Cognitive Pluralism

In my studies I have been reading about different educational ideologies. One of my essays requires me to take a more in-depth look into the ideology of cognitive pluralism, the idea that knowledge can be expressed in a wide variety of ways. Although our public school systems tend to focus on the literacy of words and numbers, it is also possible to express thoughts through sounds, colors, shapes, and movement. I especially enjoyed this speech given by Elliot W. Eisner as the John Dewey Lecture for 2002 at Stanford University.

In brief:
There are 6 lessons educators should learn and implement.

1. Experiencing qualitative relationships and making judgements

- evaluating and making decisions without strict guidelines

- "feeling" the correctness of an action

2. Flexible purposing

- developing the ability to allow action to create/influence the goal

3. Form and content is most often inextricable

- developing an environment that is most conducive to the intended goal

4. Not everything knowable can be articulated in propositional form

- respecting non-traditional expressions of thoughts and ideas

5. Looking to the medium

- understanding the relationship between the materials/environment/processes used and the end product

6. The aesthetic satisfactions that the work itself makes possible

- recognizing the motivating quality of the process

Read the whole article for a more in depth look at the relationship between the arts, child development, and what public education SHOULD look like.

Source

*Eisner, Elliot W. (2002) 'What can eduction learn from the arts about the practice of education?', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/eisner_arts_and_the_practice_or_education.htm . Last updated: April 17, 2005.