10th International Conference on Imagination and Education
“Imagination . . . is reason in its most exalted mood.” William Wordsworth, Prelude, Book IV.
2 – 4 July 2015
SFU Harbour Centre
VANCOUVER, CANADA
IERG CONFERENCE PROGRAM – Thursday
On-Site Sign in
08.00 am – 09.00 am
THURSDAY JULY 2
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
ROOM 1900 – Fletcher Challenge Theatre
09.00 – 09.10 Welcome and Introductions
09.10 – 10.00
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION by
Bob & Sheri Dunton
Can Imaginative Education deliver tangible results in an era of high-stakes standardized testing?
High stakes testing can make teachers and administrators leery of non-traditional approaches to schooling. As mandatory assessments become ever more the focus of public schooling, school boards and administrators seek security in carefully marketed test-preparation curricula and materials. Is Imaginative Education a viable alternative when the stakes are this high? Our experience with parents, teachers and students says ‘yes’. And our test scores support our claim.
IE SESSIONS – 90 min workshops
Anne Chodakowski
An Introduction to Imaginative Education
This workshop will give participants a practical introduction to Kieran Egan’s theory of Imaginative Education. Participants will learn about planning and teaching imaginatively by experiencing, for themselves, activities from imaginative lessons. The workshop will give an overview of Egan’s theory; but the activities and strategies used will be geared towards students in elementary school. This workshop is ideal for you if you would like an introduction to Egan’s theory, are familiar with his theoretical work but want deeper understanding of how it is manifest in practice, or would like specific examples of imaginative activities to use with your students in class. Novice and experienced teachers are welcome.
Anne Chodakowski is a former high school English and drama teacher. She completed her Ph.D. in Imaginative Education at SFU in 2009. She has worked with the Imaginative Education Research Group for over a decade, doing research, curriculum development and writing. Anne lives in Squamish, B.C., ann is the mother of three children.
Imagination and Curriculum
Xerox Conference Room
Annabella Cant & Violet Jessen
Light & shadow and the pedagogical power of wonder
Light and shadow as didactic materials? How can they be, if we cannot touch and feel them? This workshop will “illuminate” participants in regards to the amazing power of wonder in the classroom and how it can engage children with the complexity of concepts like light and shadow. Be ready to touch, feel, taste, and live these fluid, seemingly unsubstantial teaching materials!
Teaching Imaginatively in Early Childhood/k-4
Tree Island Industries Conference Room
Kym Stewart
Steps to a creative life; teacher self-development in Imaginative Education
Egan asks us to find the wonder in any topic we teach. As educators we are thus focus our gaze towards the students, the school environment and the curriculum components; working as artists sculpting imaginative development. However, this workshop will examine how educators can learn to transition their gaze inward, to learn to spark their own sense of wonder; which in turn can enliven their classroom practice.
Imagination and mindfulness
Barrick Gold Lecture Room
Gillian Judson
Imagination & (Eco-)Learning (K-12)
How do we teach in ways that enrich and develop our students’ imaginative capacities? How do we engage students emotionally and imaginatively with the natural world? The Imaginative Ecological Education, or IEE approach (www.ierg.ca/IEE) engages students’ emotions and imaginations in learning any curricular topics and simultaneously nurtures the emotional and imaginative core of ecological understanding. Participants will be introduced to principles and practices of IEE that can be employed in any teaching context, grade level, and subject area. The first 25 participants will also receive a complementary copy of the resource book: Imaginative Ecological Education—Strategies For Teaching (Pacific Educational Press, 2015).
Imagination and Ecology
Scotiabank Lecture Room
Brandon Hendrickson
A New Kind of School: Imaginative Education and Love, Mastery, and Meaning
What could schooling look like, if we re-imagined it from the ground up? How could love, mastery, and meaning infuse everything we do? And how could every subject be fueled by Imaginative Education?
We’re three teachers who have contemplated these questions for years, and we suddenly have the chance to bring such a school into being. This fall we’ll be opening a school on Hilton Head Island, off the coast of South Carolina — and we’d like your help in fleshing out the curriculum!
What could history look like, in such a school? Math, science, and literature? Drawing, music, and dancing? Physical education, cooking, and meditation?
This will be a venue to share your hare-brained notions and hard-won wisdom. We’ll spend some time sketching out our thinking so far, but half the workshop will be devoted to eliciting participants’ fresh educational thinking.
Come with your hopes — leave with some bigger ones!
Implementing Imaginative Educational Program
Repap Policy Room
40 min Sessions
13.20 – 14.00
Dario Demetlika
The Fur Trade Game-A Change of Context Demonstration
Teaching Imaginatively
13.20 – 14.00
David Futter
BC ED Plan and IE: Opportunities and Challenges
Implementing Imaginative Education program
13.20 – 14.00
Karen E. Smith
Use Your Imagination: Twelve Concepts of Imagination for Your ELA Class
Teaching imaginatively in high school
13.20 – 14.00
Robyn Long
Getting Back to Work: What a Curriculum-Focused Montessori Classroom Reveals about Children’s “Good” Behavior
Teaching Imaginatively in Early Childhood/Elementary
13.20 – 14.00
Erin Thrift
From the Ground Up: Refurbishing the Foundation of Imagination Education
Theory and Research
14.20 -15.00
John Ames
Narrating affect: mitigating learning differences through aesthetic experiences
Special Education
14.20 – 15.00
Don Bialostosky
Close Reading as Imagining Relationships
PART 1
Literacy
14.20 – 15.00
Hayley Morrison
Imagining my own creativity in teaching: Dance first, think later
Teaching imaginatively at Elementary/University
14.20 – 15.00
Nancy Reeder
That’s It! There’s the Story!
Teaching Imaginatively in Early Childhood/Elementary
14.20 – 15.00
Roland M. Schulz & Yannis P. Hadzigeorgiou
Romantic science and the romantic movement: Recent research into their unique contributions to science and science education.
Theory and Research
15.20 – 16.00
Don Bialostosky
Close Reading as Imagining Relationships
PART 2
Literacy
15.20 – 16.00
Meilan Piao Ehlert
Empowering the learning in/with the “Imagined ~”: Plurilingualism and multiple repertoires of the teenage EFL/JFL as L3 learners
Other aspects of engaging students’ imaginations
15.20 – 16.00
Charles Temple
Storytelling and Critical Thinking
General Imagination in Education
15.20 -16.00
Victor Kobayashi
Consciousness, Metaphor, and Imagination in Education: examples from Deweyʻs educational theories.
Theory and Research
16.20 – 17.00
Mary O’Dowd
Imaginative teaching and teaching the performativity of exclusionary national imaginings
Imagination and Mindfulness
16.20 – 17.00
David Futter & Maryanne Trofimuk
Winning Over the Actively Disengaged
Engaging students’ imaginations in the curriculum
16.20 – 17.00
Karolina Barski, Patricia Ruiz & Michael Yue
Using Imaginative and Mindful Pedagogy with High Needs Learners
Imagination and Mindfulness
16.20 – 17.00
Kiyotaka Miyazaki
Let’s make the familiar term “ imagination” strange: Generating the world not there, or exploring the real world
Theory and Research
Wine & Cheese Reception
Join us for our complimentary Wine and Cheese reception! This is your opportunity to network in a relaxed atmosphere with spectacular views, and reconnect with friends, colleagues, IERG members, and make new acquaintances!
Enjoy local BC wines and delicious cheeses in a wonderful setting with entertainment. Cash bar available.
Please RSVP during registration process.
IERG CONFERENCE PROGRAM – Friday
On-Site Sign in
08.00 am – 09.00 am
FRIDAY JULY 3
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
ROOM 1900 – Fletcher Challenge Theatre
09.00 – 09.10 Welcome and Introductions
09.10 – 10.00
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION by
Annabella Cant
WONDER from early childhood to early adulthood
Annabella Cant has experience in teaching the two extremes of the education journey: early childhood education (with children ages 0 to 7) and undergraduate and graduate students. Her experience in both these separate fields helped her find a few bridges that unite them. These bridges are built from the raw material offered by the theory of Imaginative Education. Daily, she is applying in practice Egan’s theory and succeeds at using the cognitive tools in very different settings. The keynote presentation will share with the audience a few of these bridges, focusing mostly on the aspect of wonder in both ends of the educational spectrum. In order to prove her points, Annabella Cant will engage the audience in reflection, action, and reaction. Get ready to sense the wonder in each pedagogical moment of your work!
40 min Sessions
10.20 – 11.00
Gad Alexander
Does IE change in translation? The reframing of IE in different cultures.
Theory and Research
10.20 – 11.00
Cary Campbell
Educating Openness; Applying Umberto Eco’s poetics of openness and a semiotic world view to the education of interpretation
Imagination and Mindfulness
10.20 – 11.00
Lisa Castaneda & Chelsea LeValley
Dramatic Arts Integration in the Classroom: How dramatic arts techniques engages the creative imagination of students.
General Imagination in Education
10.20 – 11.00
Melissa Kumar
Making up strategies and doing it my way: The role of creativity and agency in 3rd grade students’ goals for problem solving
Mathematics education
10.20 – 11.00
Kathleen Ellwood
Implementing Imagination in an Unimaginative System: One American Public School’s Learning in Depth Journey
Implementing Imaginative Education Program
11.20 – 12.00
Pam Hagen
A Critical Perspective of the Relationship between Emotion and Cognition
Theory and Research
11.20 – 12.00
Thea Rutherford
Wandering into Imagination: Walking for Reflection and Time Suspension throughout the School Day
Imagination and Mindfulness
11.20 – 12.00
Monica G. Pelayo
Imagine, Create, and Construct Knowledge
Teaching Imaginatively in University
11.20 – 12.00
Beverley Bunker
Imagination in Cross-Curricular Inquiry
Teaching Imaginatively at the Elementary Level
11.20 – 12.00
Linda Holmes, Ryan Hughes & David Futter
What is the role of teachers in Learning in Depth, LiD?
Implementing Imaginative Education Program
13.20 – 14.00
Lee Beavington & Lucie Gagne
Transformative Learning in the Amazon Field School
Imagination and Mindfulness
13.20 – 14.00
Michael Lockett
The aesthetic and the analogical: A curricular inquiry
Imagination and Curriculum
13.20 – 14.00
Belinda Mendelowitz
Conceptualising the critical imagination in teacher language education
Teaching Imaginatively in University
13.20 – 14.00
Diana R. Cantor
Voice in Community, a Somatic Arts Inquiry
Teaching Imaginatively in Elementary
13.20 – 14.00
Dan Laitch & Annabella Cant
Implementing Learning in Depth: A multi-site case study
Implementing Imaginative Education Program
14.20 – 15.00
Zuzana Vasko
Receptiveness as re-enchantment of the natural world
Ecological Education
14.20 – 15.00
John O’Rourke
The interactive wall: New ideas for delivering content to on-line university students.
Teaching Imaginatively in University
14.20 – 15.00
Parmis Aslanimehr
Creatively Coping with the Struggle of Adjusting to Life in Canada.
Other aspects of engaging students’ imaginations
14.20 – 15.00
Bastiaan Van den Berg
Imagination, interaction and imaginative reflection as crucial capacities for learners in primary schools to make sense to religious stories.
Other aspects of engaging students’ imaginations
15.20 – 16.00
Jeana Hrepich
Feminisms and Technologies as Foundations for Imaginative Participatory Cultures in the Secondary Humanities.
Teaching Imaginatively in Highschool
15.20 – 16.00
Lily Han
Imagining new knowledges through epistemological diversification
Teaching Imaginatively in University
15.20 – 16.00
Michelle Aslan
Go From Stuck To Unstoppable!
Other aspects of engaging students’ imaginations
15.20 – 16.00
Gerald Fussell
Using Destination Imagination to Develop 21st Century Skills
Implementing Imaginative Education Program
15 min Imaginative MINI Lessons
Imaginative Lesson 1 – 10:20-10:35
Christa Rawlings: Grade 6/7 Math
Exponents and REALLY Big Numbers.
This is an introduction to exponents in a grade 6/7 class. Many cognitive tools are used, including narrative, binary opposites, extremes and limits and collections. This unit introduces students to the wonder of large numbers from a myriad to a millionillion. I point out the contributions of various philosophers and mathematicians to the concept of exponents and scientific notation.
Imaginative Lesson 2 – 10:40-10:55
Jim Davies: Grade 11/12 Science
Teaching evolution as a theory using philosophic understanding.
Teaching evolution as a theory using philosophic understanding is the perfect metaphor for science. By pointing out the a progressive series of anomalies and then providing their explanation, students gain a much richer, deeper understanding of the concept of evolutionary development.
Fletcher Challenge Theatre
Imaginative Lesson 3 – 11:20-11:35
Jim Davies: Grade 8-10 Ecology
“Mallcology” – relationships in ecosystems
This lesson, based on the Romantic framework, uses a metaphor to demonstrate the key relationships between organisms that co-exist in any ecosystem. The metaphor, the mall, is an environment that students have familiarity with. Because of this, students can relate to the subject at an emotional level. It also engages their imagination by showing how natural relationships can be mirrored in our own “civilized” world.
Imaginative Lesson 4 – 11:40-11:55
Dario Demetlika: Grade 2-6 Life Biological/ Life Science
Predator vs. Prey
All animals are part of a food chain that they must adapt to in order to survive. Being eaten is not fun! Sometimes you also have to deal with a forest fire.
Imaginative Lesson 5 – 13:20-13:35
Debbie Stapleton: Grade 3 Social Studies
Pioneer Unit: “Back when I was a kid…”
This unit, which utilizes the cognitive tools of Mythic Understanding, seeks to evoke wonder and a sense of emotional engagement that will bring about a deep understanding of what life must have been like for the early pioneers who came to Canada.
Imaginative Lesson 6 – 13:40-13:55
Kym Stewart: Grade 3 Media Education
Media Detectives in Training.
There is a stranger in town who is overwhelmed by the number of signs and logos she is bombarded with. It is up to us Grade 3s to help her find her way, and provide her with strategies to decode her new world. This mini lesson will take you through one week of a multi-week media education unit focusing on advertising for elementary students.
Dinner Boat Cruise
For the 10th IERG International Conference, our sailing route will be to West Vancouver, where we will sail through the Burrard Inlet along the shore line to West Vancouver, the view of the lighthouse at Point Atkinson, English Bay and beautiful Stanley Park with the backdrop of the stunning coastal mountains.
This year’s dinner boat cruise will be on the authentic paddle wheeler the MPV Constitution. In the 1800s paddle wheelers plied their wares at rough and ready towns along the west coast from California to Alaska.
Enjoy a different view of Vancouver, and a wonderful catered dinner buffet as you cruise by the panoramic vistas, large waterfront homes, privately owned islands, wildlife and more.
The boat is berthed at Harbour Cruises Marina – #1 North Foot of Denman Street in downtown Vancouver. Google Map Location
Boarding time: 06.00 pm
IERG CONFERENCE PROGRAM – Saturday
ROOM 1400 – 1410
09.00 – 10.30 Workshop by Annabella Cant
Please RSVP during registration process FULL – RSVP closed
Wonder-full Education
The importance of wonder was acknowledged from the very beginning of educational and philosophical thought. Plato, for instance, tells convincingly to Theaetetus: “Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.” (p.10) We could continue this idea with Kingswell’s words: “Most children […] do not become philosophers: early wonderers at the fact of the world, they are trained to forget the questions that have no clear answers. The experience of wonder may continue to visit many, but pursuit of the question is left to a few.” (Kingwell, p. 86) Wonder is a special kaleidoscopic lens that helps us be astonished, surprised, touched and emotionally engaged. The ability to feel, see and provoke wonder should be one of the main didactic competencies of all educators. This workshop is demonstrating to teachers the importance of wonder in education. Through multiple hands-on activities, games and group tasks, participants will be shown strategies that help keeping wonder alive in children and fortify this innate foundation of childhood against later social and cultural strains. Participating in this workshop will help educators be able to see the “wonders” of the usual and to erase the dangers of a routinized teaching.
ROOM 1430
IERG BRUNCH
Please RSVP during registration process FULL – RSVP closed
To celebrate the 10th edition of the IERG International Conference, the IERG would like to cordially invite you to join us at our Saturday Conference Brunch from 11.00 am to 12.00 pm.
We look forward to meeting you in Vancouver!