BRUNER’S THEORY

Jerome Bruner (1966) was concerned with how knowledge is represented and
organized through different modes of thinking (or representation).

It is a constructivist theory. Before going into Bruner’s theory let’s recall about
constructivism.

• Constructivism is an approach to learning that holds that people actively construct or

make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the
learner. (Elliott)

• Constructivism claims that each learner constructs knowledge individually and

socially. The “glue” that holds the constructs together is meaning.
Knowledge is not “out there”, as the realist philosophers such as
Plato claimed. Knowledge is always an interpretation of reality, not a
“true” representation of it.

• Constructivism is basically a theory, based on observation and scientific study, about

how people learn.

• According to this theory, people construct their own understanding and knowledge of
the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When one
encounters something new, one reconciles it with one’s previous ideas and experiences,
maybe changing what one believes, or maybe discarding the new information as
irrelevant.

https://www.tetsuccesskey.com/2015/07/constructivism.html

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. The
learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions,
relying on a cognitive structure to do so. Cognitive structure (i.e., schema, mental models)
provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows the individual to “go beyond the
information given”.

In his research on the cognitive development of children, Jerome Bruner proposed three modes
of representation:
• Enactive representation (action-based)
• Iconic representation (image-based)
 • Symbolic representation (language-based)

BRUNER'S THREE MODES OF REPRESENTATION:

Modes of representation are the way in which information or knowledge are stored and
encoded in memory.

ENACTIVE (0-1 Year):

This mode is used within the first year of life. Thinking is based entirely on physical actions, and
infants learn by doing, rather than by internal representation (or thinking).
It involves encoding physical action based information and storing it in our memory.
For example, in the form of movement as a muscle memory, a baby might remember the action
of shaking a rattle.
This mode continues later in many physical activities, such as learning to ride a bike.
Many adults can perform a variety of motor tasks (typing, sewing a shirt, operating a lawn
mower) that they would find difficult to describe in iconic (picture) or symbolic (word) form.

ICONIC (1 - 6 Years):
Information is stored as sensory images (icons), usually visual ones, like pictures in the mind.
For some, this is conscious; others say they don’t experience it.
This may explain why, when we are learning a new subject, it is often helpful to have diagrams
or illustrations to accompany the verbal information.
Thinking is also based on the use of other mental images (icons), such as hearing, smell or
touch.
SYMBOLIC (7 years and above):
This more-sophisticated mode is the last to develop and is more flexible than the previous two
modes. Mostly via the medium of language, information is stored using codes and symbols. For
example, ‘dog’ is a symbolic representation of a certain class of animals.
Such symbols can be manipulated, sorted, classified etc., so the learner is not restricted to using
only actions or images. Data storage is accomplished via words, mathematical signs and/or
other symbol systems.
This constructivist theory implies learners (even adults) should tackle new material by
progressing from enactive to iconic to symbolic representation. Another implication is that even
very young learners are capable of learning any material, provided it is appropriately organized
to match their current level of ability.
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS:
The aim of education should be to create autonomous learners (i.e., learning to learn).
For Bruner (1961), the purpose of education is not to impart knowledge, but instead to
facilitate a child's thinking and problem-solving skills which can then be transferred to a range
of situations. Specifically, education should also develop symbolic thinking in children.
In 1960 Bruner's text, The Process of Education was published. The main premise of Bruner's
text was that students are active learners who construct their own knowledge.
READINESS:
Bruner (1960) opposed Piaget's notion of readiness. He argued that schools waste time trying
to match the complexity of subject material to a child's cognitive stage of development.
This means students are held back by teachers as certain topics are deemed too difficult to
understand and must be taught when the teacher believes the child has reached the
appropriate stage of cognitive maturity.
THE SPIRAL CURRICULUM:
Bruner (1960) adopts a different view and believes a child (of any age) is capable of
understanding complex information:
'We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually
honest form to any child at any stage of development.' (p. 33)

Bruner (1960) 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 difficultly (hence the spiral
analogy). Ideally, teaching his way should lead to children being able to solve problems by
themselves.
DISCOVERY LEARNING:
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).

ROLE OF TEACHERS:
• 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.
• Major aspects: (1) predisposition towards learning, (2) the ways in which a body of
knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner and
(3) the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments.

EXAMPLE:
This example is taken from Bruner (1973):

“The concept of prime numbers appears to be more readily grasped when the child, through
construction, discovers that certain handfuls of beans cannot be laid out in completed rows and
columns. Such quantities have either to be laid out in a single file or in an incomplete row-
column design in which there is always one extra or one too few to fill the pattern. These
patterns, the child learns, happen to be called prime. It is easy for the child to go from this step
to the recognition that a multiple table, so called, is a record sheet of quantities in completed
multiple rows and columns. Here is factoring, multiplication and primes in a construction that
can be visualized.”