Exploring Feelings, Images
and the Imagination
Arts-in-Education and the
Affective Domain
Exploring Feelings, Images and the
Imagination
The Stuff of the Workshop:
– Warmups
– Affective Domain
– Affective Educators
– Receiving/Attending
– Guided Imagery
 Visual Images
 Divergent Thinking
 Poetry
 Directed thoughts and suggestions that guide the
imagination
– Tying it up
Warm Ups
Checking In!!
workshop’s raison d-etre
Additional Warm Up
Walking in Atmospheres
Carl Jung
“What the educational system must
provide is not just brilliant teachers,
but teachers who can touch our
human feelings and on whom we can
look back with appreciation and
gratitude.”
Deborah Meier
“Most children today are disconnected from
any community of adults – including,
absurdly, the adults they encounter in
schools. Many young people literally finish
four years of high school without knowing or
being known by a single adult in the school
building . . . .”
In Schools We Trust (2002), p.12
Vivian Paley
A Child’s Work, the Importance of Fantasy Play, (2004)
You Can’t Say You Can’t Play, (1992)
A simple, no-cost approach to making children
feel safe, accepted, comfortable and ready to
take risks:
“At least once every two days, speak to each
child in the classroom on a personal basis.”
Address to Nazareth College Forum, Oct. 16, 2009
“The Characteristics of Effective and
Ineffective Teachers”
(Research Study)
Concluded that the affective domain was
significant in students’ descriptions of the
best teachers they had encountered
(Walls, Nardi, Von Minden & Hoffman, 2002)
The Affective Domain
“Pertains to the practical life – to the emotions, the
passions, the dispositions, the motives, the moral
and aesthetic sensibilities, the capacity for feeling,
concern, attachment, sympathy, empathy and
appreciation.”
Sterling M. McMurrin, 1967
“What Tasks for Schools?”
Saturday Review, 41-44
“The Characterisitics of Effective and
Ineffective Teachers”
(Research Study)
“Caring about students was particularly
prevalent in the description of effective
teachers. They were described as warm,
friendly and caring. Conversely, ineffective
teachers were said to create a tense
classroom, and were described as cold,
abusive and uncaring.”
(Walls, Nardi, Von Minden & Hoffman, 2002)
John Dewey
 While the ancient Greeks were among the first
to stress the importance of developing the
whole person, including intellectual, physical,
and affective potentialities . . . .
 John Dewey (1950) was among the first
contemporary theorists to propose that schools
give time and attention to affective development as
an integral part of the total school experience
Carl Rogers
On Becoming A Person (1961)
A teacher’s role is, in part, a helping relationship
therefore we must create an atmosphere:
 To facilitate free expression of ideas and affect
 To encourage individuals to know and accept
themselves
In other words, “to grow affectively”
How do we do this in an age of one
size fits all standardized testing?
“Let’s raise the standards of delight.”
Maxine Greene
Affective Characteristics of Teachers
 The teacher who influenced me the most
 The teacher whom I knew liked and
respected me
 The teacher who most positively impacted
my life
 The teacher I would most enjoy seeing
again
(Talk amongst yourselves)
Affective Characteristics of Teachers
List “Top Five” (or so) characteristics
Prioritize
Share
“Receiving” – the first level of the
taxonomy of the affective domain
Receiving
 Being aware of or attending to something in the
environment
 Implies that you will observe and/or listen
attentively and be aware of what you are
experiencing in the here and now

from: Krathwohl, D., Bloom, B., & Masia, B. (1956). Taxonomy of
educational objectives. Handbook II: Affective domain. New York: David
McKay.
Receiving and Attending
Paying Attention!!
 It is not a “binary switch” (it’s not true that
we either pay attention or we don’t)
 “Attention is a much more complex system”
Eric Booth (2001)
Receiving and Attending
 We use multiple strategies for receiving and
attending
 The arts teach us and our students to
become “better agents of attention.”
Eric Booth (2001)
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
(1984)
 Chris Van Allsburg
– The Garden of Abdul Gasazi (1980)
– Jumanji (1982)
– The Polar Express (1986)
 Introduction to Harris Burdick
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
(1984)
Van Allsburg’s Images (guided imagery!)
Receiving and Attending
The House on Maple Street
It was a perfect lift-off.
A Strange Day in July
He threw with all his might, but the third stone came
skipping back.
Oscar and Alphonse
She knew it was time to send them back. The caterpillars
softly wiggled in her hand, spelling out “goodbye.”
The Art of “Receiving”
 In addition to the visual guided imagery
offered by Van Allsburg, there is
written/spoken “guided imagery.” It also
encourages an almost involuntary
“receiving/attending” process
 A way to use our powers of creative
imagination
Guided Imagery
Directed thoughts and
suggestions that guide your
imagination
Guided Imagery
 On the surface it will appear that you are
passively participating, but (as with Van
Allsburg):
– colors, images and fantasy play are created
inside your head and, like it or not, you will
respond to these things
– It is action, especially creative action at its best
if you receive and attend with focused mental
energy
Guided Imagery
Introducing:
the lemon!
Guided Imagery
The Mind-Body Connection
Using all of your senses your body seems to
respond as though what you are imagining
is real
Divergent Thinking
Creative production is often characterized
by the divergent nature of human thought
and action.
Divergent/Convergent
Right Brain/Left Brain
Divergent Thinking
Divergence can be indicated by the ability to
generate many, or more complex or
complicated, ideas from one idea or from
simple ideas or triggers.
Exercise: Compare Two Images
Guided Imagery
Poetry
Divergent thinking plus guided imagery in
words! (remember the power of the lemon!)
Metaphor, Simile, Personification, WordPlay, etc.
Haiku
Cherry Petals
Scattered petals lie
on rice-seedling waters:
bright is the starlit sky.
Taniguchi Buson (1715-1783)
Haiku
On a withered branch
a crow has settled –
autumn nightfall.
Matsuo Basho (1644 -1694)
Haiku
In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
Poetry
Divergent Thinking - Guided Imagery
Craft Lost in Texas
The poet and all
six passengers of
a small poetry reading
were lost late last night
when they went into a dive
outside of Houston.
Peter Klappert
Poetry
Divergent Thinking - Guided Imagery
Their Sex Life
One failure
On top of another
A.R. Ammons
Guided Imagery
 A way to use our powers of creative imagination
 A “right-brained” activity:
–
–
–
–
–
Abstract thinking
Empathy
Emotion
Spirituality
Intuition
Guided Imagery in the Classroom
For learning, relaxation &
creativity:
Attending/Receiving
Relaxing with awareness
Imagining
Processing
Guided Imagery
Making Friends With Your Brain
Crossing Senses
The Ally Within
My Ancestors
Exploring Feelings, Images
and the Imagination
Arts in Education and the
Affective Domain
Students cannot learn and grow without
active imaginations
Exploring Feelings, Images
and the Imagination
Engage their imaginations by exploring the
powers of images:
visual, written and verbal
Exploring Feelings, Images
and the Imagination
When the imagination is active
real learning kicks in!!
Exploring Feelings, Images
and the Imagination
Thank you!!!!
(make sure you get the handouts and turn in a workshop
evaluation)