Imagination and Engagement

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Imagination and Engagement

• Quality and Equality in Learningthrough
  Partnershipsfor Imaginative Education

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Imagination and Engagement in Shifting
Thinking about Schooling Kieran Egan, Simon
Fraser University in Building Culturally
Inclusive Schools Mark Fettes, Simon Fraser
University in Helping All Learners Reach Their
Goals Debbie Leighton-Stephens, BC School
District 52 (Prince Rupert)
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Imagination and Engagement

• in Shifting Thinking about Schooling Kieran
  Egan, Simon Fraser University

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Development of childrens minds

• Social homogenizing
• Knowledge accumulation
• Psychological development
• Cognitive tool acquisition -gt kinds of
  understanding
• What are cognitive tools? 75,000 years ago to
  today.

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Kinds of Understanding

• IE is based on five distinctive kinds of
  understanding that enable people to make sense of
  the world in different ways
• Somatic Understanding (pre-linguistic)
• Mythic Understanding (oral language)
• Romantic Understanding (written language)
• Philosophic Understanding (theoretic use of
  language)
• Ironic Understanding (reflexive use of language)

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Somatic Understanding

• understand experience in a physical,
• pre-linguistic way

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Somatic the bodys toolkit

• Bodily senses
• Emotional responses attachments
• Humor expectations
• Musicality, rhythm, pattern
• Gesture communication
• Intentionality

little factories of understanding Ted Hughes
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With the development of language--further little
factories of understanding
How do the tools in the left column turn into,
blend with, develop distinctly from those in the
right column? How do the tools in the second
column develop, or develop distinctly, from those
in column one?
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Mythic Understanding

• understand experience through oral language
• no longer limited to making sense of the world
  through direct physical experience
• can now rely on language to discuss, represent,
  and understand even things not experienced in
  person

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Mythic Oral languages tool kit

• Story
• Abstract and affective binary opposites
• Affective images
• Jokes and humor
• Mystery and wonder

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From cognitive tools to planning teaching
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Examples

• Teaching place value in grade 2
• Teaching properties of the air in grade 3

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Romantic Understanding

• understand experience through written language
• realization of independence and separateness
  from a world that appears increasingly complex
• relate readily to extremes of reality, associate
  with heroes, and seek to make sense of the world
  in human terms

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Romantic cognitive tools from oral to literate
culture

• Cinderella to Superman Peter Rabbit to Hazel and
  Bigwig
• win in window at from cat stop and
  watch the stopwatch
• White bears on Novaya Zemla Blue shamrocks on
  Sirius 5.

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Romantic Literacys toolkit

• Extremes and limits of reality
• Associating with the heroic
• Matters of detail
• Humanizing knowledge
• Romance, wonder, and awe

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Examples

• Teaching about eels in grade 8
• Teaching interior opposite angles are congruent
  in grade 7

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General principle

• All knowledge is human knowledge it grows out of
  human hopes, fears, and passions. Imaginative
  engagement with knowledge comes from learning in
  the context of the hopes, fears, and passions
  from which it has grown or in which it finds a
  living meaning.

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THE LUCID PROJECT

• Imagination and Engagement in Culturally
  Inclusive Schools
• Some insights from a Community-University
  Research Alliance
• Mark Fettes, Simon Fraser University
• Funded by the Community-University Research
  Alliances programof the Social Science and
  Humanities Research Council of Canada

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Diversity, quality and equality

• Diversity is
• a defining feature of teachers work that schools
  are ill-designed to accommodate, perpetuating
  unequal outcomes
• a fact of life in modern societies that requires
  intellectual and emotional engagement and
  dialogue based on knowledge and understanding
• a potential resource for teaching and learning
  that offers much of value for academic, social
  and personal development in schools

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Inclusion through imagination

• A theory of learning that views all cultures as
  educative and all students as capable of creative
  and energetic thought
• A set of principles for connecting the facts,
  concepts, and skills of the mainstream curriculum
  with the roots of human meaning
• An approach to classroom teaching that works with
  learners from diverse backgrounds and with a
  diversity of abilities and needs

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Teaching in layers

• Look for the transcendent qualities of any topic,
  such as wonder, courage, wisdom, ingenuity,
  rebellion, power, beauty
• Plan a narrative structure for the unit that will
  allow your students to experience these qualities
  for themselves, and incorporate cognitive tools
  (tools of imaginative engagement) that keep
  heart, head and hands working together
• Draw on the resources of your students and their
  communities to build an increasingly complex
  picture of the human meaning of the topic

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Transcendent qualities
Narrative frame
Tools and Resources for Imaginative Engagement
Facts, concepts, skills
Strategies and activities
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Three examples

• The following teaching plans were developed by
  teachers in the LUCID project, in BC School
  Districts 33 (Chilliwack), 50 (Queen
  Charlotte/Haida Gwaii) and 52 (Prince Rupert).
• These plans have all been used in mainstream
  school classes following the BC curriculum.
• We have seen a consistent pattern of engagement
  in these classes, in which students who are
  typically disengaged, and may even be written off
  by other teachers, show themselves to be
  energetic and talented learners.

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The Spirit of Haida Gwaii A Grade 8 English
Unit By Leslie Puley, School District 50
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• Finding purpose in Grade 8 English
• Here we are at last, a long way from Haida Gwaii,
  not too sure where were going, still squabbling
  and vying for position in the boat, but somehow
  managing to appear to be heading in some
  direction. At least the paddles are together,
  and the man in the middle seems to have some
  vision of what is to come.
• Bill Reid
• In this unit, the canoe becomes an image of the
  classroom and all the characters on the boat are
  all the students in the class.
• Students will be imagining that life on the
  boat is their time during high school when
  theyre learning and figuring out their options
  for the future. The big question is what will
  happen to the characters when the boat lands?
  Or, metaphorically what will happen to the
  students in their lives after school? How will
  they contribute to society?
• Bill Reid asks us if there is a purpose to the
  journey at all

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Activities Discuss metaphors for community
in poetry and art Write about a character in
Reids sculpture Listen to Reids essay and
the teachers adaptation of it Read Haida
stories about the canoe characters Practice
comprehension, vocabulary, etc in variety of
ways Watch the video Spirit of Haida Gwaii
Compose a portfolio for one character
(description, poem, resume, achievement award)
Engage with a speaker from the community who
talks about Haida storytelling traditions and
their relevance to contemporary life Apply what
you have learned to produce something relevant to
your own life and future goals (using writing,
art, music, etc).
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Mosquito Woman

• An oral language teaching cycleby Tannis
  Calderin collaboration with School District 33

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Oral language in place

• The program was initially designed for a school
  where about a third of the students are
  Aboriginal, and traditional reading programs have
  had little success
• Each cycle of activities is based on a
  traditional narrative of the Stolo, the River
  People
• A transcendent quality central to the story
  provides the overarching theme of the cycle
• Activities are carefully ordered to engage the
  students with increasing levels of challenge and
  reward

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A multi-week cycle

• A cycle lasts 3-4 weeks and progresses through
  four stages
• First Encounter (listening to the story told
  orally, exploring it through guided imagery)
• Preparation/ Immersion (learning the story
  through rhyme/rhythm, building vocabulary through
  Mystery Words and other games)
• Creating/Inventing/Reimagining (one-minute talks,
  short role plays, and other short projects)
• Celebration/Integration (dramatic retellings,
  enactments, audio and video recordings)

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Some engaging verse

• When darkness fa!s and mothers call
• For all their children big and small,
• Thowxeya with her basket deep
• Seeks out to snatch those not asleep.
• Thowxeyas evil appetite
• Is sated only with a bite
• Of young, sweet children who neglect
• To hurry home before sunset.

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Some mystery words

• The first part of the this word means bad or
  wrong.
• This is what happens when something goes wrong
  when listening or talking
• The last part of the word comes from the root
  word common. It means shared by all or
  together.
• Miscommunication

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A skipping rhyme

• Thowxeya, Thoweya, big and mean,
• Push her in the fire and hear her scream,
• It wasnt a joke,
• There wasnt any smoke,
• How many skeeters came out to poke?
• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.....

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Achieving multiple goals

• Students normally silent and passive become
  active and thoughtful participants
• Aboriginal culture and values infuse part of the
  regular curriculum
• Families are brought closer to the world of the
  school
• The focus on written, formal language is enriched
  by a new appreciation for the beauty and power of
  spoken language
• Mythic understanding is retrieved and developed
• Power relations in the classroom shift toward
  co-creation (become more horizontal)

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By Colleen Pudsey and Raegan Sawka, School
District 52
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We would like to recognize the Elders of the
Tsmsyen Nation, Smalygax Language Teachers and
the First Nations Education Services Department
of School District 52 (Prince Rupert) for their
hard work and dedication in developing the
cross-curricular units and resources for our
district. Their mentorship and these materials
played an integral part in the development of our
Imaginative Yearlong Framework.
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• A Year-Long Journey
• Each student is part of a Crest group symbolized
  by an animal (wolf, raven, eagle, orca) students
  without a crest are adopted in a December feast
• The crest animals represent heroic qualities
  that are also to be found in each curriculum
  topic and in traditional true tellings (adaawx)
• The curriculum follows the rhythm of the seasons
  and of community life
• Culminating activities affirm students
  accomplishments throughout the year

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Five Curriculum Phases Clans and Crest Phase
(September) Community, narrative, history,
identity Creation Phase (October-November) Astron
omy, geology, exploration, physical fitness Feast
Phase (December) Art, nutrition, formal
speaking, cooperation Energy Phase
(January-February) Physics, technology, natural
resources, sports Survival Phase
(March-June) Ecology, biology, literature,
outdoor skills
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LUCID and educational change

• Working with teachers
• Workshops, M.Ed. Program, planning, teaching,
  assessment
• Working with districts and First Nations
• Good collaboration but hard to change systems
• Working with students and parents
• Units are relatively easy, consistency is hard
• Developing curriculum resources
• Greater use of / demand for local resources
• Imagination means struggle

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Imagination and Engagementin Helping All
LearnersReach Their Goals

• Debbie Leighton-Stephens
• District Principal of Aboriginal Education
• School District 52 (Prince Rupert)

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Sagaayt Hakalelsm (Work together) Hagwil Yaan
(Walk slowly) Haawks (Believe)
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Sagaayt Hakalelsm

• - build positive partnerships that are
• genuine
• respectful
• and appreciate diversity

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Hagwil Yaan
- take time to develop relationships - listen
learn - build trust - change takes time
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Haawks
-know your learners -believe in your
learners -high standards -empower - dont save
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Engaging Imaginative Learning
Teaching from our Feast halls -everyone has a
place -everyone works together -everyone has a
purpose
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- hearts and minds are involved in learning -
learning is challenging relevant - learning is
fun interesting
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Research Protocol
PRINCIPLES

• Researchers will conduct research in partnership
  with Aboriginal people.
• Researchers respect the culture, traditions and
  knowledge of First Nations people.
• Researchers have an obligation to understand and
  observe the protocol concerning communications
  within the Aboriginal community.

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Signing the protocol agreement
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Students EngagedIn Learning
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