ABSTRACT
Often closely associated with creativity, play and thinking skills, imagination involves the freedom to think up and experiment with a range of possibilities, ideas, images and experiences. In order to begin to better understand the role of imagination and its educational possibilities, it is useful to first deconstruct some of the components of the concept. Turning to the idea of imaginative growth, N. Gajdamaschko draws on Vygotsky's psychology to describe how imagination develops from its most basic forms to the more complex, in which imaginative growth is contingent upon other forms of human activity and the accrual of experience. In this regard, emotional development and imagination are closely related to children's play and the ability to create and sustain imaginary situations that eventually lead to the development of abstract thought. In advancing a theory and curriculum of imaginative education that is primarily culturally situated, K. Egan turns to the possibilities offered by Vygotsky's concept of cultural/psychological tools.
