Gillian Judson

Imagination and the Cognitive Tools of Place-Making.

In environmental and ecological education, a rich literature builds on the premise that place, the local natural context in which one lives, can be an emotionally engaging context for learning and the source of life-long concern for nature. A theory of imaginative education can help uncover new tools and strategies for place-based educators. Conversely, a focus on the imaginative dimensions of place-making sheds new light on the nature of imaginative development, with important implications for educational theory and practice.

Values and imagination in teaching: With a special focus on social studies

Both local and global issues are typically dealt with in the Social Studies curriculum, or in curriculum areas with other names but similar intents. In the literature about Social Studies the imagination has played little role, and consequently it hardly appears in texts designed to help teachers plan and implement Social Studies lessons. What is true of Social Studies is also largely reflected in general texts concerning planning teaching. Clearly many theorists and practitioners are concerned to engage students’ imaginations in learning, even though they use terms other than ‘imagination’ in doing so. This article suggests that a more explicit attention to imagination can make our efforts to engage students in learning more effective. We provide, first, a working definition of imagination, then show how students’ imaginations can be characterized in terms of the ‘cognitive toolkits’ they bring to learning. We look at such ‘cognitive tools’ as stories, images, humor, binary oppositions, a sense of mystery and how these can be used to engage students’ imaginations in learning Social Studies and other content from kindergarten to about grade four. We then consider ‘cognitive tools’ commonly deployed by students from about grade four to grade nine, including a sense of reality, the extremes of experience and limits of reality, and associating with the heroic. We also provide examples of how using such tools could influence planning and teaching Social Studies topics.

Elliot Eisner's Imagination and Learning

Barone, T. (2001). Touching eternity: The enduring outcomes of teaching. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Barone, T., & Eisner, E. W. (2011). Arts based research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Breault, D. A., & Breault, R. (Eds.) (2005). Experiencing John Dewey. Indianapolis, IN: Kappa Delta Pi. Dewey, J. (1929). Sources of a science of education. New York, NY: Liveright. Dewey, J. (1934a). A common faith. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Dewey, J. (1934b). Art as experience. New York, NY: Penguin. Eisner, E. W. (1972). Educating artistic vision. New York & London: Macmillan. Eisner, E. W. (1979/1985/1994/2002). The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of educational programs. New York, NY: Macmillan. Eisner, E. W. (1982/1994). Cognition and curriculum. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Eisner, E. W. (1991a). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice. New York, NY: Macmillan. Eisner, E. W. (1991b). What the arts taught me about education. In G. Willis & W. H. Schubert (Eds.), Reflections from the heart of educational inquiry: Understanding curriculum and teaching through the arts (pp. 34–48). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Eisner, E. W. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Eisner, E. W. (2005). The role of intelligence in the creation of art. In D. A. Breault & R. Breault (Eds.), Experiencing John Dewey (pp. 106–108). Indianapolis, IN: Kappa Delta Pi. Eisner, E. W. (2009). Growing up urban. In E. C. Short & L. J. Waks (Eds.), Leaders in curriculum studies: Intellectual self-portraits (pp. 67–75). Rotterdam: Sense. Short, E. C., & Waks, L. J. (Eds.) (2009). Leaders in curriculum studies: Intellectual self-portraits. Rotterdam: Sense. Uhrmacher, P. B., & Matthews, J. (2005). Intricate palette: Working the ideas of Elliot Eisner. Columbus, OH: Pearson.

Re-Imagining Relevance in Education

Educational relevance. If we had the ability to look into the brains of practicing teachers we’d see this notion rolling steadily through cells in the frontal lobe. Looking for relevance allows us to interest our students. It allows us to coerce them into learning something new or, at least, something the powers-that-be consider important for them to know. If we stopped brain-watching and instead listened into a typical seminar for pre-service teachers on curriculum and planning, we would also encounter this term.