to work alone. I am working alone because I feel it is better, because […]
Engage Your High School Students In Place & Community: Walking Curriculum (Part 1)
Walk more. Anywhere. (Rubinstein, 2015, p. 251) Walking With High School Students The Walking Curriculum offers learning activities designed to simultaneously develop your students’ sense of place and to enrich their understanding of cross-curricular topics and core competencies. Walking curriculum activities reflect the principles and practices of Imaginative Ecological Education as they connect engagement of the body, imagination and the local […]
#imaginED: Imagination Understood
Here is a very brief slideshow that aims to clarify what we mean by “imagination” in Imaginative Education. Please SHARE if you value imagination too! All learners, all contexts. Imagination matters.
‘All Real Living is Meeting’: Using The Cognitive Tools Of Imaginative Education To Teach Culture To Second Language Learners
By Greta Visscher-Pau (Secondary FSL Teacher) It’s 2020, and you are on a train. You carry nothing but a backpack, filled with clothes, toiletries and a guidebook explaining how to get from A to B. As you wait for the train to pull out from the station, a smiling person walks […]
A Reflection On Five Years Of Learning in Depth (LiD)
By Terri Zolob (K/1 Teacher) You never know what’s in store when you begin a journey. Perhaps it is a bit of the unknown that intrigues us to take that first step. That first step for me came 5 years ago when, as fate would have it, I met Kieran Egan. It in the cozy […]
Adventure In Our Own Backyard: Fostering Sense of Place in Early Years Education
By Jolene McFadyen-Nein (Kindergarten Teacher) Working in a school that is nestled in the heart of our community has sparked my interest in Place-Based learning. Many of my students live close by, but have very little understanding of the place in which they live. I have pushed to ensure that my students have emotional ties […]
A Walking Curriculum (#10): Evoke Wonder And Develop Sense of Place (K-12)
I’m pleased to announce that the Walking Curriculum is expanding! Coming soon: Resources for secondary school students that look at issues of “walkability”, social justice, and community development. So please stay tuned! This set of walks and resources (Set #10) was suggested by the awesome teachers in Surrey, B.C., Canada, who participated in a “#getoutside” […]
No Better Classroom Than Nature: Re-Imagining Early Childhood Education
By Emma Huvos (ECE Outdoor Educator, Founder, Riverside Nature School) When I taught in a traditional preschool classroom, I was constantly spending time and money I didn’t have to create what I thought were inviting, exciting spaces intended to foster deep and meaningful play. Week after week, I fussed over signs and props and materials […]
Playing In The Fields Of Mars
By Jailson Lima (Chemistry Professor, Vanier College, Montreal, QC, Canada) Playfulness is crucial in setting the mood for exploring creativity and imagination. In my History of Science course (which is mandatory in the Liberal Arts program at Vanier College) we study the evolution of science going from Aristotelian cosmology to Newtonian Physics, and then to Einstein’s view […]
Play Matters: Play-Full Teaching In Higher Education
“For children, play is learning” (Keynote, Children & Nature Network, April, 2017) Some topics get a lot of airtime in education. The value of play for children’s well-being and intellectual development is one such topic. There is ample research to back up this claim (e.g. Ginsburg, 2007; Lewis 2017). But if I change one word—“For […]
Imagination, Creativity, and…Assessment?
By Katie White (Educational consultant, Author, Assessment Associate, & Art Instructor) Consider, if you will, that the importance of imagination and creativity inside our school spaces is not up for debate. Let’s begin by moving past this discourse and, instead, asking ourselves how often we associate imagination and creativity with assessment? For some readers, these concepts might […]
Engaging Imagination In Higher Education: Use These Tools With Adult Learners
Great teaching inspires learners. By “inspire”, I mean it leaves them feeling emotionally engaged or connected with the content knowledge. Emotional engagement matters as much in primary school as it does in graduate school. It matters as much in K-12 Art, History, Mathematics, Science or Languages classrooms as it does in institutions of Higher Education. Whatever […]
