Kieran Egan

The Educated Mind offers a bold and revitalizing new vision for today's uncertain educational system. Kieran Egan reconceives education, taking into account how we learn. He proposes the use of particular "intellectual tools"—such as language or literacy—that shape how we make sense of the world. These mediating tools generate successive kinds of somatic, mythic, romantic, philosophical, and ironic. Egan's account concludes with practical proposals for how teaching and curriculum can be changed to reflect the way children learn."A carefully argued and readable book. . . . Egan proposes a radical change of approach for the whole process of education. . . . There is much in this book to interest and excite those who discuss, research or deliver education."—Ann Fullick, New Scientist"A compelling vision for today's uncertain educational system."— Library Journal"Almost anyone involved at any level or in any part of the education system will find this a fascinating book to read."—Dr. Richard Fox, British Journal of Educational Psychology"A fascinating and provocative study of cultural and linguistic history, and of how various kinds of understanding that can be distinguished in that history are recapitulated in the developing minds of children."—Jonty Driver, New York Times Book Review

The ideas upon which public education was founded in the last half of the nineteenth century were wrong. And despite their continued dominance in educational thinking for a century and a half, these ideas are no more right today. So argues one of the most original and highly regarded educational theorists of our time in Getting It Wrong from the Beginning. Kieran Egan explains how we have come to take mistaken concepts about education for granted and why this dooms our attempts at educational reform. Egan traces the nineteenth-century sources of Progressive thinking about education and their persistence even now. He diagnoses the problem with our schools in a radically different way, and likewise prescribes novel alternatives to present educational practice. His book is both persuasive and full of promise – a book that belongs on the must-read list for anyone who cares about the success of our schools.

In this book, award-winning educator Kieran Egan shows how we can transform the experience of K-12 students and help them become more knowledgeable and more creative in their thinking. At the core of this transformative process is imagination which can become the heart of effective learning if it is tied to education's central tasks. An Imaginative Approach to Teaching is a groundbreaking book that offers an understanding of how students' imaginations work in learning and shows how the acquisition of cognitive tools drives students' educational development. This approach is unique in that it engages both the imagination and emotions. The author clearly demonstrates how knowledge comes to life in students' minds if it is introduced in the context of human hopes, fears, and passions. To facilitate this new educational approach, the book includes a wide variety of effective teaching tools - such as story, rhythm, play, opposition, agency, and meta-narrative understanding - that value and build upon the way children understand their experiences. Most important, Egan provides frameworks for lesson planning and more than a dozen sample lessons to show how teachers can use these tools to awaken intelligence and imagination in the classroom.

For generations, schools have aimed to introduce students to a broad range of topics through curriculum that ensure that they will at least have some acquaintance with most areas of human knowledge by the time they graduate. Yet such broad knowledge can't help but be somewhat superficial—and, as Kieran Egan argues, it omits a crucial aspect of true education: deep knowledge.Real education, Egan explains, consists of both general knowledge and detailed understanding, and in Learning in Depth he outlines an ambitious yet practical plan to incorporate deep knowledge into basic education. Under Egan's program, students will follow the usual curriculum, but with one crucial addition: beginning with their first days of school and continuing until graduation, they will each also study one topic—such as apples, birds, sacred buildings, mollusks, circuses, or stars—in depth. Over the years, with the help and guidance of their supervising teacher, students will expand their understanding of their one topic and build portfolios of knowledge that grow and change along with them. By the time they graduate each student will know as much about his or her topic as almost anyone on earth—and in the process will have learned important, even life-changing lessons about the meaning of expertise, the value of dedication, and the delight of knowing something in depth.Though Egan's program may be radical in its effects, it is strikingly simple to implement—as a number of schools have already discovered—and with Learning in Depth as a blueprint, parents, educators, and administrators can instantly begin taking the first steps toward transforming our schools and fundamentally deepening their students' minds.

This engaging book presents a frontal attack on current forms of schooling and a radical rethinking of the whole education process. Kieran Egan, a prize-winning scholar and innovative thinker, does not rail against teachers, administrators, or politicians for the failures of the school. Instead he argues that education today is built on a set of mutually exclusive goals that are destined to defeat our best efforts. Egan explores the three big ideas and aims of education—academic, social, and developmental growth—and exposes their flaws and fundamental incompatibility. He then proposes and describes a process called Imaginative Education that would dramatically change teaching and curriculum while delivering the skills and understanding that we all want our children to acquire. His speculative narrative of education from 2010 to 2060—executed with wit and verve—shows how we might very well get there from here.

"I am very impressed by the practicality of [Egan's] introduction of the use of story-forms in curriculum for young children. His model is fascinating, and its various possibilities in a range of fields makes it worth a good look by many kinds of teachers."—Maxine Greene, Teachers College, Columbia

It is widely believed that a child's imagination ought to bestimulated and developed in education. Yet, few teachersunderstand what imagination is or how it lends itself topractical methods and techniques that can be used easily inclassroom instruction. In this book, Kieran Egan—winner ofthe prestigious Grawemeyer Award for his work onimagination—takes up where his Teaching as Story Tellingleft off, offering practical help for teachers who want toengage, stimulate, and develop the imaginative and learningprocesses of children between the ages of eight to fifteen.This book is not about unusually imaginative students andteachers. Rather, it is about the typical student'simaginative life and how it can be stimulated in learning,how the average teacher can plan to achieve this aim, and howthe curriculum can be structured to help achieve this aim.Slim and determinedly practical, this book contains a wealthof concrete examples of curriculum design and teachingtechniques structured to appeal specifically to children intheir middle school years.

Saved from certain death on the Whistler-Vancouver highway after his luxury car malfunctions, Mark Morata feels honour-bound to reward his rescuer, Geoff Pybus, with a token of his undying gratitude. Geoff, a frustratingly humble university professor, happy with his family's lot in life, only wants the for his modest, straightforward wife to get tenure at her university. Luckily, Mark is a man for whom impossible is just another word. As a sophisticated importer-exporter of certain recreational substances ("drug lord" is such a cliché), Mark gets to work on the academic world with the same relentless nature that helped him climb to the top of the cartel. However, the hallowed campus halls reveal an environment that is vicious and corrupt beyond anything he has ever encountered in the drug business...

Students’ imaginations are often considered as something that might be engaged after the hard work of learning has been done. Countering such beliefs, Egan and Judson show that the imagination—one of the great workhorses of learning—can be used to make all learning and all teaching more effective. Through techniques that any teacher can learn and easily apply in any classroom, they demonstrate how and why imagination can be used across the curriculum and grade levels to make teaching and learning more interesting, engaging, and pleasurable for all. Teachers who use these techniques will discover the emotions, images, stories, metaphors, sense of wonder, heroic narratives, and other cognitive tools that can bring life and energy to their classroom. This practical handbook will help teachers learn how to use these enlivening techniques in their daily practice to stimulate students’ intellectual activity and growth. Book

In this new and practical contribution to the importance of imagination in learning, Kieran Egan and his colleagues demonstrate how individual contributions to a coherent large-scale project can produce enormous results of great educational value. Helping all participants to feel pride for more than just their own individual work, such Whole School Projects (WSPs) encourage appreciation for the abilities of others and enable everyone involved to recognize that all kinds of learning styles, intelligences, and ability levels play an important part in constructing the whole. Most important, WSPs invigorate student engagement and build community within a school. The authors describe a program for engaging a whole school in a particular project over a 3-year period and outline the educational principles and benefits. Providing examples of schools successfully using WSPs, they examine the detailed practices needed to get such a project up and running in a typical school. While the Whole School Project is distinct from the regular curriculum, it can help achieve many of the year’s curriculum objectives in mathematics, literacy, science and technology, social studies, art, and history. Finally, teachers can choose to incorporate their curriculum aims into the project study, even when those aims include meeting externally mandated achievement standards. “Egan’s inspiring yet practical strategy will enable you to engage your students, ignite your colleagues, and deepen learning throughout the school.”— Andy Hargreaves , Lynch School of Education, Boston College“I have used Egan’s imaginative tools extensively in the classroom and facilitated learners from kindergarten to grade 8 with their Learning in Depth projects.”— Shannon Shields , middle school vice principal"Kieran Egan is one of the thinkers on 21st-century learning who is not content to simply wave his hands in the air and invoke the magic of technology. He offers concrete proposals for student-centered learning that are workable in our current school environment."— Mark Classen , principal, Harrison Hot Springs Elementary School

This sequel to Primary Understanding describes how middle school students are engaged by knowledge and how they make sense of experience. The author defines his theory of romantic understanding, and explains how it provides principles for the sequencing of the middle school curriculum.

Kieran Egan had a fantasy. Inspired by a visit to a friend’s miniature Zen garden on a balcony in Nagoya, he returned home determined to build his own Japanese garden. Like many men his age, with kids grown up and moved away, he was ready to tackle something new — and tackle was the right word. Even before he began, he had to spend days hacking at the overgrown thicket where his garden would be. At night, dreaming of roots with nothing to do but grow, he thought less about Zen masters than about Dorothy Parker, who observed, “Every year, back comes spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants.” In spite of the running conflict between Zen philosophy and his own rather slapdash methods, he succeeded in creating “a treat for the eye and spirit.” Like Michael Pollan’s A PLACE OF MY OWN, BUILDING MY ZEN GARDEN will appeal to men, and to women as a gift for men. In these prosperous times, when men of the baby-boom generation are often looking for something new, building a Zen garden could very well be it — even if, after reading and laughing at the author’s adventures, they never build one themselves.

This unique approach to teaching core literacy skills offers step-by-step planning frameworks and an appendix of activity ideas to show teachers how to engage students in the process.

This book describes four layers or stages of education Mythic, Romantic, Philosophic and Ironic and shows how children at each stage most effectively learn, and how they can be helped towards educational maturity. While drawing on a wide range of philosophical and psychological literature, this new theory is primarily constructed from close observation of children in their common and intense imaginative engagements, and in everyday educational practice. "

EDUCATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD (CRITICAL SOCIAL THOUGHT) (map)

Everyone knows that educational success is much more likely when students' imaginations and emotions are caught up in learning. While we have a rich educational literature about holding students' interest, we do not have very much sustai

Arguing that most empirical research in education is fruitless because of a particular conceptual confusion, Egan shows how our presuppositions commonly prevent us from thinking effectively about educational issues. Focusing on children's and adolescents' thinking, Egan shows how education must engage children's imaginations.

¿Qué es la imaginación? ¿Por qué es tan importante la imaginación en el día a día del aula? ¿Cómo se potencia la imaginación de los estudiantes? ¿Cuál es el principio de la llamada Educación Imaginativa?A menudo, la imaginación de los estudiantes es considerada en el aula como una herramienta "de segunda", a la que recurrir solo si sobra tiempo. Sin embargo, la imaginación es una de las grandes herramientas para estimular un aprendizaje eficaz.A través de sencillas técnicas, los autores muestran cómo y por qué usar la imaginación a través del currículum, dotando de sentido el contenido y haciendo el aprendizaje y la enseñanza más interesantes.Las emociones, las imágenes mentales, las historias, las metáforas, el humor… ¡Las posibilidades son infinitas! Este práctico libro nos permitirá aprender cómo usar estas técnicas en la práctica diaria para estimular la actividad intelectual de los estudiantes y su crecimiento.

Young people learn most readily when their imaginations are engaged and teachers teach most successfully when they are able to see their subject matter from their pupils' point of view. It is, however, difficult to define imagination in practice and even more difficult to make full use of its potential. In this original and stimulating book, Kieran Egan, winner of the prestigous Grawemeyer award for education in 1991, discusses what imagination really means for children and young people in the middle years and what its place should be in the midst of the normal demands of classroom teaching and learning. Egan uses a bright and witty style to move from a brief history of the ways in which imagination has been regarded over the years, through a general discussion of the links between learning and imagination. A selection of sample lesson plans show teachers how they can encourage effective learning through stimulating pupils' imaginations in a variety of curriculum areas, including maths, science, social studies and language work.

A Mente Educada aborda os três principais conceitos a necessidade de moldar as crianças e os jovens às regras e convenções da sociedade adulta; a transmissão do conhecimento para garantir que o pensamento dessas crianças e jovens esteja de acordo com o que há de real e verdadeiro a respeito do mundo; e o estímulo ao desenvolvimento do potencial de cada aluno. Segundo o autor, essas idéias, que norteiam há séculos o universo educacional, são incompatíveis entre si e a causa da crise educacional vivida pela sociedade contemporânea. Essas metas conflitantes provocam choques em todos os níveis do processo educacional, desde decisões sobre o currículo até os métodos de ensino. Kieran Egan nos apresenta uma nova e sofisticada alternativa para combater essa crise educacional. Ele reconcebe a educação como o nosso aprendizado do uso de "instrumentos intelectuais", como a linguagem ou a alfabetização, que moldam a maneira como damos sentido ao mundo. Essas ferramentas mediadoras geram cinco tipos de compreensão - somática, mítica, romântica, filosófica e irônica - sobre as quais ele se debruça, separando-as em capítulos, ao longo do livro. Tão prática quanto teoricamente inovadora, a explicação de Egan implica propostas práticas sobre como o ensino e o currículo poderiam ser modificados para melhor refletir as verdadeiras formas de aprendizagem. Espirituoso, provocador e instigante, A Mente Educada oferece uma visão nova, ousada e revitalizante para o incerto sistema educacional da atualidade.

Mentes educadas es un libro fundamental para todos aquellos interesados en mejorar la educación. Se trata de un análisis profundo que comprende, desde la naturaleza del ser humano, la capacidad de conocer y entender el mundo desde las herramientas adquiridas por la educación. Kieran Egan rompe con las creencias que han primado en las teorías de la Filosofía de la Educación, en la que la capacidad cognitiva humana tiene que ver con el desarrollo biológico y no con el aprendizaje mismo. Lo que ha forzado a establecer que los niños son primero concretos y que solo en la medida que crezca podrá entender lo abstracto. Egan centra su teoría en la realidad que es la educación, la que cambia nuestra forma de ver el mundo y en el hecho que no todas las personas comprenden del mismo modo y que son las emociones, la imaginación, la que está en el centro de nuestro aprendizaje. Crea la llamada “Educación Imaginativa”, que es una nueva mirada a la educación, en la que propone poner como foco las emociones. El plantea que percibimos, entendemos y sentimos al mismo tiempo. Que lo que se conoce no es neutro, produce emociones. Es por esto que dice que a la hora de enseñar debemos procurar enganchar las emociones, comprometer la imaginación de a quienes se les enseña, de lo contrario lo que se enseñe se va a olvidar. No queremos que nuestros niños vayan al colegio por catorce años y que luego olviden todo, o gran parte de lo que se supone que aprendieron, porque en realidad no aprendieron, sino solo estudiaron para la prueba y luego de esta lo olvidaron. ¿Si vamos a estudiar para olvidar, qué sentido tiene ir al colegio? Buscamos aprendizajes duraderos, para eso la única forma es comprometer las emociones. Es el sentir el que permite recordar. De hecho, la palabra recordar viene de corazón (cuore–re cordare) y significa “volver a sentir”.Magdalena MerbilháaDirectora Asociada Equipo de Investigación de Educación ImaginativaUniversidad de Simon Fraser, Vancouver, Canadá

Günümüzün en saygın eğitim teorisyenlerinden biri, kamu eğitimimizin temelinde yer alan ve eğitim hakkındaki düşüncelerimize hâkim olmaya devam eden fikirlerin yanlış olduğunu açıklıyor. Kieran Egan, okullarımızın problemlerini oldukça farklı bir şekilde teşhis ederek reformların neden başarısız olduğunu gösteriyor ve ümit verici, farklı alternatifler sunuyor.Kieran Egan’dan bekleyeceğimiz üzere, bu kitap oldukça parlak fikirlerle doludur. Egan, en derinlerdeki varsayımlarımızdan bazılarını açığa çıkarmamızı sağlayan ve pek de görünür olmayan temel sorular sorma konusunda muazzam bir yeteneğe sahiptir.James Wertsch Washington ÜniversitesiBüyüleyici bir şekilde yazılmış… bilimsel bir eser… Eğitim politikası alanında çalışanlar bu sayfaların içinde zengin bir dağarcık bulabilecektir.Diana West National JournalEgan’ın İlerlemeciliği güçlü bir biçimde reddetmesi, politik anlayışından çok bilim anlayışı ile ilgilidir. Spencer, Dewey ve Piaget kendilerini ilgi çekici yeni fikirlere sahip modern araştırmacılar olarak sunmuştu. “Yaptıkları bilim kötüydü ancak daha kötüsü devam eden etkileridir.” diyen Dr. Egan pek acımadan onları eleştirmektedir.Peter Temes New York TimesKieran Egan, British Columbia’daki Simon Fraser Üniversitesi’nde eğitim profesörüdür. Grawemeyer Eğitim Ödülü’nün sahibi olan Egan, çok satan Eğitimli Bilişsel Araçlar Anlama Süreçlerimizi Nasıl Şekillendirir gibi çok sayıda kitap ve makalenin yazarıdır.

Book by Egan, Kieran

The Learning in Depth Program (LiD) has captured the imagination of teachers and students in over a dozen countries around the world. This innovative program fosters curiosity and nurtures a love of learning by allowing students to become self-directed experts on a topic over the course of their schooling. Designed for teachers who will be supervising the development of students LiD portfolios, this resource kit addresses practical matters of keeping students imaginatively engaged with their LiD topics. The Resources for Implementing the Learning in Depth Program compiles materials for teachers who want to implement LiD in their classrooms or schools, as well as introduce LiD to other teachers, administrators, and parents. Included The 112-page book Implementing the Learning in Depth Program 5 copies of the booklet Learning in A Brief Guide for Parents/Guardians 104 activity cards for students 2 copies of a laminated list of LiD topics and criteria 5 copies of the Seven Steps to Starting LiD brochure 2 copies of the LiD Team Support Services brochure A digital edition of Kieran Egan s book Learning in A Simple Innovation That Can Transform Schooling Resources for Implementing the Learning in Depth Program Reproducible resource materials include templates for teacher logs and blackline masters for student use; sample letters to school administrators and parents/guardians; a digital copy of Learning in A Brief Guide for Parents/Guardians; starting questions for students; FAQs about the program; and LiD activity topics for students, sorted by categories. Non-reproducible resource materials include five teachers accounts of implementing LiD; two models for implementing LiD; and two brief videos and a PowerPoint presentation about LiD.

Trong quyển HỌC SÂU - MỘT CẢI TIẾN ĐƠN GIẢN CÓ THỂ THAY ĐỔI VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC Ở TRƯỜNG, tác giả Kieran Egan đã nêu lên vấn đề nhức nhối đối với ông: Những người trẻ mang trong mình sự thiếu hiểu biết trầm trọng về thế giới xung quanh, mặc dù nhà trường không ngừng mở rộng khối lượng kiến thức truyền đạt đến học sinh. Học sinh dường như vứt bỏ, quên đi hết kiến thức mình đã học được ngay khi kì kiểm tra cuối học kì kết thúc. Theo Kieran Egan, nguyên nhân nằm ở chỗ kiến thức được dạy quá dàn trải mà thiếu đi trọng tâm. Vì vậy, ông đề ra chương trình Học Sâu mà trong đó, các học sinh sẽ theo đuổi, nghiên cứu sâu một đề tài của mình từ lúc bé cho tới khi trưởng thành. Tuy chỉ mới nằm trong quá trình thử nghiệm, dự án Học Sâu của ông đã đem lại những thành công bước đầu, hứa hẹn mở ra một hướng đi mới cho giáo dục phổ thông.

Amplified Silence is a mellow offering of poetry surveying a variety of natural and human landscapes both domestic and international. Egan explores life and the living in expansive depth, with vivid insight and the gentle brush of humour. In these poems, In these poems the volume-level of silence evolves to speak through life's hazy shadows with the clear-eyed awareness of a sparkling magnifying glass. Kieran Egan excels at exploring the pleasures of memory as well as the sorrows of aging, There are many diverse journeys encompassed in this book enhanced with flashes of grace and the gratitude felt by the author for a life well-lived. These poignant poems will long linger in the mind of the reader and continue to draw the reader back to open the book yet again, as time passes ... then passes again.

Imagination is the Source of Creativity and Invention This series of essays has been collected expressly to bring readers new ideas about imagination and creativity in education that will both stimulate discussion and debate and also contribute practical ideas for how to infuse our daily classrooms with imaginative activities. In a world that values creative innovation, it is distressing that our schools are dominated by an educational paradigm that pays too little attention to engaging the i...

324 pages.