title: Educational imagery and the allied health educator.
abstract: Educational imagery is a classroom teaching methodology that allows students to mentally isolate themselves and to use their natural abilities to daydream or fantasize in ways that accomplish educational objectives. Educational imagery is used to facilitate decision making, clarify values, memorize, incorporate behavioral outcomes of teaching, and reinforce cognitive concepts. The technique can help allied health students prepare for the clinical setting. The behavioral components, ethical concerns, and decision making that will occur in the clinical setting can be rehearsed in the classroom before the actual experience by guiding students' imagination. This article describes the nature of imagery and its sources, describes how to implement the strategy in the classroom, and gives examples of educational imagery strategies for the allied health disciplines.
mesh_terms: D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*