New Literacies
The Importance of Knowledge of The World, The Self and Other People.
Many researchers have suggested that reading is scientifically proven to be beneficial toward the growth of cognitive and meta cognitive skills and these psychosocial developments must be enhanced and trained fundamentally (Seifert, 2020). Reading comprehension is a process that “how the mind approaches the procedures used for reading” In my opinion, schools are a perfect candidate to prepare students the cognitive skills they need to become better readers. However, as I grew older, I realized that my past educational experience didn't instill our love through fictional readings that could potential. Hence, I would agree that reading fiction or non-fiction are both vital to the growth of the children’s cognition and social skills. In addition, Harvard Business Review succinctly states that “reading fiction may provide far more important benefits than nonfiction” (Seifert, 2020, para.4). It takes part in nurturing our cognitive capability and allows our innate imaginative capacities to flourish while developing our empathy toward others with experiences and world views different than our own.
Knowledge of the World’s Implication
Theory of Mind
Fiction gives readers the knowledge to understand the world around them, to challenge one’s beliefs, and to understand others’ mental states from a sympathetic view. Thus, developing theory of mind, utilizing knowledge to examine the actual world, and learning about the world helps readers see life from different perspectives. When applying cognitive criticism to texts, students are not only reflecting the messages between authors and readers but also engaging in “the relationship between representation and its referent in the perceptible world” (Nikolajeva, 2014, p. 247, as cited in Trites, 2014, p.1). Trites (2014) elicits Nikolajeva’s prompted request that educators should focus on “cognitive activities, such as know-ledge acquisition, emotion and empathy, or ethical decision-making" (p.2). Nikolajeva insists especially on paying close attention to how the narration evokes readers’ emotions. Because emotion is “nonlinear, unstructured and diffuse” (Nikolajeva, 2014, p.134 as cited in Trites, 2014, p.3). And that through reading narrative texts, young children can engage themselves in two-way processes: real life to text and text to real-life (Bland, 2016).
Knowledge of Self.
Understanding adolescents’ social brain and self-reflection
One notable example of this concept is the inference of protagonist’s emotions in The Secret Garden which is “presented and connected to body movement, vision, tactile, olfactory perception” and naturally allows young readers to place themselves in the shoes of the main character who is powerless on account of their age. And thus, they are able experience a heightened version of the injustice that most kids feel over their subordinate status compared to adults. Leading them to feel less alone in the travails of youth. When the protagonist finds an escape into a magical, and tranquil world all their own, the child can feel the liberation that placid solitude can bring.
It seems to me that the primary purpose of teaching children’s literature is to bring a compassionate sensitivity to children’s cognitive reasoning processes. And it is hard to extend compassion to others, when you are not able to feel compassion for the limitations of one's childhood station in life, and all its hereditary blessings, obligations, and difficulties, as they flow out in to a wide world of adult possibilities. According to Armstrong (2016) typical characteristics of an adolescent's brain are: “inattention, rebellion, recklessness, charm, passion, insight, fatigue, and a seemingly insatiable need for approval from peers” (p.2). These descriptors demonstrate a messy mix of high and low socio-emotional regulation, which is governed by the limbic system. An area of the brain which experiences rapid developmental growth around puberty, as compared to the slow progression of the prefrontal cortex. Which is responsible for rational thinking, but will not develop fully until twenty-five years of age (Armstrong, 2016). This incompatibility in development suggests that “exploring new educational strategies in light of what has been learned about the social brain may be a relatively untapped yet fruitful approach to improving classroom education” (Lieberman, 2012, p. 4). Reading narrative fiction could potentially guide adolescence toward understanding oneself’ action and reactions.
Knowledge of Others: Mind-Reading and Empathy
Developing empathy is a key factor in real life and the society we live in. But how can we develop empathy if we never come to understand how other people feel? This capacity to develop theory of mind is what distinguishes homo sapiens from other living things (Nikolajeva, 2014). Hence, developing empathy is vital to our social interaction. Fictional stories could enhance cognition capability to assist young learners with the texts and scenarios that they can learn from those narrations. Fiction serves to mentally act, inhabit the characters, and thus act out the consequences of their life circumstances and decision making. This can inform us how we interact with diverse types of people and how we would approach cooperation with them.
Characters in these stories often serve as a more visible, and honest representation of what life is really like. When compared to the guarded and veiled interactions that so often govern our relationships with those that are quite different from ourselves. From the description of their physical traits to their states of mind, like ourselves, we get to experience their past, present, and future. We gain access to their innermost thoughts, feelings, and motivations both expressed and implied. This insight into the human condition offered by authors is essential for novice readers to experience life beyond their own fixed, first-person perspective, and support their social skills as well as develop their ability to read the internal states of others.
The reader gets to witness multiple characters through their own personal lens, while examining how their inability to perfectly emphasize with other characters leads to conflict, that the reader with their god-like knowledge of each character perhaps could have prevented. It has been said that “fictional characters’ failure to read other people’s minds is the most interesting aspect of fiction” (Nikolajeva, M. 2014, chapter 3). Because the reader gets to learn from this failure.
References
Armstrong, T. (2016). The power of the adolescent brain: Strategies for teaching middle and high school students. Retrieved from https://www.weareteachers.com/wp-content/uploads/ASCD-2-Book-Sample-PoweroftheAdolescentBrain.pdf
Lieberman, M. (2012, July 10). Trends in neuroscience and education. Education and the social brain. Elsevier GmbH. 3(9). Franz Hall, University of California, Los Angeles. https://www.scn.ucla.edu/pdf/Lieberman(2012)TINE.pdf
Nikolajeva, M. (2014). Reading for learning: cognitive approaches to children's literature.
Seifert, C. (2020). The Case for Reading Fiction. Havard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/03/the-case-for-reading-fiction
Trites, R. (2014). Review and Recension. Maria Nikolajeva: Reading for Learning: Cognitive Approaches to Children’s Literature. https://www.barnboken.net/index.php/clr/article/download/189/473/0