Abstract:

This paper aims to explore the way children can be fully engaged in educational situation by using an imaginative story as a learning tool. In particular, the paper investigates the impact this imaginative story has on Qatari children’s (9-11 years old) creative imagination, through studying their degree of engagement and empathy with the story. Specifically, this paper poses the following research questions:
1- How to engage the children with an educational situation?
2- Does an imaginative story stimulate the children's creative imagination?

This study adopts a systematic comparison technique between two groups. One group watched (WG) and the other group listened to the story (LG). In this technique qualitative and quantitative methods were implemented..

The findings from the study 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. The mode of presentation plays a strong role in the children’s engagement with the story- the visual presentation being more engaging.
4. This high degree of engagement stimulates the children creative imagination.
5. Identifying and considering the elements of engagement help in understanding in-depth the impact of the imaginative story –as an educational situation- on the children’s creativity.

This research has implications in different domains, such as cognitive studies, children’s creative imagination, children’s literatures and children learning and teaching.

Keywords:

imaginative story, engagement, educational situation, children s creative imagination.