There is growing recognition among educators of the need for establishing practical pedagogical approaches that facilitate the development of diverse problem solving and critical thinking abilities. "Literary understanding" is that form of critical thinking which is characteristically divergent and inward. It is thought focused on "personal meanings, understandings of human situations, and the complex web of relationships embedded in them" (Langer, 1993). Literary understanding is thus an important form of critical thought distinct from "scientific reasoning," which is characterized as convergent, objective, and logical. Indeed, scholars across the years (e.g. Britton, 1970, 1983; Bruner, 1986) have suggested that these two forms of thinking represent two important ways in which people make sense and construct meaning about their world. As such, they argue, both are necessary to mature thought.

Although a great deal of attention and activity in the educational community has been focused on the development of critical thinking skills, such efforts have tended to be unidimensional. Critical thinking has traditionally been defined by the properties of scientific reasoning, and so, most critical thinking curricula have been confined to the development of the same. Deeply embedded in the tradition of the English language arts, for example, is a set of beliefs which holds that there are "common images, evocations, and responses" to a literary piece that all good readers experience, hence, that "certain approved interpretations of particular phrases, lines, or themes . . . need to be learned" (Langer, 1993). Such beliefs have led to the development of literature curricula whose instructional goals and assessment procedures emphasize "objective" readings of the text that converge on sanctioned interpretations. In short, even literature curricula typically promote scientific, not literary, understanding. (Applebee, 1990, 1993).