Routledge Wonder-Full Education: The Centrality of Wonder in Teaching and Learning Across the Curriculum

For many children much of the time their experience in classrooms can be rather dull, and yet the world the school is supposed to initiate children into is full of wonder. This book offers a rich understanding of the nature and roles of wonder in general and provides multiple suggestions for to how to revive wonder in adults (teachers and curriculum makers) and how to keep it alive in children. Its aim is to show that adequate education needs to take seriously the task of evoking wonder about the content of the curriculum and to show how this can routinely be done in everyday classrooms. The authors do not wax flowery; they present strong arguments based on either research or precisely described experience, and demonstrate how this argument can be seen to work itself out in daily practice. The emphasis is not on ways of evoking wonder that might require virtuoso teaching, but rather on how wonder can be evoked about the everyday features of the math or science or social studies curriculum in regular classrooms. Review "In conclusion, the book criticizes traditional eductaion and teaching, while it provides the readers with historical, philosophical, pedagogical and educational arguments for the recognition of the importance of wonder as part of the educational significance of emotion and imagination. It is ful of ideas for innovation with wonder-full education playing a key role." Dimitris Koliopoulos, Science and Education "Wonder-Full Education is a wonderful addition to any educationalist’s professional library." Damien Morgan, Our Lady of the Southern Cross College "As I read Wonder-Full Education, I often experienced joy and excitement. The book both inspired wonder and gave me ideas for how to encourage wonder in the classroom." Cara Furman, Educational Theory, Volume 66, Number 5, 2016 About the Author Kieran Egan is Professor and Canada Research Chair, Faculty of Education, and Director, Imaginative Education Research Group at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Anabella Cant is a PhD candidate in the Curriculum Theory and Implementation Program, and Associate Director, Imaginative Education Research Group at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Gillian Judson is Lecturer and Director, Imaginative Education Research Group at Simon Fraser University, Canada.