ABSTRACT
Progress in the use of principled pluralisms for the cognitively flexible, situation-adaptive assembly of prior knowledge and experience will be slow until we are able to develop corresponding changes in the underlying habits of mind of teachers and students who would greatly prefer that things were simpler. It is the job of those who prepare teachers of reading to insure that those teachers understand the implications of principled pluralism, and are able to apply knowledge and methods of various types with adaptive flexibility. The author believes that the issues of cognitive flexibility and situation-adaptive assembly of multiple perspectives are central to the next generation of educational research, not just in the “Reading Wars” but across the spectrum of learning and teaching. The key question for Cognitive Flexibility Theory is which approaches, theories, methods, content schemas, and so on are most appropriate for a new situation, and then how are they to be put together to adaptively fit that new context.
