Whole School Projects: Engaging Imaginations Through Interdisciplinary Inquiry

by Kieran Egan, Bob Dunton, Gillian Judson

Overview

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 describes a program for engaging a whole school in a particular project over a three-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.

“In this highly original book, iconic curriculum theorist and change agent Kieran Egan sets out a challenging but coherent alternative to the ways schools usually function. For just a few hours every week, all students undertake a Whole School Project together. Egan’s inspiring yet practical strategy will enable you to engage your students, ignite your colleagues, and deepen learning throughout the school. It’s a game changer for progressives and traditionalists alike.”
—Andy Hargreaves, Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education, 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, experiencing how engaged and deep the learning becomes.  Whole School Projects will continue to expand these proven exemplary practices or, if this is all new to you, it will be a wonderful place to begin!”
—Shannon Shields, vice principal/SBTC, Salt Spring Island Middle School

“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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807773277
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	09/30/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Kieran Egan is a professor of education at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia. He is a recipient of the Grawemeyer Award in Education and an Upton Sinclair Award .

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

1 What Is a Whole School Project? 5

2 Creating Whole School Projects 28

Duration of Whole School Projects 29

The Whole School Project Topic and Its Product 32

Initiating Whole School Projects: At What Grades? 35

Whole School Project Planning 36

3 What Whole School Projects Look Like: Three Examples 38

Qingdao Secondary School 39

Westwood Elementary School 46

Corbett Charter School 53

Whole School Project Planning Summary for Primary Grades: The Solar System and Geology Sheri Dunton 56

The Geology of the Columbia River Gorge Lindy Sims 8

Plants and Animals of the Gorge Alyssa Reed-Stuewe 59

4 Choosing Topics and Criteria for Whole School Projects 64

Criteria for Choosing WSP Topics 64

Choosing Suitable WSP Topics 71

A Natural World Topic 72

A Cultural Topic 73

A Local Neighborhood Topic 74

Distant Irrelevant" Topics 77

Website Support 83

5 Planning and Executing a Whole School Project 84

Beginning the WSP 85

The Middle of the WSP 88

Ending of the WSP 90

6 Learning Principles and Engaging Imaginations in Whole School Projects 103

Learning Tools for the First Years 105

Learning Tools for the Middle Years 113

Learning Tools for the Final School Years 118

Conclusion 127

7 The Educational Foundations of Whole School Projects 128

The Roles of Schools: The Contributions of WSPs 131

Engaging in Projects and Places?Educational Relations 136

Place-based Education 140

Why Do We Need WSPs? What Justifies This Educational Program? 142

8 Whole School Projects: Objections and Responses 144

Conclusion 166

References 169

Index 173

About the Author and Contributors 185

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“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