Bruner- s Learning Theories[1]

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

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Jerome BrunerJerome BrunerInductive and Discovery Inductive and Discovery

LearningLearning


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DISCOVERY LEARNINGDISCOVERY LEARNING ANDAND INTERVENTIONINTERVENTION

• The cognitive development of children can be accelerated through teaching and intervention by the teacher.

• True learning involves “figuring out how to use what you already know in order to go beyond what you already think.” - Bruner (1983)


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Bruner (1965:20)Bruner (1965:20)• “Mastery of the fundamental ideas of

a field involves not only the grasping of general principles, but also the development of an attitude toward learning and inquiry, toward guessing and hunches, toward the possibility of solving problems on one’s own.”


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The Goal of Education by The Goal of Education by BrunerBruner

• The goal of education should be intellectual development and that the science curriculum should foster the development of problem-solving skills through inquiry and discovery.


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Inductive Approach to Inductive Approach to LearningLearning

• Teachers present students with problems/ examples and help them seek solutions either independently or by engaging in group discussions (Inductive Approach – Specific to General).

• Perceptions or conceptions that children arrive at on their own are usually more meaningful than those proposed by others.


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Inductive ReasoningInductive Reasoning• The teacher presents examples and

the students work with the examples until they discover the interrelationships and formulate a general principle.


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Activity: Pouring AirActivity: Pouring Air• You know how to pour water from

one container to another. Think…how can you show air being poured from one container to another?


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ConclusionConclusion

• Air takes up space.

Moral: Activities in life naturally fill up our time. That’s why we need to plan our time properly and manage our lives well.


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QuestionQuestion• What is required of the teacher and

the learner in the process of discovery learning?


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Role of Teachers in Role of Teachers in Discovery LearningDiscovery Learning

• Present both examples and non-examples of concepts

• Help students see connections among concepts with questions

• Pose questions and allow students to find an answer

• Encourage students to make intuitive guesses.


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Role of Students in Role of Students in Discovery LearningDiscovery Learning

• Active learning by students as the basis for understanding.

• Uses basic, pre-requisite knowledge. • Uses inductive reasoning by starting

with the specific and moving to the general.

• Actively use their intuition, imagination, and creativity.

• Apply problem solving strategies.


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Advantages of Discovery and Advantages of Discovery and Inquiry Teaching by BrunerInquiry Teaching by Bruner

• Intellectual Potency: Individual learns and develops his mind only by using it.

• Intrinsic rather than extrinsic motives: As a consequence of succeeding at discovery, the student receives a satisfying thrill – an intrinsic or self-satisfying reward.


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Advantages of Discovery and Advantages of Discovery and Inquiry Teaching by Bruner (2)Inquiry Teaching by Bruner (2)

• Learning the heuristics of discovery: Through discovering, a student slowly learns how to organize and carry out investigations.

• Conservation of memory: Something you reasoned out yourself is probably still fresh in your mind but concepts you were told or heard in a lecture may have escaped your mind. The biggest problem of memory is not storage but retrieval of data. The key to retrieval is organization.


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The Expository-Discovery The Expository-Discovery ContinuumContinuum

Expository Guided-Inquiry

Free Discovery

•Totally teacher-dominated

•Student absorb information

•Deductive

•Totally student-dominated

•Children explore subjects of their own interests in ways most comfortable to them

•Inductive

•Teachers facilitate their students in their investigations of teacher-established topics


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The Free-The Free-Discovery Discovery MethodMethod

Ultimate Freedom Ultimate Freedom


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Free-Discovery MethodologyFree-Discovery Methodology• Students decide what is important for

them to learn. • Students set up their individual and

unique learning activities to explore the topics they have chosen.

• Teacher acts as a resource and co-inquirer.


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Discovery learning is Discovery learning is suitable for…suitable for…

• Understanding the ways in which ideas connect with one another.

• The possibility of solving problems on our own.

• How what we already know is relevant to what we are trying to learn.


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Primary Advantages of Free Discovery Primary Advantages of Free Discovery Learning to Science EducationLearning to Science Education

• Free facilitation of the constructivist paradigm.

• The cognitive engagement of all students (for they will not be studying something that does not interest them).

• The opportunity to develop process skills.

• The meaningfulness of the material learned.


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Disadvantages of Free Disadvantages of Free Discovery LearningDiscovery Learning

• Does not provide enough structure.• Can lead to frustration in the beginning as

children wean themselves from dependence on teacher.

• Reduces the teacher’s control of content.• Requires additional materials and

equipment.• May present management problems –

each child is studying something different at the same time.

• Time consuming.


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Guided Inquiry Guided Inquiry MethodMethod

Giving some structure to Giving some structure to the T&L Processthe T&L Process


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Guided-Inquiry Method Guided-Inquiry Method • Teacher selects the topic and sets

the direction.• The students ask questions that, in

turn, set new directions.


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Guided-Inquiry MethodGuided-Inquiry Method• The teacher suggests open-ended

activities that the students– can pursue to find out what they need.– inquire into what they don’t understand.– develop their own conclusions as they

construct their own conceptualizations.– check their conclusions against further

investigations to see if they possess validity.– discuss their conclusions with one another.– involved in hands-on and minds-on activities.– use resources.


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Teacher as Guide by the Teacher as Guide by the SideSide

• Teacher serves as guide (not director), facilitator, resource person and co-inquirer.


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Advantages of Guided-Advantages of Guided-Inquiry Inquiry

• Encourages students to construct their own conceptualizations while exposing them to the content suggested at that grade or level.

• It allows students to pursue certain topics in depth.

• It permits students to ask and investigate their own questions.


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• Provides enough structure to eliminate the feeling of “wandering” in free-discovery.

• Students are given the parameters to start their inquiries and such necessary constraints (time, group size, materials etc.)

• The class is manageable.


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• The content of the curriculum is covered.

• There is the mastery of science processes.


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Disadvantages of Guided-Disadvantages of Guided-Inquiry Inquiry

• Inquiry may take more time than is allowed for science.

• When students develop their own questions, the questions do not necessarily relate to the required curriculum.


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• Teachers may be uncomfortable responding to all questions posed by children.

• Teachers may feel unprepared to help children with difficult questions because of their perceived lack of background knowledge.


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• Teachers may be more comfortable with greater classroom structure than the freedom suggested by open-ended inquiry.


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JEROME BRUNERJEROME BRUNER • Jerome Bruner believes that meaningful

learning occurs when students grasp the structure of a field of study (the nature of fundamental ideas and how they relate to one another) and when they discover these relationships themselves.


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(A) STRUCTURES(A) STRUCTURES • Students need to learn the structures of

the field of knowledge they are learning – that is, understanding basic ideas and how those ideas are interrelated


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BASIC IDEASBASIC IDEAS

• They can be represented by a diagram, picture, statement or formula.

• They can be represented in different forms of representation.

• They can be applied in various kinds of new problems.


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THREE MODES OF THREE MODES OF REPRESENTATION BY BRUNERREPRESENTATION BY BRUNER

• Children of different ages represent the world to themselves in fundamentally different ways:

ENACTIVE MODEICONIC MODESYMBOLIC MODE


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ENACTIVE MODEENACTIVE MODE• Toddlers and pre-

schoolers: Think of the world primarily in terms of the actions that can be performed on it.


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ICONIC MODEICONIC MODE• Childhood: Ideas are

represented primarily in terms of pictures or images.


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SYMBOLIC MODESYMBOLIC MODE• Late childhood and

early adolescence: Ideas tend to be represented in terms of verbal propositions, mathematical formulas, and logical symbols (Words and Numbers).


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SPIRAL CURRICULUMSPIRAL CURRICULUM “any subject can be taught

to any child in some honest form…”- Bruner (1971)


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SPIRAL CURRICULUMSPIRAL CURRICULUM• Even young children can grasp the essence of

basic ideas – albeit in a simplified, intuitive fashion – provided the presentation is geared to the child’s predominant mode of representation.

• In later years, as a child’s thinking becomes more mature, these same ideas can be reintroduced with more complexity.

• This technique of re-teaching the same idea in more complex form is known as spiral curriculum.


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Pre-School:

Learn the word ‘water’ and can identify it.

Wet.

Primary School:

•Change of states of water: solid, liquid & gas.

•Floating and sinking

•Boiling and freezing point.

Lower Secondary:

•Water is a compound (Matter)

•The use of water as a solvent.

Upper Secondary:

Viscosity, liquid density, buoyancy, surface tension, Bernoulli’s Principle


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LanguageLanguageThe importance of The importance of

language in the learning language in the learning processprocess


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Bruner’s OpinionBruner’s Opinion• Language is the main tool to help

accelerate the cognitive development of children.


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The Tasks of a Teacher The Tasks of a Teacher • To help students develop their

linguistic abilities. • Use language that is easy enough to

understood by students, but still challenging enough to stretch their intellect.


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QuestionQuestion• How is Bruner’s Theory similar and

different from Piaget’s and Gagne’s?

The Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer

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Bruner- s Learning Theories[1]