For this reason, reading offers the potential for higher level thinking. Essential to the success of higher level reading is the reader's ability to relate new information to what is known in order to find answers to cognitive questions. Another underlying principle in the instruction of higher order thinking skills in reading is the acceptance of the theme of active learning. Literacy scholar Paulo Freire contends that those who share in the learning process are empowered by a critical consciousness of themselves as meaning makers. Freire supports the position which suggests that it is language that provides the tool for meaning construction.
Language is a thinking process which allows students to learn and grow.
Paradoxically, educators have had this tool at their fingertips for years, but have failed to respond to the cries for greater competency by looking to language as the source for improvement. It is only within the last decade, and particularly the last five years, that schools have begun to identify ways to optimize language use to promote higher level thinking. Learners were not able to reconstruct the structure and meaning of ideas expressed by others. Not only were students unable to summarize, they were rarely encouraged to support an evaluative interpretation. Because teaching higher level cognitive processes requires comprehension, inference, and decision making, the reading classroom is the logical place to begin.