Anticipatory Learning Research Articles

Monolingual and bilingual infants' attention to talking faces: evidence from eye-tracking and Bayesian modeling.

A substantial amount of research from the last two decades suggests that infants' attention to the eyes and mouth regions of talking faces could be a supporting mechanism by which they acquire their native(s) language(s). Importantly, attentional strategies seem to be sensitive to three types of constraints: the properties of the stimulus, the infants' attentional control skills (which improve with age and brain maturation) and their previous linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge. The goal of the present paper is to present a probabilistic model to simulate infants' visual attention control to talking faces as a function of their language learning environment (monolingual vs. bilingual), attention maturation (i.e., age) and their increasing knowledge concerning the task at stake (detecting and learning to anticipate information displayed in the eyes or the mouth region of the speaker). To test the model, we first considered experimental eye-tracking data from monolingual and bilingual infants (aged between 12 and 18 months; in part already published) exploring a face speaking in their native language. In each of these conditions, we compared the proportion of total looking time on each of the two areas of interest (eyes vs. mouth of the speaker). In line with previous studies, our experimental results show a strong bias for the mouth (over the eyes) region of the speaker, regardless of age. Furthermore, monolingual and bilingual infants appear to have different developmental trajectories, which is consistent with and extends previous results observed in the first year. Comparison of model simulations with experimental data shows that the model successfully captures patterns of visuo-attentional orientation through the three parameters that effectively modulate the simulated visuo-attentional behavior. We interpret parameter values, and find that they adequately reflect evolution of strength and speed of anticipatory learning; we further discuss their descriptive and explanatory power.

Disaster management policy changes in Bangladesh: Drivers and factors of a shift from reactive to proactive approach

AbstractIn this paper, we argue that, while it is necessary to modify existing policy using the lessons learned from disaster events (i.e., reactive learning), this approach is insufficient on its own for dealing with ongoing and emerging climate‐induced disaster risks. Rather, we assert that policymakers must also adopt a proactive and anticipatory learning approach that would enable policy learning and policy evolution in the absence of a major disaster event. We examine drivers, actors, and processes of change in disaster‐management policy paradigms in Bangladesh. A longitudinal learning perspective is applied. We categorize disaster management (DM) policy regimes into three learning episodes: (i) reactive, (ii) transitional, and (iii) proactive. The roles of reactive and proactive learning in shifting DM policy paradigms within these learning episodes are particularly determined. Finally, five interrelated factors that triggered proactive policymaking are identified, which are: risk‐oriented policymaking; cross‐scale (i.e., lesson drawing and policy transfer) and cross‐level (i.e., from local, regional, and national experience) learning; participation of multiple stakeholders; research‐informed and knowledge‐based policymaking; and the presence of a strong advocacy group and a participatory policy process.

PEDAGOGICAL CONDITIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COGNITIVE INTERESTS IN PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

The article examines pedagogical conditions for the development of cognitive interests in children of primary school age. It is noted that a modern school, which activities take place in difficult conditions: the war with Russia, the Covid pandemic, is focused not only on the transfer of knowledge, but on the formation of competencies. Effective educational activity is impossible without the development of stable cognitive interests in students. The concept of "interest" is concretized, the concept of "cognitive interest" is considered, and the pedagogical conditions for its development in elementary school students are determined. Among the main conditions we highlight the following: the student's understanding and awareness of the content and meaning of the studied material, and not only the perceived educational information, the development of critical thinking. Use of the new in the content of the subject. Adhere to the principle of anticipatory learning, which contributes not only to the gradual assimilation of educational material by all students, but also develops inquisitiveness, immersion in knowledge. The formation of cognitive interests of primary school students depends on the emotional appeal of learning and is closely related to the development of emotional intelligence, as the ability of an individual to recognize his own and other people's emotions, desires, attitude to learning, intentions and manage them. In addition to traditional methods of organizing the educational process in primary school, the formation of cognitive interests is influenced by the use of problem-based, interactive, integrated learning. An important condition for the formation of the cognitive interest of primary school students in the learning process is the use of game technologies. In modern conditions the implementation of information and communication technologies in primary school lessons is of particular importance. The use of an optimal system of creative training exercises and cognitive tasks in the educational process in accordance with the content of the educational material, features and capabilities of students plays a special role in the process of developing cognitive interests in primary school students.

Internalizing Knowledge for Anticipatory Classifier Systems in Discretized Real-Valued Environments

Real-valued environments are challenging for learning systems because of a significant increase in the input space size of the problem. This work demonstrates that Anticipatory Learning Classifier Systems (ALCS) can successfully build sets of conditional rules foreseeing the consequences of executed actions. Three major classes of Learning Classifier Systems - Anticipatory Classifier System (ACS), ACS2, Yet Another Classifier System (YACS), alongside the traditional Dyna-Q algorithm implementations were adapted to handle real-valued input signal discretization. Aspects like the ability to capture all possible interactions, model generalization capabilities, size of the solution of relative execution times were compared in four different problems using probabilistic modelling, providing unbiased judgments. Results proved that the examined ALCS are capable of solving selected problems. Despite increased input size, all possible environmental transitions were learned latently, without obtaining any explicit incentives. Such an internal representation provides a more compact solution representation and can optimize learning speed further by executing imaginary environmental interactions or performing action planning for a new set of potential problems.

Associative anticipatory learning and control of the cerebellar cortex based on the spike-timing-dependent plasticity of the parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses

Time delays are inevitable in the neural processing of sensorimotor systems; small delays can cause severe damage to movement accuracy and stability. It is strongly suggested that the cerebellum compensates for delays in neural signal processing and performs predictive control. Neural computational theories have explored concepts of the internal models of control objects—believed to avoid delays by providing internal feedback information—although there has been no clear relevance to neural processing. The timing-dependent plasticity of parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses is well known. The long-term depression of the synapse is observed when parallel fiber activation precedes climbing fiber activation within −50–300 ms, and is the greatest within 50–200 ms. This paper presents a theory that this temporal difference of 50–200 ms is the basis for an associative anticipation of as many milliseconds. Associative learning can theoretically connect an input signal to a desired signal; therefore, a 50–200 ms earlier input signal can be connected to a desired output signal through temporary asymmetric plasticity. After learning is completed, an input signal generates a desired output signal that appears 50–200 ms later. For the associative learning of temporally continuous signals, this study integrates the universal function approximation capability of the cerebellar cortex model and temporally asymmetric synaptic plasticity to create the theory of associative anticipatory learning of the cerebellum. The effective motor control of this learning is demonstrated by adaptively stabilizing an inverted pendulum with a delay similar to that done by humans.

Reflections on integrated research from community engagement in peatland restoration

Community engagement and integrated research are key approaches to solving complex socio-ecological challenges. This paper describes the experience of bringing together a team of natural and social scientists from Australia and Indonesia in the ‘Gambut Kita’ (translated as ‘Our Peat’) project. Gambut Kita aims to produce new knowledge and support efforts to successfully, and equitably, restore Indonesia’s tropical peatlands and ensure that livelihoods can be maintained on restored (rewetted) landscapes. The paper focuses on experiences of using community engagement for integrated research. It discusses three community engagement approaches used in the project—resilience, adaptation pathways and transformation approach (RAPTA), participatory rural appraisal (PRA), and community-led analysis and planning (CLAP). It also describes the qualitative analysis of 14 interviews with the project team of lessons learned in community engagement for integrated research. ‘Criteria for success’ from the literature on international development projects is used to assess progress. The findings highlight the specific complexities of working across countries and cultures. Successful community engagement is not so much about the ‘tool’ but about the trust, agency, and support to change. The tools do, however, have different strengths. PRA and CLAP can build deep community understanding and relationships. RAPTA has strengths in framing visions and pathways to the future, systems thinking, anticipatory learning, and taking a cross-scale systems view which is required to solve many of the problems manifesting at local or community scales. Similarly, success in integrated research is not just about individuals, but structures (e.g. explicit process) and infrastructure (e.g. access to technology). These findings suggest that integrated research needs special considerations in terms of design, and these relate across scales to individual researchers as well as teams, leaders and organisations. Integrated research projects need careful, inclusive, iterative management with a lot of interaction to learn from each other, build a common vision, achieve clarity of roles, and share emerging findings.

Designing an Education System for Sustainable Development

This article is aimed at theoretical comprehension of foreign and domestic experience in designing and implementing education for sustainable development and creating a technological model of advanced education in a technical university in the interests of sustainable development. Constructing a technological model that includes an integrated system of pedagogical technologies aimed at the formation of personal achievements and opportunities. Each student constructs and reconstructs their own capabilities based on reflection, which can act as a universal goal of using the models of anticipatory learning technologies, being also the result of anticipatory education. The analysis shows that the transition to sustainable development starts with forming a strategy implemented in education for sustainable development. The study considers the basics of the modern vision of sustainable development: the environmental component and education model. Moreover, the education model is considered from the perspective of the future as a forwardlooking education. The paper uses methods of analysis of philosophical, psychological, and pedagogical research and synthesis of theoretical ideas on the problem of conceptualization, design, and modeling, which allowed highlighting the main trends of scientific search in the world and domestic theory and practice of advanced education in terms of its sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development is considered from different positions of domestic and foreign researchers. Experience of education for sustainable development implementation both in Russia and other countries of the world shows that so far, sustainable development in education is represented in the environmental sense; therefore modeling of system concept of education for sustainable development and optimal ways of its implementation is actualized.

How are nature based solutions helping in the greening of cities in the context of crises such as climate change and pandemics? A comprehensive review

Urban areas are expanding due to rural-urban migration and due to population increases. Their resilience is being challenged due to socio-political consequences of increasingly frequent and severe storms, due to climate changes, influx of human and animal refugees and as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors prepared a systematic literature of ways cities can be transformed into more resilient, and sustainable regions by creatively enhancing the quality and quantity of blue and green areas in and around them. The literature review was conducted to provide holistic insights into selection, implementation monitoring, assessment, and valuation of Nature-based Solutions in diverse urban regions. The authors reviewed no fewer than 298 articles from 109 academic journals and related sources, published within 1997–2020. The focus of the articles was upon ‘nature-based’ changes that are being implemented in urban areas, globally to enhance their resilience and the ‘quality-of-life’ of humans and other species. By implementing nature-based solutions, and complimentary ‘urban wilding ’ approaches, urban areas and their hinterlands are expanding their ‘blue’ and ‘green’ areas and are thereby decreasing the ‘heat-island’ effects, while improving human health by surrounding them with rich bio-diversities of locally adapted, aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals. Although, many NBS options have been documented to be beneficial, their environmental, economic and social/psychological dimensions have not been adequately quantified, especially in the context of climate changes, and with regard to COVID-19. It is essential that the benefits of NBS are quantified with easily measurable outcomes, that are readily understood by practitioners, city policy-makers and members of community organizations, based upon specific geographical and climatological contexts. This will help them accelerate implementation of NBS and wilding into their urban systems. The reviewers found that more research is needed on anticipatory learning, backcasting and community participation to help to effectively implement the appropriate NBS for improving the sustainability of urban systems. The reviewers provide guidance for urban leaders to incorporate NBS into their policies and strategies to improve urban resilience and equity and to more effectively reduce impacts of climate change, population growth and pandemics. • Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) provide valuable approaches for improving urban resilience and sustainability. • Barriers to implementation of NBS include knowledge gaps between science and policy. • Citizens and urban leaders should build upon the experiences that NBS improve quality-of-life. • Rewilding needs to be an integral part of improving urban resilience. • Metrics are essential for monitoring the short and long-term benefits of NBS and rewilding. • Implementation should be supported by global urban partnerships. • Research is needed to broaden the scope of NBS integration within the context of climate changes, and pandemics.

When the Wells Run Dry: Reimagining Azerbaijan’s Post-Oil Futures

Azerbaijan is a case study of the issue of nations with non-renewable natural resource-based economies, usually fossil fuels, facing depletion of what was deemed to be their principal resource. Azerbaijan’s petroleum wealth has been a defining feature of its national economy, social development, and national character for 150 years. It has also manifested what is commonly known as the “resource curse” for its entropic effect on all of the other sectors of the economy. This main driver of its economy is projected to be exhausted roughly within the next 30 years. The focus of this piece is on assessing the prospects of developing a national economy that can create a more equitable and sustainable economic public benefit over the next generation. Each of the pathways summarized herein are from capstone project research reports of graduate students on this issue. It is ultimately intended to be a demonstration of conducting applied future-oriented anticipatory action learning.

Role Playing and the Changing of Teacher Understanding to Middle School Mathematics Lesson Planning within ELPSA Framework

The lesson plan plays an important role in the achievement of learning objectives. This paper aimed to describe the effect of lesson plan role play on changes in teacher understanding regarding the process of mathematics lesson plan writing using the ELPSA framework. The method used was descriptive qualitative. 13 West Nusa Tenggara math teachers were involved through filling out questionnaires about the lesson plan writing habits among teachers, the usefulness of role-playing, and the impact on the lesson plan improvement process they designed. Results showed that the lesson plan role play was able to change the teacher's understanding, particularly on the importance of clear and communicative lesson designs as well as the sequential and anticipatory learning scenarios included. This change in teachers' understanding also has an impact on the awareness of teachers to improve their draft lesson plan in terms of integrated learning indicators, sequentialness, and the content quality of learning activities and clarity of teaching notes that allow the lesson plan to be more explicit and applicable. Overall, it can be concluded that more than 95% of the teacher respondents stated that role play had a positive influence in the form of a willingness to re-reflect and reconstruct each lesson plan. In general, they gain knowledge and awareness about how to build a good lesson plans so that they have the potential to create activities and an atmosphere of teaching and learning that are interactive, focused, and pay attention to what students already know.

A Holistic Overview of Anticipatory Learning for the Internet of Moving Things: Research Challenges and Opportunities

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) systems has received much attention from the research community, and it has brought many innovations to smart cities, particularly through the Internet of Moving Things (IoMT). The dynamic geographic distribution of IoMT devices enables the devices to sense themselves and their surroundings on multiple spatio-temporal scales, interact with each other across a vast geographical area, and perform automated analytical tasks everywhere and anytime. Currently, most of the geospatial applications of IoMT systems are developed for abnormal detection and control monitoring. However, it is expected that, in the near future, optimization and prediction tasks will have a larger impact on the way citizens interact with smart cities. This paper examines the state of the art of IoMT systems and discusses their crucial role in supporting anticipatory learning. The maximum potential of IoMT systems in future smart cities can be fully exploited in terms of proactive decision making and decision delivery via an anticipatory action/feedback loop. We also examine the challenges and opportunities of anticipatory learning for IoMT systems in contrast to GIS. The holistic overview provided in this paper highlights the guidelines and directions for future research on this emerging topic.

Digital Communication in Educational Process: Development Trends and New Opportunities

The relevance of this article is in the need to study digital communications that affect the quality and content of education, its compliance with modern requirements and determine the level of intellectual potential of society. The University, as a Communicator, an intermediary between the student and the information provided to it, is forced to change the centuries-old traditions in order to stay on the market, in the face of fierce competition of the appeared open distance courses. The purpose of the research is to analyze the role of digital communication in the educational request of students. Research methods: As research methods, the following one was used: online questionnaire survey that allows you to analyze the prerequisites for the development of digital communication in the educational process and identify new opportunities in education through the personal account of the student. Research results: the article examines the reasons for using the personal account and determines the prospects for its further development in the University environment. The satisfaction of using a personal account from mobile devices among active users-students was studied. The existing problems are identified and the reasons for the rare use of the personal account are identified, strategies for attracting students’ attention to the personal account are formulated. The novelty and originality of the research lies in the fact that the concept of digital communication is considered in the context of education and its functions are highlighted. The main features of digital communication are presented. The level of approval of existing and potential innovations by active student users (chat for communication, modified portfolio, task scheduler and Bulletin Board from the Institute) is determined. The opinion of students regarding the content of the main page of the personal account is revealed. The preconditions for the development of digital communication in the educational process are investigated: the emergence of digital natives’ generation; the resulting request to continuing education; growing importance of self-education; formation of the concept of anticipatory learning; rapid development of open education; a trend to introduce elements of gamification into educational process; the universal gadgetization. The essence of the information and educational environment of the University and the opportunities it provides are studied. The possibilities of the student personal account as a single information space are considered. Recommendations for the modernization of the personal account are given: to rename the group of incomprehensible and non-visited subsections by students; to change the content of the main page by moving the schedule and the number of the school week on it. The research identifies problems with color (the ideal option that would solve a large number of problems, according to students, is the ability to independently design the color scheme or a choice of several options) and the design of the personal account (the main emphasis in the development of the personal account is most effective to make the development of a convenient and visual system of informing students; self-filling the main menu of the personal account, students themselves formulate the need for personalization of the personal account).

The Neurophysiological Substrate of the Decision-Making Process in Depressed Patients

Background: The neural circuits involved in the decision-making process and social emotion participate in the same circuits seen in major depressive disorder. This study aimed to investigate in depressed patients, the decision making process in risk/reward situations using neurophysiological methods for a better assessment of functional aspects related to decision making deficit that are seen in major depression. Methods: Forty patients were studied, 20 with depression and 20 without. After applied the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) and Hamilton Depression scale (HAM-D), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was applied to analyze the risk/ reward decision-making behavior. The Skin Conductance Response (SCR) was recorded to analyze the emotional anticipatory learning effect during the IGT. Besides, an EEG was recorded to measure the Frontal Alpha Asymmetry Index (FAAI). Results: Depressed patients presented a lower Net score and a deficit in anticipatory learning effect in the IGT. Furthermore, the FAAI revealed more frontal right activation as have described in previous studies. Conclusion: Patients with major depression have a dysfunction in the circuits that modulate cognitive, emotional and social behavior, and also, impairment in cognitive fluidity for evaluating strategies for risk-reward. The EEG helps to confirm that asymmetry in frontal areas and oscillation of alpha frequencies participate in the regulation of emotion in depressed patients.

Anticipatory iterative learning control for linear motor positioning accuracy by use of hybrid particle swarm optimization

Anticipatory iterative learning control for linear motor positioning accuracy by use of hybrid particle swarm optimization

Precrastination: The fierce urgency of now.

Procrastination is a familiar and widely discussed proclivity: postponing tasks that can be done earlier. Precrastination is a lesser known and explored tendency: completing tasks quickly just to get them done sooner. Recent research suggests that precrastination may represent an important penchant that can be observed in both people and animals. This paper reviews evidence concerned with precrastination and connects that evidence with a long history of interest in anticipatory learning, distance reception, and brain evolution. Discussion unfolds to encompass several related topics including impulsivity, planning, and self-control. Precrastination may be a new term in the psychological lexicon, but it may be a predisposition with an extended evolutionary history. Placing precrastination within the general rubric of anticipatory action may yield important insights into both adaptive and maladaptive behavior.

Paradigm of Managerial Education for a Technological Breakthrough in the Economy

The article presents the results of the authors’ research into ways of improving managerial education and organization of anticipatory learning that are required for achieving a technological breakthrough in the national economy. The authors prove that in order to address complex tasks associated with modernization and emergence of Industry 4.0, to make decisions under uncertainty, unpredictable changes and considerable risk, managers need to possess interdisciplinary competencies in engineering and economics and pre-emptive action. The authors’ hypothesis that calls for change in managerial education is based on the idea that the new generation of managers will engage in the complex processes of creating fundamentally new technologies and markets as well as of modernizing the existing industries. To verify the hypothesis, we performed an analysis of development trends in global managerial education and universities’ responses to new challenges. The analysis allowed identifying the key characteristics of educational models employed by leading universities. They are focus on breakthrough technologies as well as on design and research component, orientation to cross-disciplinary educational products. The results of the analysis and surveys of experts have enabled the authors to determine the content of relevant interdisciplinary competencies for a technological breakthrough and to formulate the principles of anticipatory learning. These principles are represented in the organized process of creating knowledge and competences for addressing future problems corresponding to global trends and national development programs. The article describes the experience of the Research and Educational Centre for Interdisciplinary Investigations and Educational Programs (REC ENGEC) at the Ural Federal University in implementing a new paradigm of managerial education. It was designed within the framework of the research field «Pre-emptive management in rapidly developing industries» and the multi-project «New leaders for technological breakthrough». Overall, the results are of interest to the universities, including corporate ones, as well as to innovative business structures and research institutes participating in the process of transformation of educational models to response the new challenges of the technological revolution.

Amplified environmental change: Evidence from land‐use and climate change in medieval Minorca

AbstractThe debate on human environmental impact has often been locked into cause–effect reasoning, aiming at factoring human impact on top of climatic variability. Here we use evidence from Minorca and the Mediterranean region to show the potential for amplified environmental change emerging from complex feedbacks between climatic and historical events. Alluvial sediments collected in a gully reveal a 14‐ to 27‐fold increase in sediment accumulation rates, leading to the rapid aggradation of the valley floor from approximatelyad1300 onwards. These environmental changes coincided with the Feudal conquest of Minorca (ad1287) and with the climatic shift from the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, c.ad900–1300) to the Little Ice Age (LIA, c.ad1300–1850). This evidence of unprecedented sediment mobilisation, in context with climatic and historical events marking the Mediterranean region, highlights the implications for environmental vulnerability emerging from positive feedbacks between climate and land‐use. Understanding such interactions in historical contexts is paramount to increase our capacity for anticipatory learning in the face of rapid climatic, economical, and ecological transformations today.

Would the big government approach increasingly fail to lead to good decision?

PurposeThis paper aims to offer an innovative and original solution methodology proposal to the problem of arbitrary complex multiscale (ACM) ontological uncertainty management (OUM). The solution is based on the postulate that society is an ACM system of purposive actors within continuous change. Present social problems are multiscale-order deficiencies, which cannot be fixed by the traditional hierarchical approach alone, by doing what one does better or more intensely, but rather by changing the way one does it.Design/methodology/approachThis paper treasures several past guidelines, from McCulloch, Wiener, Conant, Ashby and von Foerster to Bateson, Beer and Rosen’s concept of a non-trivial system to arrive to an indispensable and key anticipatory learning system (ALS) component for managing unexpected perturbations by an antifragility approach as defined by Taleb. This ALS component is the key part of our new methodology called “computational information conservation theory (CICT) OUM” approach, based on brand new numeric system behavior awareness from CICT.FindingsTo achieve an antifragility behavior, next generation system must use new CICT OUM-like approach to face the problem of multiscale OUM effectively and successfully. In this manner, homeodynamic operating equilibria can emerge out of a self-organizing landscape of self-structuring attractor points in a natural way.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper presents a relevant contribution toward a new post-Bertalanffy Extended Theory of Systems. Due to its intrinsic self-scaling properties, this system approach can be applied at any system scale: from single quantum system application development to full system governance strategic assessment policies and beyond.Practical implicationsThe new post-Bertalanffy Extended Theory of Systems Framework allows, for the first time, social, biological and biomedical engineering ideal system categorization levels, from an operational perspective, to be matched exactly to practical system modeling interaction styles, with no paradigmatic operational ambiguity and information loss.Social implicationsEven new social and advanced health and wellbeing information application can successfully and reliably manage higher system complexity than contemporary ones, with a minimum of design specification and less system final operative environment knowledge at design level. The present paper offers for discussion an innovative solution proposal for the complex society and big government modeling and management approach.Originality/valueSpecifically, advanced wellbeing applications, high reliability organization, mission critical project system, very low technological risk and crisis management system can benefit highly from our new methodology called CICT OUM approach and related techniques. This paper presents a relevant contribution toward a new post-Bertalanffy Extended Theory of Systems. Due to its intrinsic self-scaling properties, this system approach can be applied at any system scale: from a single quantum system application development to full system governance strategic assessment policies and beyond.

Gender-specific responses to climate variability in a semi-arid ecosystem in northern Benin.

Highly erratic rainfall patterns in northern Benin complicate the ability of rural farmers to engage in subsistence agriculture. This research explores gender-specific responses to climate variability in the context of agrarian Benin through a household survey (n = 260) and an experimental gaming exercise among a subset of the survey respondents. Although men and women from the sample population are equally aware of climate variability and share similar coping strategies, their specific land-use strategies, preferences, and motivations are distinct. Over the long term, these differences would likely lead to dissimilar coping strategies and vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Examination of gender-specific land-use responses to climate change and anticipatory learning can enhance efforts to improve adaptability and resilience among rural subsistence farmers.

Future-orientated approaches to curriculum development: fictive scripting

ABSTRACTThough the future cannot be accurately predicted, it is possible to envisage a number of probable developments which can promote thinking about the future and so promote a more informed stance about what should or should not be done. Studies in technology and society have claimed that the use of a type of forecasting using plausible but imaginary narratives, fictive scripts, promotes reflection on and so learning about possible futures among innovators. In this enquiry, the aim was to ascertain whether such forecasting methods could be shown to encourage engagement and learning among academics in a different context, that of future curriculum development in the university. Analysis of data drawn from curriculum workshops suggests that a fictive script approach does hold promise for promoting anticipatory learning among academics and thus could be considered as a curriculum development tool.