Using Bakhtin to re- think the teaching of Higher-order thinking for the network society
RIS ID
115772
Abstract
We borrow the term ‘network society’ from Manuel Castells, one of the most widely quoted commentators on the impact of the internet revolution. In his trilogy, The Information Age: Economy, society and culture, he analyses data on current trends to argue that there is a convergence towards a new form of social organisation which he calls the ‘network society’, defining this as: ‘a society where the key social structures and activities are organized around electronically processed information networks’ (Castells, 2001). Of course there have always been networks but Castells advances the claim that the advent of the internet has transformed the nature of these networks. The difference now is the mediating role played by near- instantaneous electronic communication. In particular Castells claims that a global economy is different from a world economy because: ‘it is an economy with the capacity to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale’ (1996, p. 92). We think that this interesting claim suggests a new and more situated way of conceptualising what it might mean to teach ‘Higher-order’ thinking skills
Publication Details
Wegerif, R. & De Laat, M. (2011). Using Bakhtin to re- think the teaching of Higher-order thinking for the network society. In S. Ludvigsen, A. Lund, I. Rasmussen & R. Saljo (Eds.), Learning Across Sites: New Tools, Infrastructures and Practices (pp. 313-329). United Kingdom: Routledge.