A Tentative Description of Post-Formal Thinking: The Critical Confrontation with Cognitive Theory

Abstract

In this article, Joe Kincheloe and Shirley Steinberg critique and challenge the reductionist conceptions of intelligence that underlie cognitive developmental theory. The authors formulate a post-Piagetian cognitive theory that is informed by and extends critical, feminist, and postmodern thought. By delineating the features of what they refer to as a "post-formal" way of thinking, the authors provide practitioners with a framework for reconsidering both curricular and pedagogical practices.