Narrative thinking and logical thinking in teaching fairy tales
Nicola Contegreco
As designed by Bruner more than thirty years ago, exclusive subject-based learning at school is not supposed to foster a proper intellectual development. According to Bruner, human cognitive development is strongly dependent on a deep narrative thinking and logical thinking. In the field of education, narrative thinking may best suit this purpose. In this paper, after providing a brief overview concerning the two types of thinking suggested by Bruner, it will be shown, from both a theoretical and practical perspective, the structure of the literature genre of fairy tale and its moral lessons which are conceived to employ a set of didactic activities with the purpose of reflecting upon the child’s chronological and paradigmatic functions, that develop from primary school to lower secondary school.
Keywords
Storytelling, fairy tale, narrative thinking, logical thinking, Bruner.