Engaging Imagination: Helping Students Become Creative and Reflective Thinkers

How to nurture creativity in tomorrow’sinnovators—today’s college students

When asked what they want colleges to emphasize most, employersdidn’t put science, computing, math, or business managementfirst. According to AAC&U’s 2013 employer survey, 95% ofemployers give hiring preference to college graduates with skillsthat will enable them to contribute to innovation in the workplace.In Engaging Imagination: Helping Students Become Creative andReflective Thinkers, two leading educators help collegeinstructors across disciplines engage students in nurturingcreativity and innovation for success beyond the classroom. AlisonJames, an expert in creative arts education, and Stephen D.Brookfield, bestselling author, outline how creative explorationcan extend students’ reflective capabilities in a purposefulway, help them understand their own potential and learning moreclearly, and imbue students with the freedom to generate andexplore new questions.

This book:

• shows why building creative skills pays dividends in theclassroom and in students’ professional lives long aftergraduation;
• offers research-based, classroom-tested approaches tocultivating creativity and innovation in the college setting;
• provides practical tools for incorporating “play”into the college curriculum;
• draws on recent advances in the corporate sector where creativeapproaches have been adopted to reinvigorate thinking andproblem-solving processes; and
• includes examples from a variety of disciplines andsettings.

Engaging Imagination is for college and university facultywho need to prepare students for the real challenges oftomorrow’s workplace.