Methods
Life Methods
The Kaleidoscope
The Spiral Curriculum: Curriculum is ‘spiraled’ to be age and learning stage appropriate (see Piaget, Stages of Cognitive Development), in the understanding that the learning process is lifelong and any person can learn any thing if it is presented within the framework of their life experience.
The Tools Chart reminds educators of the array of creative tools available to them that could be used to enable diverse approaches to one’s teaching.
A series of ‘Life Methods’ piloted in the 5th City Preschool were further developed in the Academy as Intellectual (A: Images, Methods B: Pedagogical, Methods C: Training Construct, Methods D: Mass Education Spring 1969), Social and Spirit Methods, including leading conversations, studies, seminars, workshops, giving presentations, and designing curriculum and lesson plans. For more on these methods, see the Facilitation Methods Collection.
This link is a session of Imaginal Education process taught in Canada’s Human Development course.

After twenty years of research and experimentation, in 1986 an ICA faculty (Burna Dunn, Letty Lynn Maloney, Jann McQuire, Keith Packard, Kristen Steed, Karen Wright) and 25 teachers, professors and community leaders participated in a three-week Atlanta Teachers Institute focused on “The Teaching Strategy for a Whole Person Approach to Life and Learning.” (Overview, Week 1: Sessions 1 and 2, Session 4, Session 5; Week 2: Session 1, Session 2, Session 3, Session 4 and Session 5; and Week 3: Session 1, Session 2, Session 3, Session 4 and Session 5) at Spelman University.
In this period the Kaleidoscope was created, representing a whole person approach to learning. The following three papers were written about using the Kaleidoscope as a primary tool for Imaginal Education:
- Karen Bueno: “Reflections through a Kaleidoscope”
- Shirley Mueller, Marie Sharp and Anita Gibson: Application of Imaginal Education in Training Inc.
- Ronnie Seagren: “Education that Changes Lives”.
Imaginal Education Course Manuals:
- The Power of Image Shift, 2012
- The Power of Image Course Manual (for printing), 1999
- Image Change Introduction, 1987
- Teacher Training in IE – Overview (for printing), November 1985
- IE Course Overview, 1985 and 1982
- Imaginal Education Manual (1981)
- IE Course Manual Overview, (for printing), July 1981
- Imaginal Leadership Lab for HDTS, 1980
- IE Overview, 1978
- The Power of Image in Facilitation, 1997 and additional sessions
Early Imaginal Education Talks:
- Introduction to Imaginal Education and here
- Lecture 1: Imaginal Education, Kaye Hayes (1981) and Times and IE (for printing), 1981and Crisis in Education, January1975 London; outline and1981summary and mages
- Lecture 2:
- Lecture 3:
- Lecture 4:
- Lecture 5:
- Outlines of Five IE Talks (for printing)
Other documents describing imaginal education methods:
- Griffin, Murriel, Methods I Have Used and Loved (2020)
- The Summer’99 Initiatives has multiple articles sharing imaginal methods used for many age groups: Bill and Barbara Alerding write Learning in the 21st Century about their preschool work in Guatemala with nine preschools surrounding Conacaste as well as the Technical Training Services program for adults in Indianapolis, IN; Amara Gilbert writes about Coming of Age for junior high youth; Tina Valdez shares The Project Approach for kindergartners; and more.
- You Too Can Change, Robert Rafos
- Place of IE in Future
- Education Safari, July 1984
- The Comprehensive Design of Imaginal Education, 1981 a talk summary of spiral curriculum, life triangles, organizational model and timeline.
- Imaginal Education Proposal, Nairobi, July 1973
- Charting as a Life Method, Robert Shropshire 1971; edited by Larry Philbrook 1998 with sample chart of “Facilitation from the Inside Out”
- Transformational Methodologies
- A Training Design in the Practical Application of Imaginal Education
- Life Triangles
- Imaginal Education Images, Workshops and Other Resources
- Creating a Personal Image Shifts Lifeline, ICA Canada
- Image Shaping Tool (for printing)
- Image Change Workshop 1981
- Power of Image Change, ICA Canada and others
- IE Learnings
- IE: the dynamics of changing behavior through changing images brochure (for printing)