Developing imagination in learners

8 Types of Imagination

Imagination is the foundation of all inventiveness and innovation. It is uniquely human, and with it, we have been able to think, design, conceive, construct and develop our whole human society. Imagination is a powerful tool for learning and with it, we can remember more, do more, feel more, engage more and achieve more. 

But, how imaginative is your curriculum? How often are pupils challenged to imagine things? Will your pupils learn to be imaginative, and if so, how? How is imagination sequenced and developed? These are hard questions to answer, and to do it we need to be sure of what imagination is in the first place.

So, what is imagination? Most of us, when asked this question, would be tempted to say it’s when we think of new, novel things, usually of a highly fantastical nature. This is true, but it’s only one aspect of imagination which is a much broader capacity to rationalise things we can’t see directly. 

Imagination is a manifestation of our memory. It enables us to interpret past and present events in new ways or to reconstruct them into hypothetical scenarios. Imagination also helps us create mental models and is an important part of memory management. It fills in gaps or ambiguities in knowledge  – ‘What is this? What might it mean?’ 

Another role of imagination is that it enables us to create new meanings from cognitive cues or stimuli within the environment. It helps us connect disparate elements, helps us see things from new perspectives, and empathise with others viewpoints. Imagination is not always a conscious process. The brain periodically switches between hemispheres during a person’s consciousness. 

Our brains exist in isolation, within an external environment that we are constantly trying to make sense of, to interact with and interpret. Imagination is our means of doing that. It helps us to substantiate things that might not be in front us; make tangible what is intangible; conceptualise and strategise; empathise and memorise. 

Imagination is so important to us. Without it, we would not be the highly efficient, evolved creatures we are. Yet, most of us are unaware of how it works or even what it does. We use it like someone driving a car who hasn’t the faintest idea of how it works. We just put the key in and drive. And, for the most part that’s fine. We’ve got this far without knowing what’s under the hood after all. 

But, what if we were able to identify when and where different aspects of our imagination were useful? What if we understood which imaginative traits we excelled at, and which ones we didn’t? What if we could practice and develop our imaginative capacities to make us better thinkers? Imagine that! 

To do this, we need to better understand what imagination is and how it works. Dr Murray Hunter of the University of Malaysia Perlis, proposed eight main forms of imagination: 

1. Effectuative Imagination – synthesising information together to form new concepts and ideas. 

2. Intellectual (or Constructive) – a deliberate process of working from plans towards a distinct purpose.

3. Dreams – unconscious images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur during certain stages of sleep 

4. Emotional Imagination – projecting emotional dispositions into external scenarios.

5. Strategic Imagination – the wisdom to understand the potential & limitations of possible scenarios

6. Empathy Imagination – know emotionally what others are experiencing

7. Fantasy Imagination – generating new ideas for art, literature, music etc.

8. Memory Reconstruction – retrieving our memory of people, objects, and events.

1. Effectuative Imagination

Synthesising information together to form new concepts and ideas

Effectuative imagination is about connecting disparate areas of memory together such as when problem solving. It involves not only being able to recall appropriate elements from memory, but also having a secure mental model of relevant subject matter; for example being able to visualise something, know it’s properties and behaviours. Knowing this, effectuative imagination requires us to recall, identify, then isolate component parts of relevant mental models, take them apart and reform them into new forms. Design is an obvious area where we do this, as is mathematics and science. While we do indeed need strong foundation knowledge to be able to use effectuative imagination to high levels, we develop it by applying the knowledge we learn to unique situations. For example; we learn the formula for calculating areas in mathematics, then solve area problems, the more advanced of which ask us to apply the formula to a real or imaginary problem. Geographers might learn about the issues facing a people and their environment, then use their effectuative imagination to suggest solutions, which will probably entail connecting remote knowledge from other areas. In science they use effectuative imagination to construct experiments, then ponder on the significance of their outcomes. In music they use scales, chords and patterns to create songs and melodies.

We teach this whenever we provide problem solving tasks that require pupils to synergise knowledge of things they are familiar with into new concepts and ideas.

2. Intellectual (or Constructive) Imagination 

A deliberate process of working from plans towards a distinct purpose.

We develop our intellectual imagination by examining and analysing information to extract not only meaning, but their implications and potential uses. An obvious way we do this is when we analyse works of art. We should of course read the artists’ own intentions where possible, but ultimately, we create our own meanings as we absorb this new information into our existing schemas to create personal ones.

Religious Education lessons aren’t about indoctrinating anyone into a faith, but rather, they are about examining faith and pondering the self and the implications of our place on the Earth and in society. Philosophy does this too of course and the study of how great thinkers have influenced and shaped society can be enormously beneficial to developing imagination. This is integral to History lessons also. They teach students how to properly analyse and authenticate historical sources then make reasoned arguments about their implications, all of which improve our imaginative capacity in key ways. Less obviously, writing music is another important aspect of intellectual, constructive imagination. Writing music requires us to merge analytical, intellectual thought processes with intuitive, imaginative ones. I think writing music also incorporates strategic, memory, emotional and even empathy imagination types too, so it is a process that really exercises a broad range of imaginary skills.

3. Dreams

Unconscious images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur during certain stages of sleep 

It’s difficult to quantify how we might use our dreams for any constructive purpose in education. After all, we cannot really control what we dream about.

We could learn how dreaming has affected innovation and invention over time. Many notable people have claimed dreaming has influenced their thinking. From Mendeleev’s periodic table, to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it seems creative breakthrough’s can come about through a combination of intense application of thoughts in waking stages, and restful dream states. 

Dreams is a popular topic in creative art projects and fiction writing. We could analyse the dreams we have had to think about how our brains constructs them. How are we able to juxtapose seemly disparate elements into frameworks we would never imagine possible in reality? How might we apply this to our own creative thinking? 

4. Emotional Imagination 

Manifesting emotional dispositions and extending them into emotional scenarios.

Human beings are typically highly emotional creatures. We often think with our emotions in the form of biases. Biases (rightly or wrongly), tell us which things to favour over others and so, being able to rationalise and understand our various emotional states would be highly beneficial to our capacity to think clearly, make informed decisions and our well-being. We might study bias and how it affects our decision making. We could also study emotion and how emotion drives our thoughts and impulses. We might visualise ourselves making decisions under different emotional circumstances and see how that affects the outcome. Greater knowledge of how emotional tastes, preferences, fears and aversions affects us is surely of great significance.

5. Strategic Imagination

Projecting emotional dispositions into external scenarios.

Strategic imagination is similar to effectuative imagination, but more idealistic. Think of world play, or creating imaginary scenarios utilising existing or known parameters. It doesn’t always have to be fanciful of course. Business studies teaches people how to transform an imaginary business concept into a workable, strategic plan. In geography, pupils might create their own civilisation, perhaps combining artistic and computing skills to create a dynamic model where social and geographic conditions alter, as in the real world. Pupils might also write a musical score for a play or a film. In art, they construct in-depth responses to starting points that express their thoughts and feelings about global and personal issues. In Science, they speculate on more fanciful possibilities, then hypothesise how these might be realised.

6. Empathy Imagination

Know emotionally what others are experiencing

Obviously, this kind of imaginative behaviour is most suitable for constructing and maintaining successful relationships. When pupils work collaboratively or in groups they are developing their empathy. The more empathetic we are, the more likely it is that we have strong social relationships. We can also learn skills of empathy through role-play and so drama and English are great subjects to develop this skill. Also, taking part in discussions, where we practice listening without interrupting and learning body language, can all help with the development of empathy. In lessons, group work, collaboration, and team work are useful. Also relevant is Design, where students are expected to empathise with the needs of others in order to design solutions. Geography also springs to mind as a subject where being able to empathise with the needs of cultures and environments is paramount.

7. Imaginative Fantasy Imagination

Generating new ideas for art, literature, music etc.

The subjects that immediately spring to mind that utilises fantasy imagination is English and the creative arts. Clearly, reading books, writing stories, plays, music or poetry, and making pictures in art all great ways to develop fantasy imagination.

My concern, from the curriculum designs I see on my travels, is that too often art and design activities and projects have very prescribed, teacher-led outcomes with little in the way of imaginative thinking. I see projects with one artist influence, a narrow skill-set and pre-designed outcomes, none of which foster imagination. The rationale is that pupils need to learn skills first, so they can become imaginative later – as though imagination magically happens when skills are acquired, or that it is innate and so doesn’t need to be taught. None of this is true. Pupils need to learn how to generate ideas, how to juxtapose, how to conceptualise and think creatively. There are some great ways to do this; Zwicky’s morphological analysis, conceptual blending, reduce and rebuild, world play, challenging assumptions worst scenarios, or exquisite corpse. Instead, I see teachers setting pupils a task to ‘come up with some ideas,’ as though they magically appear out of their heads.

But there are other ways of developing our imaginations too. Being exposed to new, unconventional stimuli develops our imagination, as does looking at familiar things from new angles. Science lessons are great for this. They regularly interact with subjects in thought-provoking ways, stimulating questions and providing unique information and perspectives on the world. Computing may not at first seem a likely place to develop our imagination, but it is exactly what computer developers need in order to create new software, games and innovations that the genre requires. Playing computer games is a superb way of developing fantasy imagination. We learn this when we play with knowledge – what would have happened if…? What would it have looked like if…? What happens if we change a small component? Essentially, it’s when we apply knowledge to existing, future or novel scenarios.

8. Memory Reconstruction

Retrieving our memory of people, objects, and events

Retrieval practice has become so innate in education recently that it needs little justification about its importance. If we don’t recall it, can it be said that we even know it at all? Except, memory is fallible. My ability to recall information varies from day to day, even moment to moment when the pressure is applied. 

Rather than simply relying on quizzes or knowledge organisers, we could teach pupils a whole toolkit of mnemonic devices during PSHCE lessons or even in form time. They could learn how to remember, why forgetting is so important to us; we use something called intelligent-forgetting to help us prioritise only that information which is useful to the current situation. 

Drawing is also something that has a proven track record in helping us remember. Making non-skilled sketches and diagrams alongside our notes improves our recall better than any other mnemonic device. 

Summary

It’s clear then, that our imaginations grow and develop over time by the very nature of being exposed to, and interacting with, so much information. However, Dr Andrey Vyshedskiy, a neuroscientist from Boston University proposed that a genetic mutation in humans that occurred 70,000 years ago, led to recursive language and modern imagination. And he found that modern children who have not been exposed to full language in early childhood, never acquire the type of active constructive imagination essential for juxtaposition of mental objects, known as Prefrontal Synthesis (PFS). 

What I think we can glean from this is that well-developed imagination isn’t a foregone conclusion in us all. Some people seem to be more imaginative than others, which implies that imagination may be susceptible to environment, genetics and learning. As educators, we can’t affect home environment, upbringing or genetics, but we can affect learning. Much of what we do already in education develops and shapes imaginative capacity in learners to an extent. But, to coin an educational phrase: ‘we must try harder’. 

Sources:

Dr Murray Hunter University of Malaysia Perlis. https://murrayhunter.substack.com/p/imagination-may-be-more-important-c37 

Teach Thought https://www.teachthought.com/learning/types-of-imagination/  

Recursive language and modern imagination in humans, Dr Andrey Vyshedskiy  https://phys.org/news/2019-08-recursive-language-modern-simultaneously-years.html