The belief mode is the dominant mode of intellectual life in schools; creative knowledge work requires the design mode. High points in these different modes are: (a) belief mode--persuasion, argument, compromise, and consensus; (b) design mode--creating and improving a conceptual artifact such as a theory or an inventive idea.
Issues: Truth, evidence, proof, degree of certainty.
Questions: Is it true? Is it reasonable? What are the assumptions on which it
is based? Is it supported by the evidence?
Where found: Courtrooms, classrooms.
Issues: Usefulness, potential, strengths and weaknesses, needed improvements.
Questions: What is this idea (plan, concept, etc.) good for? How could it be
improved?
Where found: Laboratories, knowledge-creating organizations.
Note: Theory-building goes on in Design Mode; theoretical disputes are carried
on in Belief Mode.
Functional literacy--the ability to comprehend and use communication media
to serve the purposes of everyday life
Dialogic literacy--the ability to engage productively in discourse whose purpose
is to generate new knowledge and understanding
- not tied to any particular representational medium
- rather, presupposes flexible command of a variety of forms of knowledge
and idea representation