The key to developing imagination lies in developing capacity for divergent thinking problems or open-ended problems. Imagination is what we often refer to as divergent thinking also. Some of the basic principles involved in designing such problems and activities are as follows:
Identify the learning style of a child. See how to identify learning style of your child.
Design open-ended problems pertaining to the learning style of the child.
Gradually increase the complexity of the problems.
Complexity of the problems may be enhanced by designing difficult problems in one or multi intelligence situations.
Learners may be asked to combine activities of different intelligence areas. For example, narrate a story to the learners and then ask them to convert them into one or series of pictures. As learners may find difficulty in symbolizing the verbs, adjectives, etc. they apply imagination and come out with brilliant ideas. Learners should be asked to share their ideas by performing the activities in groups or sharing their pictures. This becomes a prompt for genera ion of new idea later when they encounter similar problems. Learners may be asked to narrate the story or compose new story on the basis of symbolic pictures designed by them. For other similar activities, see Shaping Mind Creatively
Learners should be encouraged to compose poems or stories right from early childhood. In the initial period it may be oral. Later it may be written also. For an analysis of the necessity of using poem and stories as first step towards creativity, See Bal Kalrav.
Playing game of rhyming sentences may be good idea. Spatial children may convert irregular figures into nice pictures as in mazing games.
Learning the art of questioning is one the major activities for creative learning process. Questions set the direction of thinking and thus sets our curiosity into motion. Several games and activities can be designed to develop the art of questioning. Consult a Creative Learning Volunteer for details.
Learners should learn the art of mental image making. See Visualization Exercises.
For other activities and details
see Shaping Mind Creatively or Consult a Creative Learning Volunteer. See Our Publications and other developed materials also.
©2001-2009 APCL
Last changed:
Mon Oct 5 05:04:52 2009