Thinker, Learner, Dreamer, Doer: Innovative Pedagogies for Cultivating Every Student's Potential

Master the Age of Complexity through innovative growth.

From COVID-19 to global environmental and economic concerns, how can schools adapt learning environments to foster innovative thinking when the Age of Complexity is always at the forefront? The authors explore this and more by reimagining learning cultures that bring out the innovative seeds of brilliance in every student.

Built on the philosophy that the prosperity of any organization is directly proportional to how it values its people, this book provides:

• A new way to define brilliance, and 10 specific ways you can shift your organization to prepare your school and community for our Age of Complexity
• Detailed case studies from schools excelling in the Age of Complexity
• Links to videos showcasing real-world students and educators in action
• Key takeaways highlighting each chapter’s critical content
• Reflective questions to facilitate application of ideas
•  Actionable strategies to use in classrooms and school communities

Born in Liverpool, England, Peter is the co-author, with Jane Daly, of The Wonder Wall: Leading Creative Schools and Organizations in an Age of Complexity, 2017, Corwin, foreword by Sir Ken Robinson; and Thinker, Learner, Dreamer, Doer: Innovative Pedagogies for Cultivating Every Student’s Potential, April, 2022, Corwin, fore­word by Yong Zhao.

An insightful, entertaining, and knowledgeable speaker, presenter, and consultant, Peter brings decades of academic research, experience, and insightful knowledge, gleaned from his award-winning career as a teacher and administrator at all levels of the education system. Through his presentations, workshops, books, YouTube channel, and website, he explores learning, leadership, and innovation and their impact on individual and organizational health and culture. Peter has worked across Canada and throughout many parts of the world, showing students, educators, administrators, schools, districts, com­panies, and policy makers how to foster that vibrancy in their own organizations.

Through the course of his work and research, Peter has captured the voices of hundreds of students and adults alike, video clips that provide unique and insightful glimpses into the lived world of our classrooms, schools, and organizations. These clips also provide criti­cal insight as to how we might imagine our learning cultures in a way that reawakens the brilliance that lies in all of us, with a central focus on individual, group, and organizational well-being.

An adjunct professor with the University of Ottawa, Peter has been the recipient of many awards throughout his forty-year career. In 2013, he was awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award by the Ontario Public Supervisory Officers’ Association for the work he led in Learning, Leadership and Creativity with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. In 2015, he was awarded the Global Distinguished Leadership Award by the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

In 2020, he cofounded the Canadian Network for Imagination and Creativity, @CNIC, which holds monthly IdeaJams on a wide range of topics―and which evoke lots of lively interactive conversation.

Although Jane’s career took her into the marketing and communications world, she was always fascinated by the field of education and the seeds of potential in every individual―especially when one of her own sons had difficulty reading and thus became “a problem to be solved.” She has worked on numerous communications projects for educational institutions and has taught at the college level. She has often observed the chal­lenges and opportunities that both educational organizations and businesses share when it comes to organizational learning.

Jane was happy to join Peter Gamwell as coauthor for The Wonder Wall: Leading Creative Schools and Organizations in an Age of Complexity and again with Thinker, Learner, Dreamer, Doer: Innovative Pedagogies for Cultivating Every Student’s Potential.

Jane freelances as a communications strategist and commercial writer by day and enjoys fiction writing by night, as well as spending time with her husband John, and their kids and grandkids, at the small MacLaren’s Landing beach community outside of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.