Enhancing Student’s Adaptability by Mental Time Travel and Mental Imagery Amidst the Challenges of an Exponentially Changing World
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In the knowledge economy of the 21st century, the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills recommends that not only lifelong learning (LLL) but also lifewide learning (LWL) across the life span is important to build and enhance the adaptability of individuals. The issue of adaptability does not only concern the individual, i.e. the learner at the micro level, but the education system at the meso level and society as a whole at the macro level. In characterising an adaptive education system, the paper attempts to describe the principles of the design of learning environments that are specific to the OECD’s Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) and to elaborate how the ability to adapt is linked to core competences such as critical thinking, creativity, effective communication or the ability to interact effectively. Moreover, it discusses methodology for enhancing adaptability, based on the human mind’s capacity for simulation, in other words, the constructs of mental time travel and mental imagery. The present paper thus examines mental time travel, meaning the ability of the mind to flexibly move between episodes of the past and present and possible scenarios of the future. This can be done by means of mental imagery, i.e. the simulation of future events based on mental images. The framework and characteristics of learners’ adaptability unfolded in the dynamic system of mental time travel and mental imagery are investigated. In order to do that, it elucidates memory including the explicit and implicit contents of long-term memory, which lie at the core of mind-wandering. In addition, by demonstrating the narrative feature of the mind and the possible interpretations of inherent self-concepts, it might propose means to the individual’s goal-keeping and its closely related use of tools, so overall for those of learner’s agency. The study poses possible points of reference for enhancing learner’s adaptability in the educational challenges of the 21st century.
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