1. The contributions of Jerome Bruner: Learning as discovery
Practice II- 2010
Alietti Ailin
Rodriguez Rocio
“Any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually
honest form to any child at any stage of development.”
2. Children’s stages of development
Enactive Stage
(from birth to about
age 3)
Children
perceive the
environment
through
actions they
initiate.
describe and
explain objects
in terms of what
a child can do
with them.
Iconic Stage
(from about age 3 to
about age 8)
Children
remember and use
information through
imagery.
their visual
memory increases and
they think about actions
without experiencing
them.
decisions based on
perception
Symbolic
Stage
(from about age 8)
Children
use symbols
to represent people
and things since
they can think and
talk in abstract
terms.
they can
identify “defined”
concepts.
4. Indicators of cognitive development
1) Respond to situations in varied ways.
2) Internalize the events into a storage system
(that corresponds to the environment).
3) Have increased capacity for language.
4) Interact systematically with the tutor.
5) Use language as an isntrument for ordering the
environment.
6) Have increasing capacity to deal with multiple
demands.
5. Implications for education
Bruner concerned about the
arrangement for school instructions
based on stages of cognitive
development.
Discovery learning approach to
instructions through which students
interact with their environment.
6. Bruner
Students
more likely to
understand
and
remember
concepts
discovering
them by their
own
exploration.
Research
findings
have
discovered
mixed results
as regards
discovery
learning.
they
found Bruner’s
methods
unstructured.
Teachers
Discovery
learning is
most
successful
when students
have
prerequisite
knowledge
and undergo
some
structured
experiencies.
Postures of learning as dicovery
7. Implications for technology integration
Discovery learning approach by using technology
Radical constructivist
A teacher might
allow students to use
a simulation that
leads them discover
the rules
themselves.
A teacher may
introduce a problem
scenario and help
students develop
their approaches to
solving the
problems.
8. “Intellectual activity is anywhere and everywhere,
whether at the frontier of knowledge or in a third-
grade classroom”.
Jerome Bruner 1915-
