1. Born October 1,1915
Age 94
Born in New York
EDUCATION
PhD, Harvard,1941 (Psychology)
BA, Duke University,1937
AFFILLATIONS
American Psychological Association
Law & Society Association
Society for Research in Child Development
PUBLICATIONS
The Culture of Education ,1996
Acts of Meaning,1991
Actual Minds , Possible Worlds ,1987
The Process of Education , 1960
Cognitive Psychologist and educational Psychologist
Scaffolding Theory
Spiral Curriculum
2. • Introduction must be concerned with the
experiences and contexts that make the
students willing and able to learn.
• Introduction must be structured so that it
can be easily grasped by the students
(spiral organization).
• Introduction should be designed to
facilitate extrapolation and or fill on the
gaps (going beyond the information given).
3. Like Piaget, Bruner believed that children have an innate
capacity that helps them make sense of the work and that
cognitive abilities develop through active interaction.
Unlike Piaget however, Bruner argued that social factors,
particularly language, were important for cognitive growth.
These underpin the concept of ‘scaffolding’.
Bruner was also concerned with how knowledge is represented
and organised through different modes of representation.
4.
5. The first kind of memory. This mode is used from birth to
3 years of life (corresponding with Piaget’s sensorimotor
stage).
The infant stores information in the form of muscle
memories: remembering the feel of actions.
Thinking is based entirely on physical actions.
Infants learn by doing, rather than by internal
representation (or thinking).
This mode continues later in many physical activities,
such as learning to ride a bike.
6. • Information is stored as sensory images:
usually visual ones, like pictures in the mind.
• Mode begins to develop from 3-7 years.
• Some children develop an extreme form of
this known as eidetic imagery (photographic
memory), but they usually lose it as they
grow older.
• Thinking is based on the use of mental
images (icons), which may be based on sight,
hearing, smell or touch.
7. • The ability to store things in the form of
symbols. Words are powerful symbols and
we can store a lot of information as verbal
memory.
• This mode is acquired around seven to
above years. (corresponding to Piaget’s
operation stage).
• Representation of the world is principally
through language, but also other symbolic
systems such as number and music.
8. Provide study material ,activities and tools
Example of all three to help children learn
about dinosaurs
Contruct a model of a dinosaur (enactive)
Watch a film about dinosaurs (iconic)
Consult references texts and discuss findings
(symbolic)
9. ● Bruner (1960) adopts a different view and
believes a child (of any age) is capable of
understanding complex information:
● He explained how this was possible through the
concept of the spiral curriculum. This involved
information being structured so that complex
ideas can be taught at a simplified level first, and
then re-visited at more complex levels later on.
● Therefore, subjects would be taught at levels of
gradually increasing difficulty (hence the spiral
analogy). Ideally, teaching his way should lead to
children being able to solve problems by
themselves.
10. Bruner (1961) proposes that learners construct their own knowledge and do
this by organizing and categorizing information using a coding system. Bruner
believed that the most effective way to develop a coding system is to discover it
rather than being told by the teacher.
The concept of discovery learning implies that students construct their own
knowledge for themselves (also known as a constructivist approach).
The role of the teacher should not be to teach information by rote learning, but
instead to facilitate the learning process. This means that a good teacher will
design lessons that help students discover the relationship between bits of
information.
To do this a teacher must give students the information they need, but without
organizing for them. The use of the spiral curriculum can aid the process of
discovery learning.
11. • Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976)
– adults particularly parents,
support children's cognitive
development through everyday
play interactions.
• Scaffolding is a temporary
support structure around that
child’s attempts to understand
new ideas and complete new
tasks.
12. • The purpose of the support is to allow the child to achieve higher
levels of development by:
• 1. simplifying the task or idea
• 2. motivating and encouraging the child
• Highlighting important task elements or errors
• Giving models that can be imitated.
