Jerome Bruner developed many theories and other aspects of cognition which influenced the American educational system and helped the field of cognitive psychology. In the “Constructivist Theory (Jerome Bruner)” website, they state that a major theme in his theory is that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas based upon current or past knowledge and allow the learners to go beyond the information that was given through experiences. Jerome Bruner had many ideas about teaching and learning that include modes of representation, discovery learning, and spiral curriculum.
There are three modes of representation that Jerome Bruner explained. These modes of representation can depend on each other when learning new skills. The first mode is enactive representation. This mode involves encoding physical action-based information and storing it in our memory. This mode is learned by doing much like how infants learn (McLeod, 2019). In the YouTube video Jerome “Bruner- Three Modes of Cognitive Representation”, they compared this mode to learning a sport. When learning a sport, the main elements in mastering it is learned through physical motions and gestures. The knowledge is specific to motor skills and learned physically. Verbal and written information can support this mode, but it is best learned by doing the activity.
The second mode of representation is iconic. Iconic represents events with images which may include pictures, charts, or graphs (even the simplest ones like a thought bubble) that help activate the imagination (Jerome Bruner- Three Modes of Cognitive Representation, 2016). Information is stored as sensory images and thinking can be based on the use of other mental images like hearing, smelling, or touching (McLeod, 2019).
The third mode of representation is called symbolic which represents things through arbitrary symbols (Jerome Bruner- Three Modes of Cognitive Representation, 2016). Information is usually stored as a code or a symbol which can be a language. In this knowledge it is primarily stored as words, mathematical symbols, or in other symbol systems like music (McLeod, 2019).
Another one of Jerome Bruner’s teaching and learning ideas is discovery learning which he proposes that learners’ construct their own knowledge and do it by organizing and categorizing information using a code system (McLeod, 2019). He also believes that the most effective way to develop this learning is by the learner discovering it instead of the teacher telling which implies that the students construct their own knowledge. He also states that teachers should be there to facilitate the learning process instead of the students learning by rote. A good teacher will design lessons to help the students discover relationships between smaller pieces of information without giving them organized information. The spiral curriculum helps with this process.
The third idea of Jerome Bruner is spiral curriculum. The instructor’s task is to translate information into a format that is appropriate for learn according to their current state of understanding. The curriculum should also be organized to where the student continuously builds on what they have learned (Constructivist Theory [Jerome Bruner] website). This way of learning should guide students to be able to solve problems by themselves meaning that complex ideas can be taught first by teaching it at a simple level and then re-visiting it later when they are more complex.
Sources:
Jerome Bruner- Three Modes of Cognitive Representation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9kH8bEHWhs
Constructivist Theory (Jerome Bruner)
https://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/constructivist/
Bruner- Learning Theory in Education
https://www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html
Jerome Bruner
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