Reflections on Imagination in Art: Focusing on the cognition of imagination and analyzing the contents of the art curriculum in the 2022 revision and previous years

This study analyzed imagination-related narratives in the 2022 revised art curriculum and previous art cur-ricula to reflect on how imagination education has changed in the national curriculum. Before this, we ex-amined the changes in the perception of imagination by philosophers from ancient times to the Renaissance and contemporary times, and discussed the necessity and significance of imagination educa-tion in art. A review of the literature on imagination in art curricula led to the following conclusions. First, imagination is an indispensable and important mechanism for visual creative activities in art, as imagination have appeared continuously in the art department of the second curriculum, the 2015 revised curriculum, and the 2022 revised curriculum. Second, in the art curriculum from the 2nd to the 7th curriculum, imagi-nation is mainly used as a source of drawing, memory, and imagination. Third, in the 2007 revised art cur-riculum, imagination was replaced by free thinking. Fourth, from the 2009 revised art curriculum to the 2022 revised art curriculum, imagination was presented as an expression activity that develops ideas by associa-tion or imagination. This study focuses on analyzing the contents of how imagination is described in the art curriculum at the national level, and it is significant as a basic study that can identify the changes and trends of imagination education in the art curriculum.