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Question: How important is imagination for learning? Drama as a way of learning (developing from dramatic play) is much reduced in schools today. Is there evidence about learning through imagined experience that would be helpful to know for advocacy and teaching purposes?
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anon answered on 30 Apr 2015:
A classic TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson discusses the importance of Arts in Education and how cutting back on Arts education is a disservice: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms
There is a growing amount of literature in the area of ‘Positive Psychology’ revolving around creativity and imagination as keys to well-being and learning.
When I was looking for academic literature in the area of imagination and learning I found an interesting book related quite closely to your question. I haven’t read it personally, just a summary of it, but it may be of interest to you: Dramatic Play and Process Drama: Towards a Collective Zone of Proximal Development to Enhance Language and Literacy Learning
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Kathy commented on :
Professor Philip Davis at the University of Liverpool has some interesting ideas about how Shakespeare and other famous writers use functional shift to stimulate the imagination of readers. For example, by using semantic and syntactic violations.
Also, there is evidence accumulating to suggest that metaphor is more common when interacting with others at distance using computer mediated communication. We could speculate that in these circumstances we use metaphor as a substitute for pointing, expressing feelings ( much more powerful than emoticons) etc.
So yes, imagination is important.