1.14 jerome brunertheory of learning

FRANKLIN GALOYO, Ph.D

Jerome Seymour Bruner was born on October 1, 1915 in New York.

Bruner is currently a senior researcher fellow at the New York University School of Law.He received his B.A. in 1937 from Duke University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1941 under the guidance of Gordon Allport.

Bruner believed that detailed material is remembered by the use of simplified ways of representing it. He deplored the educational psychology dominant in America before 1940, which confused "skills" with "understanding."  Instead, Bruner placed "structure" at the heart of education:  give a child a sense of the structure of what he is being taught and he will learn the information for himself.

• To instruct someone is not a matter of just getting things into his mind, but teaching him to participate in the process of gaining knowledge.”

An inquiry based, constructivist learning theory that takes place in the problem solving situations where the learner draws on his or her own past experience and existing knowledge to discover facts and relationships and new truths to be learned.

Students interact with the world by exploring and manipulating objects, wrestling with new questions and controversies and perfrorming expirements. As a results, students may have be more likely to rember concepts and know;dge discovered on their own.

Encourages active engagement Promotes motivation Promotes autonomy, responsibility and

independence Development of creativity and problem

solving skills

Creation of cognitive overload Potential misconceptions Teachers may fail to detect problems

and misconceptions

Bruner was one of the founding fathers of constructivist theory.

Learning is an active process.

Facets of the process include: selection and transformation of information, making decision, generating hypotheses, and making meaning from information and experiences.

CONTRUCTIVIST CONTRUCTIVIST THEORYTHEORY

Bruner's ideas are based on categorization: "To perceive is to categorize, to conceptualize is to categorize, to learn is to form categories, to make decisions is to categorize."

CATEGORIZATIONCATEGORIZATION

Categorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and under-stood.

Bruner believed that perception, conceptualization, learning, making decision, and making inferences all involved categorization. 

To form a category is necessary follow four rules to specify an object:

1. Criterial attributes - required characteristics for inclusion of an object in a category.

2. The second rule prescribes how the criteral attributes are combined. 

3. The third rule assignees weight to various properties.

4. The fourth rule sets acceptance limits on attributes.

Bruner also suggested that there are two primary modes of thought: the narrative mode and the paradigmatic mode:

•In narrative thinking, the mind engages in sequential, action-oriented, detail-driven thought. •In paradigmatic thinking, the mind transcends particularities to achieve systematic, categorical cognition.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTCOGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Bruner was influenced by Piaget's ideas about cognitive development in children.

During the 1940's his early work focused on the impact of needs, motivations, & expectations (“mental sets”) and their influence on perception.

He presented the point of view that children are active problem-solvers and capable of exploring “difficult subjects”.

3 Stages in Bruner’s theory of Intellectual Development

The first stage he termed "Enactive", when a person learns about the world through actions on physical objects and the outcomes of these actions.

From child's birth to 3 years old.Children perceive the environment through actions that they initiate.Showing and modeling have more learning value than telling.

The second stage was called "Iconic" where learning can be obtained through using models and pictures.

From age 3 to about age 8.Children can remember and use information through imagery.Visual memory increases.Decisions are still made on the basis of perceptions.

The final stage was "Symbolic" in which the learner develops the capacity to think in abstract terms.

Children began to use symbols to represent people, things, etc.They have the ability to think and talk about things in abstract terms.They can better understand mathematical principles and use symbolic idioms.

SOCIAL LEARNING

Bruner argued that aspects of cognitive performance are facilitated by language. He also mentioned that the setting is very important in the adcquisition of language.

The earliest social setting is the mother-child dyad, where children work out the meanings of utterances to which they are repeatedly exposed. Bruner identified several important social devices including joint attention, mutual gaze, and turn-taking.

THE PROCESS OF EDUCATION

In 1960 Bruner published The Process of Education . This was a landmark book which led to much experimentation and a broad range of educational programs.

CULTURAL LEARNINGCULTURAL LEARNING

Bruner adopted the point of view that culture shapes the mind and provides the raw material with which we constrict our world and our self-conception.

FOUR FEATURES OF BRUNER’S THEORY OF INSTRUCTION

Four Key themes emerged in Bruner's early work: 

•Bruner emphasized the role of structure in learning and how it may be made central in teaching. Structure refers to relationships among factual elements and techniques.

•Readiness for learning. Bruner believed that any subject could be taught at any stage of development in a way that fit the child's cognitive abilities.

•Spiral curriculum. Refers to the idea of revisiting basic ideas over and over, building upon them and elaborating to the level of full understanding and mastery. 

•Intuitive and analytical thinking. Bruner believed that intuitive and analytical thinking should both be encouraged and rewarded.

Bruner introduced the doctrine of the spiral curriculum, that all topics -in some form -must be introduced at an early age, but cannot be exhausted at any age, and thus must be returned to in increasing depth.

In order for a student to develop from simple to more complex lessons, certain basic knowledge and skills must first be mastered.  This provides linkages between each lesson as student spirals upwards in a course of a study.  As new knowledge and skills are introduced, they reinforce what is already learned and become related to previously learned information.  What the student gradually achieves is a rich breadth and depth of information that is not normally developed when each topic is discrete and disconnected from each other.

Effective Instruction Theory

1.Predisposition to learn/Personalized: Instruction should relate to learners' predisposition, and facilitate interest toward learning.2. Content Structure: Content

should be structured so it can be most easily grasped by the learner.

3. Sequencing: Sequencing is an important aspect for presentation of material (visual, words, symbols).

4. Reinforcement: Rewards and punishment should be selected and paced appropriately. 

CONCLUSIONSConstructivism is widely considered an important model of effective teaching practice, and Bruner’s ideas underlie many contemporary approaches and practices, such as thinking skills and assessment for learning.

The teacher should utilize the internal imagery development of the child for his educational purposes. This mental imagery of the child would enable him in the conversation of his experiences and forge ahead with new experiences.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Answers. com. Jerome Burner. Recovered on September 5th, 2011,

from http://www.answers.com/topic/jerome-bruner#ixzz1XTfUCSKE

Jerome Bruner and the process of education. Recovered on September 5th, 2011, from

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm

The Contributions of Jerome Bruner. Recovered on September 5th, 2011, from http://www.slideshare.net/lilianamonserrat/the-

contributions-of-jerome-bruner

Theories of Learning in Educational Psychology. Jerome Bruner: Constructivism & Discovery Learning. Recovered on September

5th, 2011, from http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/constructivism/bruner.html

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Categorization. Recovered on September 5th, 2011, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorization