The John Dewey‘s epistemology and informational literacy

Abstract

The ‘reflexive thinking’ concept is discussed in this article as a means of contextualizing John Dewey’s intellectual legacy. ‘Reflection’ represents a fundamental element for the construction of the necessary competences to information seeking and use, and consequently to individual and collective development. Since the reflexive thinking habit in information literacy is a way of learning, some questions concerning teaching and learning processes are also investigated. The discussion is, therefore, supported by the supposition that reflexive thinking is a cognitive strategy that allows a deeper comprehension of related problems, phenomena, and processes by means of the perception of the relations and the identification of involved elements, as well as the analysis and interpretation of meanings, empowering the nformation literacy process.