Scribner and Cole 1981

Scribner, Sylvia, and Michael Cole. 1981.The psychology of literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 335 pages. 0674721152. (Reviews by Greenfield 1983 and Greenfield 1991. Review reprint in Minami and Kennedy 1991.) Location: Dallas SIL Library 401.9 S434. Interest level: academic.

Reviews research on the effect of literacy and schooling on cultural thought patterns. Comments on the need to be able to study separately the cognitive consequences of literacy and schooling. For their research, the authors chose the Vai people of Liberia who boast a writing system of their own invention. They use writing in their commercial and personal affairs and teach their script at home rather than in school. Study covered a five-year period between 1973 and 1978.

Conclusions about literacy and schooling are somewhat tenuous. "Rather than trying to isolate literacy from schooling, our present framework suggests the usefulness of using literacy activities to examine the cognitive implications of one set of important school practices for the individual's later functioning in society" (page 258).

• Bibliography module: Scribner and Cole 1981
• In overview module: Bibliography (Literacy): S
• In modular book: Bibliography (Literacy), by Doris Gallemore, Trudi C. Hunt, Jeanne Swanson, and Stephen L. Walter
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• In bookshelf: Literacy

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