Teaching and Learning Outside the Box: Inspiring Imagination Across the Curriculum

Public education agendas, in streamlining student performance outcomes, have quarantined imagination to the confi nes of the arts and labeled it as “frill. ” The emphasis on effi cient and effective learning trims imagination from core curriculum instruction. Imagination, however, is what the editors of Teaching and Learning Outside the Box propose to be the “essential aspect of education ” (p. vii) and the “most effective tool ” (p. 4) educators have for improving student achievement. This energetic collection of articles tries to bring color to a profession colored gray by the confi nes of testing outcomes. Justifi ed by research and illustrated with classroom examples in the basic cur-riculum and in areas of social concern, the contributors of this book present a case to instructors of pedagogy, curriculum designers, and legislators, as well as teachers and administrators, for reevaluating the standards of curriculum and instruction