A Road To Imagination

A Road to Imagination: The IDEAL training model and its application in college teaching Hsiou-huai Wang, Hsin-i Chu, Jin-jun Huang, Shihchung Kang* National Taiwan University

Abstract Albert Einstein had stated that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.� Consequently, imagination is an important ability for humans and it needs to be cultivated. There are three aspects of imagination: possibility, connectivity, and boundary-crossing. Based on these aspects, an imagination training model called IDEAL was developed by the research team. Consisting of four steps including: initiation (I), development (DE), alternative (A) and links (L), this model is concrete and easy to operate.

In this paper, we will first give an overview of the characteristics of imagination as the basis for developing the IDEAL model, and then describe the operational procedures of the model.

Possible applications of the model on college instruction, including general education and career planning are introduced.

Keywords: imagination, possibility, connectivity, boundary-crossing, training, the IDEAL model

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A road to imagination: The IDEAL training model and its application in college teaching 1. Introduction Albert Einstein (1879-1955) had stated that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” According to Einstein, the advancement of human civilization depends largely on a special human mental capacity called imagination.

Such capacity plays an important role in human thinking process as it facilitates humans to imagine their desire for the future and try to make it come true. In fact, major progresses in science and technology and creative works of art and literature are often propelled by spurs of fresh, and even wild, imagination.

Imagination can be viewed as an innate ability for every human being. In fact, children often live a fanciful world and prone to imagine. However, it is through the rearing and educational process that their wild imagination becomes subdued or even replaced by rationality, as they are taught to find the “right” answer by way of logical reasoning (interview with Chang, Man-Chuan, July 2, 2010). Although rationality and logical thinking are critical in advancing knowledge, imagination is often the origin of all major leaps in human civilization. In fact, as imagination is the basis of creative actions (Lindqvist, 2003), people have to imagine what they need in the future, and then they may create new concepts or objects to solve the problems they face. Since imagination is the first step of all creative activities, it should be studied and discussed with vigor. However, in the field of studies on human mental capacities, far more studies have been focused on critical thinking, problem solving, and creative thinking than imagination. This paper, thus, intends to first explore the nature of imagination, and based on the findings, develops a workable training model of imagination.

2. Features of imagination Based on our literature review on the nature and imagination, it can be concluded that imagination is a mental process characteristic of the following three key features: possibility, connectivity, and boundary-crossing.

2.1 Possibility Possibility of imagination means that imaginative ideas are alternative. Descrates (1596-1650) argued that imagination is the psychological process of replicating certain mental object and generating image; however, the product (presentation) of this mental process is different from the actual essence. Castoriadis asserted that imagination is based not only on actual past experiences but also on experiences that have never take place, which 2

might create new ones and possibilities (Educ, 2008). Heath (2009) stated that imagination is a loose set of connections describing cognitive states or mental activities. He believed that imagination is the capacity to open the mind and imagine possible alternatives, including alternative values, perceptions and aesthetics. Indeed, possibility is an important feature of imagination.

2.2 Connectivity Also, imaginative ideas have connective characteristics. Imagination is the connecting and unifying force of the mind relating perception to feeling and memory. Psychologists suggested that the process of imagining involves a mental act that an individual create new imagery through self-conscious presentation and experience (Jing, 1999). Young (1981) elaborated that imagination refers to a brain act which an individual incorporates perceived and memory-preserved material, through the mechanism of analyzing, assimilating, and reprocessing under certain stipulations, into the creating of new, inexperienced, never-perceived or existing images. Li (1996) believed imagination, having its foundation in presentation, operates through the reprocessing of existing memories to develop new images of things and events. Shen & Li (1988) also asserted that imagination unrolls when one’s brain formulates new images, through the reprocessing of old images and under the influence of objective facts. Chen (1995) indicated that imagination performs the operation of recombining existing images in the brain to make new image. The aforementioned discourses imply that imagination as a special and complicated thinking activity that human beings, based on old cognition, affection, and experience, generate new content through constituting, transforming and developing of stored memories and images. That is, the ramification of new contents from old ones. Imagination is a circle, it takes fragments of reality and transforms them and the new fragments take shape and reenter reality (Dart, 2001; Heath, 2009; Lindqvist, 2003). In this sense, imagination features connectivity.

2.3 Boundary-crossing Besides possibility and connectivity, boundary-crossing is another characteristic of imagination. Heath (2009) stated that there are two distinct species of imagination: inventive imagination and radical imagination. The former one is related to memory or experiences, but the later one is actually to create new experiences or phantasm not represented in any prior experience. This discovery recasts the whole basis of ontology. Therefore, imagination may cross the boundaries from inventiveness of perspective to the capacity to imagine what it is non-existent in reality nor in prior perceptions or experiences. Also, it is a bridge to connect knows to unknows so imagination sometimes is fanciful and active (Dart, 2001; Mountain, 2007). In this sense, imagination is characteristic of crossing the existing boundaries to the unknown and non-existing.

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2.4 Trainability of imagination In sum, imagination features possibility, connectivity, and boundary-crossing. Then an important question follows: Can imagination be cultivated, educated or even trained? Could students be guided to develop their mental capacity for generating alternative ideas, connecting perception, experience and affection, and projecting their imagining into the wild horizon of unknowns? For new learners, the most difficult task of imagining lies in the lack of a tangible process with concrete and clear guidance to follow in order to be engaged in the act of imagination.

The imagination process is often cast as an innate endowment, flashes of inspirations, or even illusions sprung out of a chaotic state of mind. Thus it is impossible to be trained.

However, we believe that as any human cogntive faculty, imagination can be developed, nurtured, and even be trained. If we could unravel the features of the mental process of imagination and construct a procedure to facilitate such process, then training of imagination become possible. Based on the above three characteristics of imagination, we proposed a training model of imagination called IDEAL that is intended to enhance individuals’ capacity to construct alternative possibilities, connect perceptions and ideas, as well as cross the boundary from the known to the unknown.

3. The IDEAL model: A training model This model consists of four stages: INITIATION (I), DEVELOPMENT (DE), ALTERNATIVES (A) and LINKS (L).

3.1 INITIATION INITIATION, the first stage of IDEAL model, is intended to guide individuals to start from the scratch, from the state of no idea to generating various alternative ideas. In fact, when one tries to imagine new ideas or possibilities, the most difficult part usually lies in how to start the wheel and approach the issue in the first place. Once an initial idea is in place, other ensuing ideas are usually easier to come. Therefore, INITIATION serves as an igniting point to prompt one start from the scratch (See Figure 1). At the start, the instructor would provide instructions for students to bring out an idea rooted in his/her prior perceptions, experiences or affections as the starting point. The objects of imagining could be objects, images, propositions or concepts. For example, on an assignment of imagining “new transportation vehicle used on another planet in the year of 3000”, the instructor asks students to start choosing one vehicle used in today’s transportation system (an object existing in his/her prior experiences), and observing, describing and portrayed in detail its various features, strengths and limitations as the starting point. Through this process of closed observation and portrayal, students are provided with an initial stance, become sensitized and oriented to engage in the act of imagining. In addition, students are encouraged to bring about 4

as many as new ideas and images existing in their prior experiences at this stage, for example, as many existing transportation vehicles as students could think of. These ideas/objects may be unrelated to each other, but all have potentials to invite multiple new ideas. Thus, at the end of INITIATION stage, mulitple images/ideas are in place for the imaginers to jump into the wild horizon of new possibilities.

Figure 1: Initiation: From no ideas to various ideas 3.2 DEVELOPMENT After initial ideas are in place, it is important to further expand the original ideas.

DEVELOPMENT, the second stage of the IDEAL model, is intended to guide the process of expanding ideas. In this stage, original ideas are spread to form multiple new ideas. Many times, between the ideas initiated in the first stage (for example: a car used on earth in the year of 2010) and the final goal (for example: transportation vehicle on another planet in the year of 3000); therefore, we have to develop these beginning ideas into more possible and alternative ideas, by dissociating, associating, recompositing, exagerating or transforming them into more alternative possibilities across different boundaries (See Figure 2). For exmaple, there is a great gap between the initial portrayal of a car used on earth in the year of 2010 and the final goal of visioning a transportation vehicle used on another planet in the year of 3000. The instructor may guide students to further associate the image of “a car” with an image of “feather”, and come up with a new image/idea of “a feather-like vehicle.” Or by dissociating the image of “a car” from its real context and transforming it into “a car with flying wings.” Or by exagerating the speed function of a car into a “light-speed vessel” Through this imagining process, the original ideas are developed into many boundary crossing new ideas and images.

Figure 2: Development: Expending ideas 5

3.3 ALTERNATIVE However, it could be imagined that students may sometimes be stuck in the process of DEVEOPMENT, since the gap between the original start and the final goal spans too vastly and if one only think from one angle/perspective may never reach the goal. Thus, based on the principle of “possibility”, the stage of ALTERNATIVE is introduced to guide students to launch a new start by taking an alternative perspective/angle/direction. For example, students may have difficulty in further developing “a wind-like vehicle” into a workable vehicle on a new planet, it is time to alternate their perspective from focusing on “the vehicle” to “the planet” itself by imagining, describing and portraying the location, features and environment of the planet, so that they could think what kind of “vehicle” would planet residents need, or even if they really need transportation vehicles as defined in the earthly way. In such alternative perspective, the goal becomes the start and new imagination would again flourish (See Figure 3 and Figure 4). In this stage, students are encouraged to take as many as alternative perspectives to approach the issue to come up with new ideas. Each new perspective could be taken as a new start and students are encouraged to repeat the stages of initiation and development to combine and recompose ideas/images. In this way, the cycle of INITIATION, DEVELOPMENT and ALTERNATIVE reinforces each other to bring students onto new horizons of imagining.

Figure 3: Alternatives: Change a direction or find a new start

Figure 4: Alternatives: Reversal 3.4 LINKS Lastly, it is not enough to just initiate, alternate and develop, one critical feature of imagination is to connect. Based on the principle of “connectivity”, the final stage of LINKS is introduced to link ideas from the starting point to the final goal with elaborated storylines and portrayals. During the first three stages, many ideas are generated and developed; in this 6

stage, students are encouraged to choose and link potential ideas by composing and decomposing different images/ideas into coherent storylines and portrayals to reach the final goal (see Figure 5). For example, they would finally give a detailed portrayal of the environment of the new planet (e.g. filled with beautiful birds) and also sketch the features and functions of the vehicle suitable for planet residents (feather-like vehicle) and finally come up with a workable solution (e.g. Toruk (big bird) as in AVATAR). In fact, students are encouraged to come up with multiple storylines and portrayals to solve the problem from different angles, and by comparing these varied solutions, one possible “best” solution may be attained. This very last step accomplishes the entire imagining process of IDEAL. It should be noted that, as the last step of one cycle of IDEAL, it could also serve as the starting point of another round of imagining through initiation, development, alternative and links to cope with a new situation or solve a new problem (e.g., if the planet AVATAR is depleted with the flying Toruk).

Figure 5: Links: Link all ideas to achieve the goal To sum up, the IDEAL model transforms the abstract principles of possibility, connectivity and boundary-crossing of imagination into a well-structured and easy-to-follow procedure to facilitate individuals’ process of imagining. It is concrete, concise and operational and could be applied to a variety of training contexts to stimulate and facilitate learner’s imagination. It could be well applied to the context of college teaching of various fields as described in the following section.

4. Application of IDEAL in college teaching The research team had applied the IDEAL model in various college courses, including general education courses, freshmen career planning and a keystone course for engineering students.

4.1 General education courses In a general education course, entitled “Engineering Development and Social Trend,” the IDEAL model was applied to help students review their learning in this course, by imagining human material and social life for the future world in 2050. Students were divided into groups and chose one of the following topics covered in the course, including 7

environment, transportation, information, elders’ lives, family life, crime prevention and spiritual development. Each group chose one topic to work out via the IDEAL process an “unimaginable” outlook in the chosen aspect of human life in 2050. Taking “Elders’ Lives” as an example: In INITIATION, students were guided to discuss the present conditions of elders in terms of their needs and inadequacies of the current material and social environment. After identifying several key ideas, such as retirement, medicine, transportation and spiritual needs, students expanded their original ideas in the DEVELOPMENT stage. In ALTERVATIVES, instead of thinking linearly from the present to the future, students were guided to reverse their thinking from the future to the present, to imagine how elders should live in an optimal state (e.g. in a community where all the buildings, machines and social policies were tailored to every aspect of their needs). In the last step, LINKS, students tried to arrange their ideas and connect them into compelling storylines. For example, they linked the idea of robot and the idea of soulmate into a robot-mate who may function as both a healer and a companion for each senior person) and told a touching story of how a 90-year old gentleman John may be happily healed, companied and served by his robot-mate in his house with all the convenient equipment and gadgets necessary for him to live a competent and enjoyable life.

4.2 Freshman career planning The IDEAL model was also applied to freshmen career exploration activities to help college freshmen to imagine their career trajectories during their four years of study. Here is an example with an orientation week workshop of 200 freshmen from various departments within a university. In INITIATION, the instructor asked the students to imagine the goals they have accomplished at graduation (e.g. attain a financial analyst certificate) and then in DEVELOPMENT they further developed the ideas into tasks they need to complete during the four years in order to achieve these goals (e.g. to take financial management courses and enhance English proficiency through exchange student programs). In the step of ALTERNATIVES, the instructor further guided students to alter their perspectives to imagine what their parents, professors, future spouses and future employers would expect them to achieve (e.g. parents want them to pursue graduate study; employers ask for independent working capacity; and spouse expects a good wife taking care of children at home) . With these alternative perspectives, students would further develop more possible ideas. For example, if their parents want them to study graduate studies, they may have to take more advanced courses with more A’s so as to be admitted to the graduate program. They would also find the commonalities and differences (even conflicts) in these ideas among different perspectives (e.g. a student may want to be a freelancing writer while his parents want him to locate a secured job within a big company). In the last step, LINKS, students were asked to choose among the ideas generated from alternative perspectives those goals they thought most fit and to link them into a coherent career plan spanning from the freshman to the senior 8

year. For instance, one might put the goal of preparing for graduate study in the senior year, and plan ahead in preceding years such as cultivating good study habits, taking advanced courses, doing internship in the year of freshman, sophomore and junior year, consecutively, as a gradual process for accomplishing the final goal. In the meantime, he/she might add some other complementary goals such as making friends, cultivating interest, and traveling along the way. Through this process, a student was guided to broaden more possibilities, connect and elaborate ideas and cross the boundary of one’s own confinement, to come up with a concrete and workable career plan at the start of his/her college life.

5. Concluding remarks In this paper, definition and characteristics of imagination is first reviewed and then a training model for imagination IDEAL is introduced and explained. Finally, application of this model on college-level courses is briefly described. Then a question naturally follows: Is IDEAL model really effective in facilitating individuals’ imagination? To answer this question, the research team will devise ways to test its workability and effectiveness in future research.

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