An Imaginative Approach to Teaching
Kieran Egan, 2005
Built on the premise that “engaging students' imaginations is crucial to successful learning,” this book takes the reader on a voyage—or maybe a crusade—to revamp traditional ideas about lesson planning and teaching. Kieran Egan leads the way with an enthusiastic, engaging presentation that offers down-to-earth ideas and examples. The idea behind Egan's approach is to recognize the connection between learning, imagination, and emotion. When teachers use instructional strategies that activate students' emotions and imaginations, students not only become eager to learn but also retain and use the knowledge they gain, writes Egan. As a bonus, they gain increased cognitive flexibility and creativity.
The book describes “cognitive tools” that human beings employ as they go through three stages of cognitive development: oral language, literacy, and theoretical or abstract thinking. The “tool kit” related to oral language, for example, includes such cognitive tools as story, metaphor, binary opposites, jokes and humor, mental imagery, gossip, play, and mystery. Binary opposites (for example, good/bad, security/fear, competition/cooperation) are the most basic and powerful tools for organizing and categorizing knowledge. We see such opposites in conflict in nearly all stories, and they are crucial in providing an initial ordering to many complex forms of knowledge.
Egan describes a planning framework that teachers can use to incorporate these cognitive tools into specific lessons—lessons dealing with curriculum content ranging from place value in math to the life cycle of a butterfly in science. He provides specific and detailed examples showing how to draw students into the content, drive their intellectual inquiry, and create a sense of wonder as they pursue their learning.
There is something in this book for teachers of all age groups and all subjects. The book is a refreshing, thoughtful read that stealthily engages the reader's imagination and may become the basis for a real revolution in teaching.
Published by Jossey-Bass, 989 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94103; 800-956-7739;www.josseybass.com. 251 pages. Price: $24.95 hardcover.
—Reviewed by Judy Ochse, Associate Editor, Editorial Services, ASCD
