Jerome Bruner

1. Jerome Bruner A presentation by Dr.M.U.Paily

2. Any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development

3. Theory of instruction • Should address four major aspects: • Predisposition towards learning • The ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner • The most effective sequences in which to present material • the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments • Good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying, generating new propositions, and increasing the manipulation of information

4. Three Principles • Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness). • Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization). • Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given).

5. Jerome Bruner • Structure of knowledge • Stages of cognitive development • Discovery learning • Spiral curriculum

6. Structure of knowledge • The essential information • Fundamental ideas and relationship • The pattern of knowledge • Structure does not include specific facts or details about the subject • Essential structure can be represented as a diagram, set of principles, or formula

7. PLANE, SIMPLE, CLOSED FIGURE

8. Stages of cognitive development/knowledge representation • Enactive mode • Iconic mode • Symbolic mode

9. Enactive mode • Think of world primarily in terms of the actions that can be performed on it • When dealing with the enactive mode, one is using some known aspects of reality without using words or imagination • In their very early years, young children rely extensively upon enactive modes to learn • As a child learns to roll over, sit up or walk, they are learning to do so through their own actions • While this mode is present in people of all ages it is more dominant when a person is young

10. Iconic mode • Ideas are represented primarily in terms of pictures, images, and objects • This mode deals with the internal imagery, were the knowledge is characterised by a set of images that stand for the concept • Iconic representation normally becomes dominant during the next stage of childhood years. Children learn to understand what pictures and diagrams are and how to do arithmetic using numbers and without counting objects.

11. Symbolic mode • Ideas tend to be represented in terms of verbal propositions, mathematical formulas, and logical symbols (although iconic and enactive modes are equally available) • Usually around adolescence - the symbolic mode of learning becomes most dominant. Students can understand and work with concepts that are abstract.

12. According to Bruner, any domain of knowledge (physics, chemistry, biology, earth science) or problem or concept within that domain (law of gravitation, atomic structure, homeostasis, earthquake waves) can be represented in three ways or modes: • by a set of actions (enactive representation), • by a set of images or graphics that stand for the concept (iconic representation); • by a set of symbolic or logical statements (symbolic representation).

13. According to Bruner, instruction should lead the learner through the content in order to increase the student's ability to "grasp, transform and transfer" what is learned. In general sequencing should move from enactive (hands-on, concrete), to iconic (visual), to symbolic (descriptions in words or mathematical symbols). However, this sequence will be dependent on the student's symbolic system and learning style.

14. Spiral curriculum • “any subject can be taught to any child in some honest form” • Bruner argues that 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

15. Spiral curriculum • In later years, as child’s thinking becomes more mature, these same ideas can be reintroduced with more complexity • Bruner refers to this practice of introducing something early in simple form and then again later in more complex form as the spiral curriculum

16. Example of spiral curriculumMagnetism • Lower grades • Magnet pick up different things • Magnet pick up, push or pull things made of iron and steel • Magnets help us in the home and other places • Magnets have different shapes and sizes • Magnets lose much energy when they are dropped, pounded, heated • Magnets can pull through water, glass, paper, and other objects

17. Upper grades • Magnets have two poles: north and south • The earth is a large magnet and also has two poles • A compass needle can be made with a bar magnet • A compass needle is a magnet • Like poles repel and unlike poles attract each other • Generally a compass needle tend to point toward magnetic north • Permanent magnet are made from cobalt, nickel and iron • Iron filings can help to make magnetic field visible • Magnets are important in navigation and industry

18. High school • Magnetism is a form of energy • Compass errors may be due to electromagnetic disturbances • Electricity is induced in a coil when a magnet is moved back and forth through a coil of wire • Electromagnets receive current pulsations and help to produce sound in telephones • Magnetic force between two poles depends up on their strength and distance from each other • Arbitrary right and left-hand rules describe electric current and magnetic fields

19. Higher secondary • The number of turns or loops in a coil of wire and current intensity affect the strength of an electromagnet • The motion of electrons around atomic nuclei is related to the propagation of minute magnetic fields in molecules • Most electrical motors are operated by pulsating magnetic fields • Coulomb's law

20. Discovery learning • A learning in which students are provided with stimulating situations in which they actively question, explore, and experiment rather than passively accept the teachers explanations. • Inductive thinking

21. Discovery learning • Expository Teaching • Teacher gives principles and solutions • Guided Discovery • Gives the principles not the solutions • Gives the solution not the principles • Unguided Discovery • Nether the principles nor the solutions

22. Curiosity and Uncertainty. Bruner felt that experiences should be designed that will help the student be willing and able to learn. He called this the predisposition toward learning. Bruner believed that the desire to learn and to undertake problem solving could be activated by devising problem activities in which students would explore alternative solutions. The major condition for the exploration of alternatives was "the presence of some optimal level of uncertainty."This related directly to the student's curiosity to resolve uncertainty and ambiguity. According to this idea, the teacher would design discrepant event activities that would pique the students' curiosity. For example, the teacher might fill a glass with water and ask the students how many pennies they think can be put in the jar without any water spilling. Since most students think that only a few pennies can be put in the glass, their curiosity is aroused when the teacher is able to put between 25 - 50 pennies in before any water spills. This activity then leads to an exploration of displacement, surface tension, variables such as the size of the jar, how full the glass is, and so forth. In this activity the students would be encouraged to explore various alternatives to the the solution of the problem by conducting their own experiments with jars of water and pennies.

23. A major theme in the theoretical framework of Bruner is that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. • Bruner's work emphasized the importance of understanding the structure of a subject being studied, the need for active learning as the basis for true understanding, and the value of reasoning in learning. • In Bruner's Constructivist Theory learners engage in discovery learning obtaining knowledge by themselves. They select and transform information, construct hypotheses, and make decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so. • In order for discovery to occur learners require background preparation in the form of a cognitive structure that provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows the individual to "go beyond the information given" • The instructor should try and encourage students to discover principles by themselves, and both learners and teachers should engage in an active dialog (Socratic learning). Curriculum should be organized in a spiral manner so that the student continually builds upon what they have already learned.