Imagination drives education
Kieran Egan, 778.782.4671, egan@sfu.ca
Mark Fettes, 778.782.4489, mtfettes@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035
Our rapidly growing and continually changing information age is challenging educators to find new ways of honing learners’ imagination says Kieran Egan, SFU education professor and Canada Research Chair.
The founder of the Imaginative Research Education Group (IERG) will be a speaker at the group’s seventh international conference, Imagination-the source of creativity and invention, July 15-18, at SFU’s Vancouver campus at Harbour Centre.
The IERG’s imagination-driven approach to teaching is used worldwide and credited with helping Oregon’s Corbett High School attain its 8th place national ranking among the United States’ 25,000 public schools in Newsweek magazine.
“The information age relies more than ever on using knowledge creatively and imaginatively,” notes Egan. “It is becoming clear that the imagination is one of the greatest workhorses of learning and it’s crucial to national competitiveness in the information age.”
Among the conference’s speakers:
Eleanor Duckworth is a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of The Having of Wonderful Ideas. The book explores psychologist Jean Piaget’s ideas and the need to educate children about peace and social justice.
Gladir Cabral is a professor at Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinens (UNESC) in Brazil and a directing force for the Brazilian Museum of Childhood. The facility’s workshops for children and teachers are based on imagination-driven learning theories and an understanding of how children’s experience of aesthetics influences their interaction with museum objects.
Mark Fettes is an SFU education assistant professor and IERG member. He will argue for the value of theorists and educators being on the same page when thinking about and working with the imagination. Says Fettes, “After decades of systematic neglect, imagination is re-emerging on the educational scene as a significant concept, but a lack of theoretical and philosophical coherence undermines its impact in the field.”
For conference and registration information, contact imagination-2009@sfu.ca or Krystina Madej, IERG, 778.782.4479, ksmadej@sfu.ca.
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