The Sense of Learning

What many educationists, reading authorities, and other experts claim that research shows casts doubt on the entire enterprise of learning and teaching. When various current theories maintain that reading is misreading, that representation is an illusion, that all signifying is only self-referential, and that attempts to instruct are acts of oppression- it seems time for counterstatement.

In this book, Ann Berthoff has posed three questions that frame the book's structure and whose answers frame her counterstatement: Is teaching still possible? Is learning still possible? Is reading still possible? The answer is yes, if we make interpretation central. These essays take as their point of departure the idea that we learn by representing our recognitions, interpreting those representations, and interpreting the interpretations. That capacity for making meaning by interpreting signs is what C. S. Peirce called "the sense of learning."

For those who claim an interest in the value of literacy, or who find they are being held accountable for fostering it, these essays can offer aid and comfort, fresh perspectives, and down-to-earth argument.