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Imagination and Its Contributions to Learning in Science

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A Cultural-Historical Study of Children Learning Science

Part of the book series: Cultural Studies of Science Education ((CSSE,volume 11))

Abstract

This chapter examined the young learner’s imaginary play world and explored how this lays an important foundation for scientific thinking. Vygotsky (J Rus East Eur Psychol 42(1):7–97, 2004) argued that ‘imagination is not just an idle mental amusement, not merely an activity without consequences in reality, but rather a function essential to life’ (p. 13). Imagination becomes the means for broadening a person’s experience. Vygotsky (J Rus East Eur Psychol 42(1):7–97, 2004) suggests that humans imagine what they cannot see, conceptualise what they hear from others, and think about what they have not yet experienced. That is, a person ‘is not limited to the narrow circle and narrow boundaries of his [sic] own experience but can venture far beyond these boundaries, assimilating, with the help of his imagination someone else’s historical or social experience’ (Vygotsky, J Rus East Eur Psychol 42(1):7–97, 2004: 17). In this chapter we examined the young child’s learning in science through an examination of imagination and creativity in science. Because young learners continually move between reality and imaginary situations in play, it was shown in this chapter that this builds the foundations for thinking with concepts in science. We show through empirical research of science with fairytales how the young learner explores science concepts through their play. The concepts of collective investigations, emotional filtering, duality of emotions and thinking, flickering, and affective imagination are discussed. These are brought together under the concept of perezhevanie.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Frankston, VIC, Australia

    Marilyn Fleer

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  1. Marilyn Fleer
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Fleer, M. (2015). Imagination and Its Contributions to Learning in Science. In: A Cultural-Historical Study of Children Learning Science. Cultural Studies of Science Education, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9370-4_3

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