Cognition and Curriculum became a seminal book which was essential reading for students of education over the last decade. Now, as the back-to-basics curriculum and standardized modes of evaluation - whose very foundations Elliot W Eisner was questioning a decade ago - are again finding favour with politicians, Eisner has revised his classic work. The result is Cognition and Curriculum Reconsidered, a substantially revised edition that adds two new chapters, including a critique of the reform efforts of the intervening years. Eisner starts out with an inclusive definition of literacy in its metaphorical sense: `the ability to encode and decode meaning in any of the forms of representation used in the culture to convey or express meaning.' This implies a radically different approach to education, one that seeks to develop multiple literacies in the student, and does not value the understandings of the sciences and mathematics over those of the fine arts, humanities and other branches of human knowledge. Such an approach will both enhance efforts at achieving educational equity, and encourage individual differences. He brings together an impressive body of evidence to produce a thought-provoking discussion about the appropriate boundaries of school curriculum and educational evaluation.A new chapter looks at 10 years of school reform efforts, the common roots of their failure, and outlines a path that holds promise for success. The next two chapters - on the primary role of the senses in concept formation, and the variety of representational forms through which those concepts can be made known to others - is followed by a new synthesis in which he undertakes to transform these ideas into practice in the classroom, both through the curriculum itself, and through `the artistry with which that program is mediated by teachers. We call such artistry “teaching”.' Eisner's conclusions have implications for education at all levels and in all areas.

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