Full Description
Learn the four conditions most effective for fostering creativity
Sometimes our attempts to foster creativity can actually stifle it. Author Peter Gamwell, a former teacher and superintendent who has spent more than three decades studying creativity, shares a fresh perspective on how to nurture creativity, innovation, leadership, and engagement in a variety of settings.
You'll learn how to:
Tap the creative and leadership potential in everyone
Think bigger by moving from a deficit model of thinking to a strength-based approach
Develop the lost arts of listening and storytelling to optimize learning
Handle the inevitable pushback and fear that transformational change can bring
"I love this book. I am a huge fan of storytelling, and this book is one great story blended with cutting-edge academic work in the field of human mind and creativity. In The Wonder Wall Peter Gamwell and Jane Daly bring together decades of firsthand experience in creativity, leadership and learning into this volume that I indeed will, as the authors suggest, read twice. I would urge you to do the same if you want to be in the frontline of finding ways to improve your schools."
—Pasi Sahlberg, Author
Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland, Helsinki, Finland
"Take everything you know about learning and turn it upside down. It is there that you will find Peter Gamwell, Jane Daly and their Wonder Wall of creativity wallowing in wisdom. Yes, we have three imperatives, and four conditions, and therein you will find a treasure trove of ideas for creativity. You don't have to leave the school system to upend it. Just read Wonder Wall and you will be swept along into doing things that engage all students and teachers. You will even get ideas about how to evaluate creativity. The timing is perfect. Go beyond skills and knowledge, light the sparks that lead to learning. Be excited about the limitless possibilities of education."
—Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus
OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
"Be brilliant at what you're best at. Build on your strengths. Belong to something. These are the three imperatives that this great book sets out for young people and those who teach them. It does so with wit, wisdom, up-close experience and a magnificent capacity to tell a good tale of why all people in schools really matter. This book is its own Wonder Wall. When you've closed your Ken Robinson book, open this next. You'll not be disappointed."
—Andy Hargreaves, Brennan Chair in Education
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Prologue: The Wonder Wall
1. The Start of Something Extraordinary
2. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: The Connection Between Change and Creativity
3. The Imperatives for Creativity: Getting There Is a Three-Way Street
4. Lead the Way: Leadership Development
5. Condition #1: Storytelling and Listening
6. Condition #2: Moving Beyond Diversity to Inclusivity
7. Condition #3: Making It Personal
8. Condition #4: Celebrating
9. Assessing the Culture of Creativity: How to Get Buy-In and Fellow Travelers for Your Journey to the Extraordinary
References
Index
