对话基兰·伊根（代序）

P (潘庆玉，本书作者)

E（基兰·伊根，加拿大教育研究首席专家）

P：伊根教授您好，很荣幸能够邀请到您给中国的读者谈谈您的学术生活。

中国读者对您的求学经历很感兴趣，知道您大学攻读的是历史专业，后来在美国获得了哲学博士学位，再后来又从事过认知心理学研究，直至最后提出了自己的“富有想象力的教育”理论，您能谈谈让您的学术兴趣不断发生变化的主要原因吗？

E: 事实上，在学校里我是以运动健将而为人所知的。但是，我一直对历史学尤其是思想史情有独钟。我的教育经历有点不同寻常：我在学校里的学术表现并不是很理想，在这种教育体制中行进得越远，我就对学校所规定我学习的东西越感到疑惑。我想我一直以来都对教育问题感兴趣，因为我常常反思自己的成长经历。我从伦敦大学获得学士学位后，曾考虑打算从事教学工作。在我接受教师教育项目培训期间，我与一队来自伦敦南部泰晤士河畔金斯顿的研究人员取得联系。因此，我没有去找一份教师的工作，而是和他们在一起工作了一年时间，主要研究一些新技术，使学生在回答“程序化”的问题时能提高他们的思考能力。这也促使我申请攻读斯坦福大学的博士项目，与此同时，我还担任了旧金山附近I.B.M公司的顾问，负责在他们最新的计算机系统中应用“结构性通信”的编程技术。因此，我不断地通过这些不同类型的实践活动来思考教育问题，探究它是如何扩展并丰富人们的社会生活的——无论是通过使用电脑还是通过传统的教育方式。我最初的大部分工作，甚至在I.B.M的工作都是以历史学为基础的—— 例如，我采用结构通讯的格式编写一个公司的发展历史，然后将其安装在它们的系统1500上。从那以后，我对教育的研究兴趣拓展了，其中包括对教育思想史的深厚兴趣：关于教育思想史如何促进我们对当今教育的深层理解，以及为了我们的孩子，未来我们该如何把教育塑造的更加有效。

P: 您从俄罗斯心理学家维果茨基的心理工具理论中获得了启发，提出了认知工具理论。中国读者对维果茨基也很熟悉，研究成果十分丰富，但是并没有从他那里发展出一种新的教育理论。你能谈谈维果茨基对您产生的最大的理论影响是什么，你的认知工具理论在哪些方面发展了维果茨基的观点？

E: 事实上，当我发现维果茨基的观点对于我的思考很有价值和帮助的时候，我的理论基础已经成型了，并最初于1979年出版了《教育的发展》（纽约：牛津大学出版社）一书，这之前我从未听说过维果茨基的名字。后来我发现维果茨基对我来说意义深远，表现在两个方面，一是他有关我们在社会里成长过程中如何获取“认知工具”的思想——它促使我把有关儿童发展阶段的理论变得更加精致缜密；二是他有关如何使原本外在的“文化工具”内化为“认知工具”的理论。这有助于我扩展充实了自己理论中的“复演论”部分。这两个理论特征也启发我提出了一系列运用于日常教学的实用性“工具”。因此，维果茨基帮助我认识到，在教育中我们既需要一个明晰的教育理论来指导我们选择教育方法，也需要相应的课程。

P: 通过阅读潘庆玉教授的《富有想象力的课堂教学》一书，中国读者已经初步了解了您的理论，感到这是一种充满希望和生命力的教育思想。但是，对于该理论在课堂教学实践中的应用情况，并不是很了解；对于在中国课堂中的运用，更感到有些茫然。你能介绍一下目前该理论在世界各地的应用情况吗？在运用该理论时应注意哪些问题？

E: 近期我们富有想象力的教育研究团队的大部分工作，都集中在了如何凸显这一理论所拥有的相当清晰而直接的教育应用价值方面。因此我们在IERG的网站上(www.ierg.net)研发了大量的创新性实践形式。它们包括“教师帮手”部分实用技术的操作细节，课堂设计框架，以及新的教学程序，比如学校里采用的越来越广泛的“深度学习”项目(www.ierg.net/LiD), “富有想象力的生态教育”项目(www.ierg.net/iee), “全校项目” (www.ierg.net/wsp，其中之一正在中国青岛进行)，以及我们最新的“富有想象力的读写教育”项目 (www.ierg.net/ilp)。目前我们在数十个国家的学校日常教学中开展富有想象力的教育项目，他们的网站也都致力于帮助教师们在教学实践中实施富有想象力的教育。

P: 你提出的五个系列的认知工具确实大大开阔了老师们进行教学设计的视野，丰富了他们的设计手段。但是，面对如此众多的可供选择的设计手段和教学模式，很多老师又会陷入迟疑和困惑，不知道从哪里下手进行设计。请您谈谈在运用具体的认知工具和您开发的各种教学模式时应注意哪些问题，老师们在运用认知工具时如何体现出积极的创造性和灵活性？

E: 我们越来越建议教师，不要试图一次采取所有的富有想象力的教育理论和实践形式。相反，我们建议他们一次采用一种“认知工具”，并只对课堂教学的某一个方面进行调整。这些理论和工具对学生的兴趣和学习成绩的变化会产生十分巨大的影响，我们发现，教师们对此通常会感到非常吃惊。要证明任何新的教育理论的价值，最好的说服者就是老师们在日常教学中获得的成功体验。富有想象力的教育可以从最细微的方面开始，但是我们注意到一旦老师发现了这一理论对其课堂产生的影响，他们就会更多地将这一理论应用到其他方面。

P: 再问您最后一个问题，您知道中国和加拿大存在一定的文化差异，这种文化差异对认知工具理论在中国课堂教学中的运用可能会产生一些影响，比如，中国的教育重视学习结果甚于学习过程，这对认知工具的应用将是一个障碍。我们应如何看待这种现象并解决这些问题？

E: 我们也关注学生学习的结果。富有想象力的教育并不追求华而不实、虚张声势的教学方式。我们认为想象力是学习的重要推动力之一。以富有想象力的教育理论为指导的学校的学生考试成绩表现十分出众。比如，在美国俄勒冈州波兰地区一所IE实验学校，虽然是一所远离富裕地区的社区学校，却在去年《华盛顿邮》报举办的“教育挑战赛”中获得了全国第二名的好成绩！因此，富有想象力的教育是十分注重教学的成效的。我们认为，只要能够激发学生曾经被忽略的想象力，就能提高他们的学习成绩，无论是采取何种测量、考试或者评估技术来检测。富有想象力的教育不仅仅是一个自身拥有价值的过程，而且还是一个能够产生有价值的成果的过程。

P: 十分感谢您热情细致的回答。我们期待下次对话的内容不再是这些外围性的问题，而是在中国课堂的教学实践中运用认知工具理论时产生的实际问题。

再一次向您表示感谢！

Dialogue with Kieran Egan

P (Qingyu, Pan, the author of this book)

E (Kieran, Egan, Canada Research Chair in Education)

P: Hello，Professor Egan, It’s my honor to invite you to talk about your academic life to the Chinese readers.

Chinese readers are interested in your school experience. We know that you read history (Honours) at the University of London, and later obtained a Ph.D. in United States, and then later study cognitive psychology, and finally raised yourself Imaginative Education Theory. Would you please tell us what’s the main reason that caused your academic interests changes?

E: At school I had been better known as an athlete, but I had always had an interest in history and particularly the history of ideas. My own educational history was a bit unusual. I did not do well academically at school, and the further I progressed through the system the more puzzled I was about what I was supposed to be doing. I think I was interested in education throughout, because I was reflecting on my own experience. When I finished my B.A. degree in London, I began to think about going into a career in teaching. During my teacher education program I made contact with a group of researchers in Kingston-upon-Thames to the south of London and, instead of getting a job teaching, worked with them for a year on new techniques for raising the level of students' thinking while they responded to "programmed" questions. It led me to apply for the Stanford Ph.D. program and to work, at the same time, as a consultant with the I.B.M. corporation near San Francisco, applying the programming technique called "Structural Communication" to their latest computer systems. So I was continuing throughout these diverse activities to reflect on education and how it could be made most valuable for enlarging and enriching people's lives--whether by using computers or traditional forms of teaching. Much of my initial work, even working at I.B.M. was on history--I wrote, for example, a history of the corporation using the Structural Communication format and mounted it on their System 1500. Since then my interest in education has incorporated a deep interest in the history of educational ideas and also how that history can give us deeper understanding of education today and how we might shape it in the future to be more effective for all our children.

P: You put forward the theory of Cognitive Tools inspired by the Russian psychologist Vygotsky's theory of psychological tools. Chinese readers are very familiar to Vygotsky's theory. Although researches about his theory are very rich, nobody in China has developed a new kind of education theory basing on his thoughts. Can you talk about what is the most theoretical impact on you from Vygotsky’s theory? What aspects has your theory of cognitive tools given impetus to Vygotsky's views?

E: Actually, while I have found Vygotsky's ideas very valuable and helpful to my thinking, I had worked out the basic form of my theory, published initially in 1979 in Educational Development (New York: Oxford University Press), before I had even heard of Vygotsky. What I later found Vygotsky so valuable for was his ideas about how we pick up "cognitive tools" as we grow up in a society--which enabled me to make the developmental scheme of my theory more sophisticated--and also his ideas about how we internalize as "cognitive tools" what are initially external "cultural tools". This helped we expand on the "recapitulation" dimension of my work. Both of these theoretical features also then led to a series of practical "tools" for use in everyday teaching. So Vygotsky helped me to recognize that in education one needs both a clear educational theory which must guide one's choice of methods of teaching and the curriculum.

P: Through reading the Imaginative Teaching in Classroom written by Professor Pan Qingyu, Chinese readers have a preliminary understanding of your Education Theory, and feel that it is a kind of hopeful and vivid educational thought. However, they don’t know clearly how to apply the theory into teaching practice, especially into Chinese classroom, and also feel a bit dazed. Can you tell us about the current situation of the application of the theory in schools from around the world? What issues should we pay attention to resolve in the use of the theory?

E: Most of the work of our Imaginative Educational Research Group (IERG) have focused recently on how to show how the theory has very clear and direct practical applications. So we have developed on the IERG website (www.ierg.net) a number of innovations for practice. These include details of practical techniques, in the "Teachers' Tips" section, to lesson plan outlines, and also to new programs, like our increasingly widely adopted "Learning in Depth" program (www.ierg.net/LiD), our "Imaginative Ecological Education" program (www.ierg.net/iee), our "Whole School Projects" program (www.ierg.net/wsp--one of which is currently underway in Qingdoa, China)，and our newest "Imaginative Literacy" program (www.ierg.net/ilp). We do have many schools in dozens of countries that are now applying Imaginative Education in their daily practice, and there are websites in many of those countries dedicated to helping teachers in those countries implement the program.

P: Your five series of cognitive tools did greatly broaden the teachers’ teaching design vision, and enriched their design means.However, in the face of so many design methods and teaching modes to choose, many teachers will fall into hesitation and confusion, and do not know where to start to design teaching. We hope to learn your suggestions how to put a variety of cognitive tools as well as all kinds of teaching modes which you put forward into teaching practice. How to reflect the positive creativity and flexibility when teachers take the use of cognitive tools in classroom?

E: Increasingly we recommend that teachers do not try to take on all of the theory and practice of Imaginative Education all at once. Rather, we recommend that they take up a single "cognitive tool" and readjust just that one dimension of their teaching. Usually we find that teachers are very surprised at what a huge impact the change has on their students' interest and learning. The great persuader of the value of any new practice in education is teachers' sense of its success in their daily teaching. IE can begin in the very smallest ways, but we find that once teachers discover the impact in their classrooms, they increasingly take on further aspects of the approach.

P: Then it is the last question. You know that there are certain cultural differences between China and Canada. These cultural differences may have some impact on the application of IE theory into Chinese classroom, for example, China's education emphasizes on learning outcomes rather than learning process, which will be an obstacle to apply cognitive tools into classroom. How should we look at this phenomenon and to solve these problems?

E: Our interest, too, is on learning outcomes. IE is not some boutique or luxury style of teaching. We say that the imagination is one of the great workhorses of learning. IE schools do extremely well in terms of student examination outcome successes. Consider the case of the IE Charter school in Portland, Oregon, in the U.S.A. It is a community school in a far from wealthy area, and yet last year in the Washington Post "education challenge, they scored #2 school in the whole country! IE, then, is intensely focused on educational outcomes. Our claim is that engaging students' imaginations unlearning will improve learning according to any measure or test or assessment technique. IE is not simply some process that is valuable in itself, it is a process that is valuable because it produces valuable results.

P: Thank you very much for your enthusiasm and meticulous answers. We look forward to the next dialogue which is no longer peripheral issues, but the practical problems emerging from the real china’s classroom where teachers take advantage of IE theory.

Thank you once again!