2. Biography
Born October 1, 1915 in New York City.
1941 Doctorate in psychology at Harvard University.
Cognitive and educational psychology.
1956 Bruner helped to found the Center of cognitive
studies at Harvard.
1967 he turned his attention toward Developmental
Psychology.
3. Bruner´s constructivist theory
Bruner´s 3 Modes of representation.
1. Enactive (0-1 year): Action based information
2. Iconic (1-6 years): Mental pictures of information
3. Symbolic (7 years +): Information is stored in a form of
a code or a symbol.
New material follow a progression from enactive, to icon to
symbolic representation.
Anyone can learn any material as long as the instruction is
organized appropriately.
The purpose of education is not to impart knowledge but to
facilitate a child´s thinking and problem solving skills.
Students are active learners who construct their own
knowledge.
4. Bruner´s constructivist theory
Differences with Piaget: a child is capable of
understanding any complex information at any stage
of development.
Sprial Curriculum: Complex ideas can be taught at a
simplified level first ant then re-visited at more
complex levels later on.
Concepts will be taught at levels of gradually increasing
difficulty.
Discovery Learning: Students construct their own
knowledge.
Organizing and categorizing information using a coding
system (by discovery rather than being told by the teacher).
Good teacher: Design lessons that help students to
discover the relationship between bits of information.
5. Bruner´s constructivist theory
Social environment has an impact on a child
learning.
Scaffolding: A helpful and structured interaction
between and adult and a child with the aim of
helping the child achieve a specific goal.
What determines the level of intellectual
development is the extent to which the child has
been given appropriate instruction.
Video
