Reconstructing the Paradigm of Learning Disabilities: A Holistic/Constructivist Interpretation

Abstract

The paradigm for defining learning disabilities has evolved in relation to information-processing constructs of learning and intelligence. Assumptions regarding the nature of knowledge acquisition as well as assessment and remedial techniques that are derived from such a paradigm are currently being challenged. This article argues that learning differences can be best understood, and attended to, in relation to the holistic/constructivist theory of knowledge construction and the reciprocal evolution of cognitive structures. Knowledge is conceived of as being embedded in, and subordinated to, a spiral of mental structuring activity that guides relational thinking or logic. Symbols (i.e., language, numbers, and images) are tools that exercise mental structuring activity for the purpose of transforming and enriching individual learning spirals by coordinating and integrating its energy form. Reciprocally, greater depth and flexibility in knowledge bases evolve, which serve to transform persons and their cultures. It is in these spirals of mental structuring activity that learning differences are proposed to manifest themselves. Such a perspective shifts the focus of assessment and remediation away from specific skill development that attends to standard answers and ways of solving problems to an examination of the adaptive, transforming thinking activity (mental constructs) generated to solve for answers. By making contact with and guiding individually constructed realities through techniques such as graded learning loops in the zone of proximal development, learning behaviors become more adaptable and generalizable.