5 Kinds of Understanding

There exist five kinds of understanding (or cognitive tools) that individuals usually
master in a particular order during the course of their development; these have
important educational implications.

This post focuses on Kieran Egan’s perspective on the 5 tools of understanding.

Egan is a Professor at Simon Fraser University and proposed his theory of
cognitive tools as part of a sustained program of writing and research on the role of
imagination in learning, teaching, and curriculum.

Cognitive Tools Theory

Canadian curriculum theorist Kieran Egan offered a theory of cognitive tools as a
possible replacement for several dominant theories of learning widely applied to
education, including Piaget’s theory of cognitive stages, Dewey’s theories about
the nature and goals of education, and applications of evolutionary theory applied
to cognitive development and learning. Egan proposed that there exist 5 kinds of
understanding (or cognitive tools) that individuals usually master in a particular
order during the course of their development that reflect psychological,
epistemological, and cultural factors. The first 4 cognitive tools that Egan proposes
(Somatic, Mythic, Romantic, and Philosophical) mirror the characteristics and
timing of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (sensorimotor, pre-operational,
concrete operational, formal operational). In addition, Egan proposes a 5th
tool, Ironic understanding.

The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our

Understanding
However, it is not a matter of the brain’s characteristics unfolding in a fixed
sequence with new capacities emerging in a biologically driven sequence and
timing. What Egan proposes is that various human inventions—cognitive tools—
were developed over history and that these effectively can be introduced to
children once they reach a particularly level of biological maturation. However,
these tools compete, as it were, for access to children at different stages of their
development. Civilization has developed in concert with the training of youth in
these cognitive tools over time. Later elements of the civilization software, as it
were, depend on the prior installation and practice with the earlier elements.
Teachers, then, effectively play the role of ensuring that the new modes of
understanding are introduced at the right points and only after there has been
sufficient practice with the earlier cognitive tools.

1. Somatic – from birth till about age 2. The main goal is the mastery of
mimetic (copying) activities. The main characteristics involve mastery of
physical activities and a non-verbal appreciation of the world.

2. Mythic – from about ages 3-7. The main goal is the mastery of oral
language. The main characteristics involve binary opposites in thinking,
metaphors, and stereotypes, including socialization into the culture’s myths and
taboos, and gaining a shared sense of right and wrong.

3. Romantic – from about ages 8-14. The main goal is the mastery of
literacy. The main characteristics involve acquisition of conventional skills
involving getting along, writing and literacy, and to gain an appreciation for
finer gradations in perception and thinking (not just the binary opposites of
Mythic understanding). There is also a concern with the limits and extremes of
human potential.

4. Philosophical – from about ages 15-20. The main goal is the

mastery of theoretic abstractions. The main characteristics involve a concern
with the theories of the world and one’s position in the world, including its
theories. All the facts that the individual had been accruing through Romantic
understanding now become sorted and organized into various preferred
theories. One develops an ability to both support a theory with the addition of
relevant facts as well as to ignore or dismiss facts that may appear inconsistent
with that preferred theory.

5. Ironic – from about age 21+. The main goal is the mastery of refined
reflexiveness. The main characteristics involve skepticism about the various
theories (typical of Romantic understanding), or skepticism about the features
 and interpretation of facts or stories about human potential (characteristic of
Romantic understanding), and so on. Such skepticism can range in how extreme
it becomes (from scathing caustic satire on one extreme, to gently skeptical
questioning and kind or even silly humour on the other).

Egan’s theory has important implications for learning and education. First, one
might argue against the current trend to push literacy education into ages
traditionally associated with Mythical understanding, because this may negatively
affect the ability of those children and the adults that they subsequently become to
exercise their imaginations. Second, one might argue in favour of current trends to
emphasize skills-oriented education at the elementary level (including heavy
emphasis on reading and math skills); when Egan published the theory, this was a
popular idea only among educational conservatives. Third, one might argue for
greater emphasis in secondary education for more rigorous instruction in logic,
rational thinking, and theory testing. This is consistent with the current emphases
on STEM education. Fourth, one might argue for greater emphasis on skeptical
thinking of all sorts in post-secondary education. This might run counter to some
of the emphasis in college programs that may focus too exclusively on vocational
preparation.

Published by Joseph D'Addario