Teaching and Learning Outside the Box: Inspiring Imagination Across the Curriculum

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 sustained work on what the imagination is, how it works in learning, or how it may be inspired in the classroom. Addressing the whole curriculum, this book provides insights into each of those areas central to educational success.

Engaging the imagination is sometimes seen in opposition to preparing students for testing, but scoring well on tests and being imaginatively active in learning are not mutually exclusive. When students’ imaginations are engaged in learning their educational performance will improve by any test or measure. This book offers a new understanding of how knowledge grows in the mind and how our imagination works and changes during our lifetime. Knowledgeable authors describe innovative teaching methods based on these insights, which offer new ways of planning and teaching.

Kieran Egan is a professor of education at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and author of Children’s Minds, Talking Rabbits, and Clockwork Oranges. Maureen Stout is an independent researcher and writer. Keiichi Takaya is a research associate of the Imaginative Education Research Group, and teaches English and education in Japanese universities, including Tokyo Women's Medical University.