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Imagination is often not valued by adults and is often seen as a sign of immaturity. Many in the education community, and wider, view imagination as something we need to grow out of so that we can face facts and behave as adults. As we reflect back, imagination is seen as escapism and described metaphorically as a disease, that is, something that needs to be eliminated or cured. During this paper I examine a children's story book as an indicator and commentary on the pedagogical culture generally and its treatment of imagination (pun intended). I will then show that imagination has been at best marginalised, if not eliminated from much of education today, particularly in my domain of vocational education and training (VET). This diminution of the importance of imagination results in a corresponding decrease in the quality of learning which comes from our underpinning assumptions about life or our 'world view'. The implications for this critique is to encourage all educators and students alike to know and understand their own world view, how it will affect their pedagogy and in the end their teaching and the learning skills of their students as a lesson for the future. This perspective has emerged from research in the domain of electrical physics as the relationship between imagination and the learning of electrical physics was explored. The research approach was ethnographic in nature using a blended approach of participatory action and narrative research. The research participants were a class of 18 full time Diploma of Electronics and Communications students over three TAFE terms during 2009/10. The students expanded their imaginative skills as a way of expanding their conceptual skills in electrical physics. The result, for this paper is a better understanding of imagination within the culture generally and VET education specifically.

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As a TAFE teacher for now over 15 years I noticed that many of my students had difficulty with abstract concepts. It was this difficulty with abstraction that I believed was affecting their learning in negative ways. The result was a project that would use positive interventions to counter this apparent learning problem. The result is this paper that emanates from a major research project that explores the use of imagination in learning with 18 students of a full time diploma course at a large TAFE in country NSW during 2010. The purpose of the study was to significantly improve student learning in the highly abstract domain of electricity. A narrative methodological approach was used, guided by regular self-reflective interviews. The findings of the research indicate that being metacognitive about the use of imagination does improve student learning outcomes that assist with abstractive learning. This investigation is a paradigm pioneer, standing on the edge of scientific rationalism and steps out into the substantially ignored world of imagination.

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