Corroboration
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

Corroboration

What others tell us is sometimes important as corroboration of what we think we have found out for ourselves.

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Testimony
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

Testimony

There is no species of reasoning more common, more useful, and even necessary to human life, than that which is derived from the testimony of men.

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The Predisposition to Imitate
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

The Predisposition to Imitate

The underlying response predisposition is to imitate. It takes an act of inhibition to hold this primitive response in check.

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From Imitation to Language
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

From Imitation to Language

The emergence of the will and capacity to imagine what you cannot see with your own eyes, simply because you believe somebody else.

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The Subject
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

The Subject

The grammatical subject is a conventionalized principle, which a community decides to impose on itself because speakers do not always specify what it is that they are talking about.

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In Your Own Words
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

In Your Own Words

We only begin to understand what we have heard when we go beyond the words of the message and let our new understanding interact with our experiences in inexpressible ways.

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Explain Your Reasoning
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

Explain Your Reasoning

Those students who can better navigate the social-semantic space—not necessarily those who know more or can reason better—will be able to produce better explanations.

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From the Private to the Social
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

From the Private to the Social

Humans live with two worldviews, one private-experiential and the other social-linguistic. Communicative success rises as the space between the two worldviews shrinks.

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Closing the Gap
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

Closing the Gap

There is, without question, a language of privilege in America that excludes those who do not speak it fluently.

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Teaching Is Cheating
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

Teaching Is Cheating

We are all taught that somehow this information is inside them and that we need to draw it out.

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Private, Experiential Worlds
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

Private, Experiential Worlds

Speakers always come into a conversation from the two sides of an experiential gap. The gap is where the conversation takes place.

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Instructing the Imagination
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

Instructing the Imagination

The functional specificity of language lies in the very particular functional strategy it employs. It is dedicated to the systematic instruction of imagination.

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Getting People Wrong
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

Getting People Wrong

Imitation remains a powerful force in your life, even as an adult, and when educators turn up their noses at imitation, they are getting people wrong.

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Flexible Imitation
Josh Fisher Josh Fisher

Flexible Imitation

In a rapidly changing environment, copying the effective behaviors of knowledgeable others could be a much more effective learning strategy.

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