Why Imagination Matters...today
By Tom Doust; Institute of Imagination
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This article has been written for Futureminds by the Institute of Imagination.
Asked to define imagination, one might think of daydreaming, letting your mind wander, or the fantastical world of make-believe. You might consider it intangible and a bit vague. While these assumptions are valid, would you also associate imagination with resilience, innovation, and problem-solving?
Imagination is in fact humanity’s greatest faculty. In defines us from any species on the planet. Before it was invented, every human endeavour, from medical breakthroughs to landing on the moon, began with a leap of someone’s imagination. And yet in a rapidly evolving world, the time to nurture it with children and young people is being squeezed out of busy curriculums and bustling home lives.
That’s why we set up The Institute of Imagination, to create the space, tools, and opportunities for imagination to thrive and for children and young people to build resilience and the skills to respond to the challenges of a changing world.
But what does this mean for teaching and learning in what has been, over the past decade, a knowledge driven curriculum?
First, it’s important to talk about creativity. The Institute of Imagination’s founding patron, Sir Ken Robinson, talked about creativity being our application of imagination. Through creativity we can bring our ideas to life, make them tangible and realise their potential. We can have incredible imaginative thoughts, but they don’t become real until we create them. But being creative can also alienate people, perhaps some shy away from it because they don’t think they are particularly creative. It has strong connotations with arts, crafts and design. But creativity is relevant to every subject we learn. Great scientific discoveries, for instance, rarely got it right with their first experiment, they iterated their thinking or problem solved and were creative in their approach, sometimes finding the answer by accident (Penicillin was found in a mould growing on a staphylococcus plate).
In a busy school day, being creative might feel overwhelming. But it can open up possibilities for learning. At the Institute of Imagination, we design immersive, creative learning experiences that enable children and young people to construct knowledge through making. Drawing off a learning theory called ‘Constructionism’, first coined by the educator Seymour Papert, these experiences involve learning with the hands as well as the head, where the learner is engaged in a personally meaningful making activity. This shareable construct can take the form of many things from a robot, a stop motion animation or a building made out of LEGO inspired by a different animal characteristic (think Octopus Hospital).
If you were a teacher in the early part of the twenty first century, you will know that creativity formed an important part of the curriculum and extra-curriculum. Now, as we approach 2025, creativity has a renewed focus. This year, the OECD launched the results of its Creative Thinking Assessment which now sits on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) alongside assessments for numeracy, literacy and scientific thinking. PISA is a little like international league tables. It is the assessment that global education policies are modelled on. The results reveal some interesting outcomes, including students from disadvantaged backgrounds scoring lower than advantaged students in creative thinking skills. The UK government has also talked about putting creative education at the heart of its upcoming reforms.
Why does this matter as a teacher today?
Alongside the policy shift, there are good reasons to integrate creativity and creative thinking into learning. With record numbers of pupils in England absent from school, and absent for longer periods, than ever before (150,000 children at state schools were classed as severely absent in 2022-23) and with the loss of education and confidence during the covid pandemic, there has never been a greater need in schools to make learning engaging and joyful. Imagination and creativity can used to support students’ curiosity, giving them agency and bring greater participation to their learning. As one teacher from Grange Lane Primary Academy put it:
“The buzz in the classroom as the children were applying their imaginations to turn waste into treasure, was inspiring. Teamwork, resilience, problem-solving and collaboration were all apparent for all to see”.
Creativity can reignite a passion for teaching, being more imaginative with lesson planning or thinking more creatively about a more personalised approach to the diverse needs of the students. At William Ford School the head teacher told us:
“Historically absent, a newfound emphasis on creativity with the Institute of Imagination has not only filled a void but also significantly increased job satisfaction and empowered the staff at William Ford, catalysing a remarkable transformation in their teaching approach.”
Practical ways of thinking more holistically about becoming a creative school take time, but there are good examples emerging. Project-Based Learning, which uses real-world challenges or projects requiring students to think creatively and work collaboratively is an approach which has been successfully implemented by the Big Education Trust and its schools.( https://bigeducation.org) Some primary schools have adopted creativity across their entire school ethos, like Thomas Tallis School and their Tallis Habits that include imagination, collaboration and inquiry.
Ultimately can we afford not to be integrating imagination and creativity into all areas of learning?
In an era of uncertainty where big global challenges like climate change or major shifts like automation and AI are upon us, we need big imaginative ideas to solve and respond to them. Having imagination and creativity feature across a curriculum and across phases of schooling is essential for this.
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