The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding [Hardcover]

Kieran Egan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1997

The Educated Mind offers a bold and revitalizing new vision for today's uncertain educational system. Kieran Egan reconceives education, taking into account how we learn. He proposes the use of particular "intellectual tools"—such as language or literacy—that shape how we make sense of the world. These mediating tools generate successive kinds of understanding: somatic, mythic, romantic, philosophical, and ironic. Egan's account concludes with practical proposals for how teaching and curriculum can be changed to reflect the way children learn.

"A carefully argued and readable book. . . . Egan proposes a radical change of approach for the whole process of education. . . . There is much in this book to interest and excite those who discuss, research or deliver education."—Ann Fullick, New Scientist

"A compelling vision for today's uncertain educational system."—Library Journal

"Almost anyone involved at any level or in any part of the education system will find this a fascinating book to read."—Dr. Richard Fox, British Journal of Educational Psychology

"A fascinating and provocative study of cultural and linguistic history, and of how various kinds of understanding that can be distinguished in that history are recapitulated in the developing minds of children."—Jonty Driver, New York Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Imagine the consequences if such polar opposites as Plato and Rousseau opened a school together--the results would be nothing less than schizophrenic. Yet, according to Kieran Egan, author of The Educated Mind, this is exactly the model upon which most of Western education is based. Historically, schools in the West have been chartered to perform three fundamentally contradictory tasks: to socialize children, to encourage conformity, and, at the same time, to develop individual promise. Instead of trying to pound different-shaped pegs into a one-size-fits-all hole, Egan suggests that educators take a new tack: shape learning to the way the human mind develops and understands.

Egan begins by defining five types of understanding: Somatic, Mythic, Romantic, Philosophic, and Ironic. Each kind develops at different points in a child's life and brings with it new abilities to process and integrate information. Throughout each phase, Egan is particularly concerned with the role of imagination in learning--a crucial role, in his opinion. The Educated Mind is not a textbook about methodology. Rather, it is a meditation on the way the mind grows and learns, and on how teachers--and students--might profit from these developmental stages by shaping lesson plans to fit the mind instead of the other way around.

From Library Journal

Egan (Imagination in Teaching & Learning, Univ. of Chicago, 1992) argues here that the incompatibilities of three inherited significant educational ideas?"socialization," "Plato and the truth about reality," and "Rousseau and nature's guidance"?have brought about clashes at every level of the educational process, from teaching methods to curriculum decisions. His diagnosis presents a new and sophisticated alternative to learning. To keep educational energy alive, Egan endorses William Wordsworth's idea of stimulating the imagination early on. His theory seems practical as well as innovative in that he concludes his work with timely proposals for changes and applications in teaching and curriculum. Extremely clear and readable, this work provides a compelling vision for today's uncertain educational system. Recommended for academic libraries and libraries serving school teachers.?Samuel T. Huang, Northern Illinois Univ. Libs., DeKalb
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226190366
• ISBN-13: 978-0226190365
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,075,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful and erudite essay on education and development, April 16, 2005

By 

David R. Cross "Purple Sage" (Fort Worth, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding (Paperback)

In my view, this is one of the more important books written in the last couple of decades. In essence, it is a companion volume to Merlin Donald's Origin of the Modern Mind, which is another important book. Donald proposes an evolutionary theory of the origins of mind, starting with the primate mind and ending with the modern human mind. He proposes a series of stages---episodic, mimetic, mythological, theoretical---where the content and functions of mind gradually become free of the physical constraints of time and space. This evolutionary trend is partly biological, but is also partly cultural, with culture gaining increasing importance as evolution progresses to our current state. Kieran Egan builds on this framework by proposing a recapitulation theory of education and cognitive development. Essentially, he proposes that each human progresses through a series of stages---somatic, mythic, romantic, philosophic, ironic---that more or less recapitulate the progress of the species. Egan's theory can be seen as an elaboration of the work of Lev Vygotsky, the brilliant Soviet psychologist who began to create a socio-cultural theory of cognitive development, before his career was tragically cut short by TB. Although Egan's theory contradicts much of what I learned in graduate school, I think he is closer to the mark than anyone else when it comes to an educationally-usefull theory of cognitive development. Our nation's schools would be far better off if his ideas were taken seriously by the educational establishment. Egan is a sorely needed antidote to the intellectually impoverished "theories" that govern our schools today, especially in regards to what might be called the "tyranny of testing".

6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insight into the "kinds" of understandings., January 21, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (WY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding (Paperback)

Egan's book challenges us to rethink our educational process in relation to his idea of multiple kinds of understandings.Education in the future must be seen as a sequence of these understandings in order for students to devlop specific intellectual tools. Through his studies you will explore cultual and linguistic history to learn more about our human brain. He provides theory, insight and concrete advice for educators today.