Jerome Bruner

Jerome Bruner

1. His Life

   • American Psychologist born in 1915 in New York City.
   • Studied at Harvard University in (1941)

2. His Theory

   • believes children will only develop to their full potential with the help of adults and peers, gradually becomes less frequent as it is no longer needed
     • "Learning, he suggest, is about experiences: doing things, hearing stories, meeting new ideas, getting to know about yourself and others" Overall (2007,pg76)
   • Scaffolding
     • framework in which adults/peers provide to enable a child cognitively, aims to help a child achieve a specific goal
       • TAs can play a vital role in this
     • Similar to the ideas and research carried out by Vygotsky
     • He believed that providing a new experience should be repeated and developed upon
   • What he believed (myenglishpages 2011)
     • Learning is an active process
     • Learners make appropriate decisions and test the effectiveness of different outcomes
       • be aware of children's learning styles and learning modes (Symbolic,Iconic and Enactive) which will help you plan and prepare appropriate resources and activities that meet the needs of children
     • Learners use prior experiences to fit new information into existing structures
       • Spiral curriculum, introduction of levels: developing on skills that already exsist
     • Building on and revisiting ideas until learners grasp the formal concept
       • Letters and sounds Intervention: : fisher phase 3 Daily Rountines within the classroom (Timetable)
     • Although extrinsic motivation may work short term, intrinsic motivation has more value
       • -Rewards (Merits, golden time etc) -feedback on work, positive and improvements -Displaying childrens work
       • ''experience success and failure not as reward and punishment, but information''(Bruner 1961 ,pg 26)
   • 'the purpose of education is not to impart knowledge but to facilitate a child's thinking and problem solving skills'(simply psychology, 2012)

3. 3 modes of Representation

   • Enactive (0-1years) the stage which refers to learning through your actions. e.g a baby remembering the movement of a rattle
   • Iconic (1-6 years) this stage refers to learners using pictures and models for their learning
     • -Visual resources -Displays
   • Symbolic Stage refers to the development of the ability to think in different terms e.g.. to ensure they have fixed relation to which they represent