calvin and hobbes It's been my favorite manga ever since I discovered it when I was young. This comic was visually unique, hilarious, and extremely relatable. As I continue to revisit this strip, it still retains the characteristics that I loved when I was younger. But I now find myself drawn to the depth of this strip, especially the power of Calvin's imagination. Additionally, I am in awe of the way this strip's author, Bill Watterson, uses Calvin's imagination to expand and enliven the mundane, mundane reality that Calvin occupies. This “oomph” inspires the reader (even in the goofiest scenarios). However, in the world of comics, Calvin's imagination is always limited, especially when confronting his teacher, Mr. Wormwood. Despite the light-hearted nature of this strip, it works well as a caricature of education addressing real-life issues. Imagination, perhaps humanity's most powerful tool, is often limited by mundane educational practices that primarily measure students' memorization abilities. Pursuing classroom pedagogy with an emphasis on evoking the imagination encourages students to think about how to apply their knowledge, which in turn enhances classroom engagement and increases student engagement. may improve learning outcomes.
What is imagination?
Although there appears to be general agreement among educators that developing imagination is important, it is not clear where and how this occurs in the educational process (Egan n.d.). AJ Cropley's (2014, 634) analysis of teachers' views of creativity finds that educators' calls for “more creativity” are limited to rhetorical hyperbole in policy documents, or that the boundaries between the visual and performing arts It turns out that they are being relegated to the realm, or both. ” By limiting creativity to the visual and performing arts, academia has severely limited meaningful understanding of imagination. Furthermore, this association reinforces the common mistake of confusing creativity with imagination, and limits robust thinking about what imagination is. Creativity is a key component of imagination, but if we fail to look beyond creativity, we will miss the opportunity to fully invoke our imagination.
We quickly learned that imagination extends beyond what we can comprehend, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't pursue further discoveries. Instead of defining imagination, I aim to focus on some important functions of imagination that are not usually considered, such as memory recall, reframing, and recognition of possibilities. Kieran Egan (ND, 12) explains:[Imagination] It is not particularly separate from reason, but rather gives it flexibility, energy, and vividness. It makes all spiritual life more meaningful. It makes life richer. ” If imagination is life-giving, as Egan explains, then clearly recognizing the components of imagination can help educators better evoke students' imaginations and create more engaging, rich, and meaningful classrooms. This is a big step in learning how to create experiences.
Memory recall and schemas
At its simplest, imagination is the ability to create mental images of things that don't exist. Wang, Ginns, and Mockler (2022) encouraged students at both elementary and university levels to use their fingers to trace visual concepts and take time to imagine those concepts before solving math problems. We investigated how students would perform if they were In both groups, students who traced and imagined solved the problem faster than those who did not. This shows that a combination of tracing and imagination can help build schemas.
When applying this to the classroom, students need to be guided to engage with the material in several ways in order to become accustomed to using the different senses. Tracing is a good option, but think about how your concept would play out in a real-life situation and help students recreate that situation in real life. For example, an organizational theory course might cover many components of the theory and apply them individually to different situations. This reduces cognitive load because you are learning one component of the theory at a time, and stimulates your imagination because you are forced to think about the organization in one particular way. As students learn all the components, instructors can move on to putting it all together. Students already have an imagination about how to use these components, so they don't need to put in more effort to imagine what it would be like to organize the components into a schema for future use.
Reframing and empathy
In its most practical and applicable form, imagination allows us to connect with each other. Without imagination, we cannot empathize, understand different points of view, or overcome prejudice. Although we don't expect all students to find deep connections with the content of the lesson, getting them to think in different ways can help them learn. Andrew Taylor (2020) focuses on the development of moral imagination, stating that medical students tend to turn patient stories into incidents, which effectively dehumanizes patients and their situations. He explains. He argues for the use of patography, which frames the patient's experience of illness as a biography, in order to alleviate dehumanization. Taylor found that students who learned about medical problems by working with pathology developed a more solid knowledge of how the illnesses they experienced came about.
Not every subject we teach has these types of stories, but instructors use their own stories (or appropriate biographies of individuals related to the subject) to tell stories and help them learn about concepts. You can make connections with students. This may involve why you, the instructor, believe it is an important subject to study and what impact it has on the world. These stories stimulate the imagination, and as they expand and become more meaningful to students, the likelihood of increased intrinsic motivation increases.
recognition of possibility
Finally, imagination is essential in how students perceive future possibilities by providing them with the ability to think about how their choices will impact their future. Jung, Flores, and Hunter (2016) describe the process of imagination, which uses past experiences to achieve future goals. In my opinion, their explanation is insufficient in that it presupposes future goals. intention It may be possible to achieve this by utilizing past experience, but it is not guaranteed. Although my critique is minor, I believe it is important because the explanations of Jung, Flores, and Hunter suggest that good imagination should yield results.imagination can It helps you achieve your goals, but more importantly it helps you envision alternatives to reality and choose to act on them with wisdom. This means that the goal is not the highest pursuit of imagination.
Practical application of the recognition component may be as simple as saying, “Let's begin with the end in mind,” but that limits how you can use your imagination. Yes, we need to help students develop goals for their education, but by not encouraging them to think more deeply about what those goals will look like in the future, we are forcing the pursuit of certain goals into other areas. This is a missed opportunity to help students understand how it impacts their lives. For example, ask students to imagine what the world would be like if they achieved the goals they set. Do they like who they are? What were the costs and benefits of achieving those goals? Does this change the shape of the goals? Answering questions like these will help students develop more thoughtful and insightful goals. I can. A deeper connection to these goals can help increase your intrinsic motivation to pursue them.
My current exploration of imagination does not claim to cover all components, but it does expand on these components by allowing students to imagine and play with learning experiences in a variety of ways. We aim to facilitate implementation and encourage participation in learning. Although my suggestions are by no means comprehensive, teachers should strive to captivate and guide students' imaginations in their learning, and this indicates some points to aim for when doing so. .
Micah Mitchell is a doctoral student studying higher education research and leadership (HESL) at Baylor University. He has 10 years of experience in teaching, admissions, residence life, and advising students in higher education. He currently serves as the statewide leader for Texas State University's Student Success Team.
References
Cropley, Arthur J. 2014. “Neglecting Creativity in Education: A Moral Issue.”in ethics of creativity, by Sheena Moran, David Cropley, and James C. Kaufman, 250–64. New York: Palgrave Mamillan.
Egan, Kieran. and “Why is imagination important for education?”
Jung, Rex E., Lanny A. Flores, and Dan Hunter. 2016. “A new measure of imagination: Correlation of anatomical brain images.” frontiers of psychology 7th (April). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00496.
Taylor, Andrew. 2020. “Cultivating Moral Imagination.” Doctoral Dissertation, University of Texas. Electronic theses and dissertations. https://utmb-ir.tdl.org/handle/2152.3/11250.
Wang, Bo, Paul Gins, and Nicole Mokler. 2022. “Sequence traced by imagination.” Educational Psychology Review 34 (1): 421–49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09625-6.
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