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Imaginative teaching could strengthen aboriginal learning
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Contact:
Mark Fettes, 604.291.4489, mtfettes@sfu.ca
Kieran Egan, 604.291.4671, Kieran_egan@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, Media & PR, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Mark Fettes, 604.291.4489, mtfettes@sfu.ca
Kieran Egan, 604.291.4671, Kieran_egan@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, Media & PR, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
January 7, 2004
"We’re really in uncharted territory," says Simon Fraser University researcher Mark Fettes, who is developing an education program to help B.C. aboriginals attain greater academic, social and economic success. Fettes, an assistant professor of education and a member of the Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG) at SFU, is applying an innovative teaching approach to classrooms with large numbers of aboriginal students.
Conceived by IERG’s founder, SFU education professor Kieran Egan, the theory predicts that students learn best when teaching strategies and subject matter appeal to their ability to imagine rather than memorize. Egan has developed a framework that uses progressively advanced teaching strategies to support students’ cognitive development through imaginative stimulation. Studies show that just 42 percent of 18-year-old B.C. aboriginals students complete high school, compared to 79 percent of their non-aboriginal counterparts.
An expert on linguistic ecology, Fettes studies how language and culture influence the way people imagine, and how imagination is implicated in learning, relationship-building and community identification. He attributes the lackluster results of conventional learning strategies in an aboriginal setting to their tacit assumption of students’ identity within the politically and economically dominant culture.
Fettes is the lead investigator on Building Culturally Inclusive Schools Through Imaginative Education. Three other SFU professors, including Egan, will work with him, as well as with graduate students and First Nations and school district leaders in Chilliwack, Prince Rupert and the Queen Charlotte Islands. Their project’s groundbreaking nature has attracted nearly $1 million in funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) Community-University Research Alliances program.
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(electronic photo available)
Websites:
Imaginative Education Research Group
www.ierg.net/
www.ierg.net/about/people/fettes.html
www.ierg.net/about/people/egan.html
Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council
www.sshrc.ca/web/whatsnew/press_releases/2003/ine_cura_sfu_e.asp
Conceived by IERG’s founder, SFU education professor Kieran Egan, the theory predicts that students learn best when teaching strategies and subject matter appeal to their ability to imagine rather than memorize. Egan has developed a framework that uses progressively advanced teaching strategies to support students’ cognitive development through imaginative stimulation. Studies show that just 42 percent of 18-year-old B.C. aboriginals students complete high school, compared to 79 percent of their non-aboriginal counterparts.
An expert on linguistic ecology, Fettes studies how language and culture influence the way people imagine, and how imagination is implicated in learning, relationship-building and community identification. He attributes the lackluster results of conventional learning strategies in an aboriginal setting to their tacit assumption of students’ identity within the politically and economically dominant culture.
Fettes is the lead investigator on Building Culturally Inclusive Schools Through Imaginative Education. Three other SFU professors, including Egan, will work with him, as well as with graduate students and First Nations and school district leaders in Chilliwack, Prince Rupert and the Queen Charlotte Islands. Their project’s groundbreaking nature has attracted nearly $1 million in funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) Community-University Research Alliances program.
—30—
(electronic photo available)
Websites:
Imaginative Education Research Group
www.ierg.net/
www.ierg.net/about/people/fettes.html
www.ierg.net/about/people/egan.html
Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council
www.sshrc.ca/web/whatsnew/press_releases/2003/ine_cura_sfu_e.asp