Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of EducationOntario. Department of Education
Science
Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education
Ontario. Department of Education
Education; Educational psychology
=Factors in Constructive Imagination.=--In such a purposeful, or active,
process of imagination the following factors may be noticed:
1. The purpose, end, or problem calling for the exercise of the
imagination.
2. A selective act of attention, in which the fitness or unfitness of
elements of past experience, or their adaptability to the ideal
creation, is realized.
3. A relating, or synthetic, activity combining the selected elements
into a new ideal representation.
USES OF IMAGINATION
=Imagination in Education.=--One important application of imagination in
school work is found in connection with the various forms of
constructive occupation. In such exercises, it is possible to have the
child first build up ideally the picture of a particular object and then
have him produce it through actual expression. For example, a class
which has been taught certain principles of cutting may be called upon
to conceive an original design for some object, say a valentine. Here
the child, before proceeding to produce the actual object, must select
from his knowledge of valentines certain elements and interpret them in
relation to his principles of cutting. This ideal representation of the
intended object is, therefore, a process of active, or constructive,
imagination. In composition, also, the various events and situations
depicted may be ideal creations to which the child gives expression in
language. In geography and nature study likewise, constant use must be
made of the imagination in gaining a knowledge of objects which have
never come within the actual experience of the child. In science there
is a further appeal to the child's imagination. When, for instance, he
studies such topics as the law of gravity, chemical affinity, etc., the
imagination must fill in much that falls outside the sphere of actual
observation. In history and literature, also, the student can enter into
the life and action of the various scenes and events only by building up
ideal representations of what is depicted through the words of the
author.
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