Imagination

1. Imagination “Imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown.” Shakespeare

2. Imagination • “Good teachers thus have the ability to • Imagine themselves in their students’ places • Help students imagine themselves in other times, location, and circumstances.”

3. Imagination • William James: “In teaching, you must simply work your pupil into such a state of interest in what you are going to teach him that everyone other subject of attention is banished from his mind; then reveal it to him so impressively that he will remember the occasion to his dying day; and finally fill him with a devouring curiosity to know what the next steps in connection with the subject are.”

4. Imagination • Imagine how to capture their imagination • This will differ from student to student • Good teachers try to contrive ways of using their students’ varied interests to lead them to learn on their own

5. Imagination • Imagination has to be assisted by memory • Teachers must summon recollections of their own struggles to learn • Must recall their own frustrations and failures

6. Imagination • Imagination must be accompanied by compassion • By a teacher’s understanding of the energies that students expend • By a teacher’s understanding of the risks that students take to gain knowledge

7. Imagination • Imagination is the quality that allows teachers to tackle subject matter in novel and attractive ways • To play with knowledge • To find fresh and distinctive approaches to putting facts and arguments together • To respond to the interests of the students • To respond to the situations of the students

8. Imagination • “Imagination in teaching begins with confidence that knowledge is transferable.” • Hope • Some way of getting through • Learning can happen. Now how do I make it happen?

9. Imagination • “Imaginative teachers find their own ways to enhance learning.” • Challenges to introducing knowledge • Each student • Each classroom • Each subject • Each occasion

10. Imagination • “Imagination means visualizing students’ futures.” • Teaching invites students to enter into a world of infinite possibilities of thought and vision • Teaching aims at enriching students minds and spirits so that they can lead full lives through their understanding of life itself. • Students can see knowledge as possible lives

11. Imagination • “Imagination emphasizes the needs and reactions of students.” • Teachers must present what students do not yet know in attractive and positive forms • Teachers must convince students that they can • Master new subject matter • Play with new knowledge • Create their own understanding of the world

12. Imagination • “Imagination enhances and facilitates the presentation of subject matter.” • Good teachers will make the strange familiar and the unintelligible obvious by imagining their students’ difficulties in advance

13. Imagination • Teaching is always an act of faith. • A teacher’s sustaining faith in the capacity of knowledge and understanding to enrich life • Imagination in teaching thus has more to do with potential than with realization. • Imagination allows a teacher to take each achievement of instruction as an invitation to envisage the outcome of the next challenge.

14. Imagination • Imagination is a quality of vision and spirit • It must be summoned from within