Imagination: The What-if in Thinking.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Pedagogy
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Current nursing education prioritizes factual recall and skills checklists.
• The role of imagination in nursing pedagogy is often underemphasized.
• There is a need to re-evaluate teaching-learning environments in nursing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To discuss the concept and importance of imagination in nursing education.
• To explore imagination through the lens of the human-becoming school of thought.
• To examine the presence of imagination in qualitative research and its limits.

Main Methods:

• Literature review on imagination.
• Conceptual analysis using the human-becoming school of thought.
• Discussion of imagination in qualitative research methodologies.

Main Results:

• Imagination is a crucial cognitive element potentially neglected in current nursing teaching-learning practices.
• The human-becoming school of thought offers a framework for understanding imagination.
• Imagination's presence is noted in qualitative research but faces limitations.

Conclusions:

• Nursing education should actively integrate imaginative thought into its pedagogies.
• Recognizing the limits of imagination is essential for its effective utilization.
• Encouraging imagination can enhance nursing students' critical thinking and learning experiences.