AN IMAGINATIVE STORY AS A FACTOR OF ENGAGEMENT WITH AN EDUCATIONAL SITUATION AND AS A MEDIUM OF STIMULATION FOR CHILDREN'S CREATIVE IMAGINATION

摘要

This study aimed to explore how to engage the children fully in educational situation by using an imaginative story as a learning tool (or educational situation). As well as to explore the impact of this story on the Qatari Children's (9-11 years old) creative imagination, through studying the degree of their engagement and empathy with the story. This study as well identified the elements of engagement and their impact on the children's creativity. The investigation in this study sought answers to these questions: 1- How to engage the children with an educational situation? 2- Does an imaginative story stimulate the children's creative imagination? This study adopted a systematic comparison technique between two groups. One group watched the story (WG) and the other group listened to the story (LG). This technique implemented into qualitative and quantitative methods, to collect the data for this research. The findings were as follows: 1. Imaginative story is a successful educational situation in children's learning process. 2. Imaginative story is highly engaging the children and stimulating their creative imagination. 3. This high degree of engagement stimulates the children creative imagination 4. Identifying and considering the elements of engagement help in understanding indepth the impact of the imaginative story -as an educational situation- on the children's creativity.