The Imagination Constructs with Science Students

Abstract

Using science majors as an example, we examined how social climate, intrinsic motivation, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness interact to affect three types of student imagination. We tested 11 hypotheses by using data collected from six universities across Taiwan; 547 science majors participated in the study. Our results showed that conscientiousness predicted both conceiving and transforming imagination, whereas extraversion only predicted initiating imagination. Agreeableness affected none of these types of imagination directly, whereas both social climate and intrinsic motivation predicted all three types of imagination. Moreover, the interaction of conscientiousness and social climate exerted a significant effect on conceiving imagination, whereas the interaction between extraversion and social climate affected transforming imagination. Lastly, intrinsic motivation moderated the effects of extraversion and agreeableness on initiating imagination.

Keywords

imagination intrinsic motivation personality traits science education social climate

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