Productive conjunctions the design of effective literacy and thinking tools

Abstract

The application of research outcomes aligned to a single paradigm can results in the design of polarized classroom pedagogies. In contrast, the application of multi-paradigmatic perspectives can result int eh design of effective literacy and thinking tools.

The research outcomes from cognitive and neuro-phychologists adopting normative perspectives, and for linguists and sociologist adopting interpretative perspectives is applied to design two research-based literacy and thinking tools. The fiction meaning grid tool, linked to the reading and writing of narrative and recounts texts, engages stuidents in what neurologists describe as a theory of mind mechanism, and what sociologists adopting a cultural critique approach refer to as the socila construction of identify through texts. The concept frame tool, linked to  the reading and writing of report text, reflects the outcomes of normative reseach by cognitive psychologists who have described conceptual represention, and by sociologist who have described how knowledge in constructed. Both these tools illustrate the advantages of adopting multi-paradigmatic perspecProductive Conjunctions.