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Imaginative learning refers to how learners explore their environments in creative ways. This learning can take place within multiple content areas and contexts, and across all ages. Imaginative learning is an approach to learning that respects the creativity of learners and values motivation that promotes inquiry, investigation, collaboration, experimentation, and personal ownership of ideas and ways of working (Maher 2005). An appreciation for imaginative learning is especially emphasized in the Arts. Writing for the Lincoln Center Institute, Holzer (2007) suggests nine capacities that can be used to characterize imaginative learning. These are noticing deeply, embodying through senses, questioning, making connections, identifying patterns, exhibiting empathy, creating meaning, taking action, and reflecting/assessing (Holzer 2007, p. 5). However, many of these same capacities are present in...
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References
Davis, R. B., & Maher, C. A. (1990). What do we do when we do mathematics? In R. B. Davis, C. A. Maher, & N. Noddings (Eds.), Constructivist views on the teaching and learning of mathematics (Journal for Research in Mathematics Education Monograph, Vol. 4, pp. 65–78). Reston: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
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Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Science Media Group (Producer). (2001). The private Universe project in mathematics: problems and possibilities. [Six one-hour videotapes highlighting the combinatorics, probability and pre-calculus strands of C. Maher’s longitudinal study (in its twelfth year)]. Anneberg/CPB at www.learner.org
Holzer, M. F. (2007). Aethestic education, inquiry and the imagination. New York: Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education.
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Maher, C. A. (2005). How students structure their investigations and learn mathematics: Insights from a long-term study. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 24(1), 1–14.
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Maher, C.A., Francisco, J.M., Palius, M.F. (2012). Imaginative Learning. In: Seel, N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_1000
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_1000
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