By Sam Shumaker

Who is Jerome Bruner?Learning theorist

Associated with the Constructivist view of learning

Originated Discovery method of learning.

Who is Jerome Bruner?1915: Born in NYC

In WW2 worked for U.S. Army

intelligence reviewing the effectiveness

of propaganda.

1947 : Ph. D. , Psychology from Harvard

Positions on faculties of Harvard,

Oxford, and currently NYU

Founded Center for Cognitive studies

with Leo Postman

Who is Jerome Bruner?rooted mainly in the study of

cognition

Reacted against behaviorist

model of learning

founded “New Look”

movement in psychology

Change from behaviorist model

What ideas and influences are associated with Bruner?1. Constructivism paradigm of learninglearners create their own subjective

constructs of reality

2. Discovery learning (originator)

•method of instruction•learning is best achieved through a process of inquiry

What ideas and influences are associated with Bruner?Other Constructivists include Piaget,

Vygotsky and Dewey.Builds on the concept of stages of

development (Piaget)Environment has bigger role in learning

development."any subject can be taught effectively in some

intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.“ The Process of Education (1960)

What is Discovery learning?

Learner builds on past experience Students interact with environment Discovers facts and relationships on own Students create own construct of knowledge through

narrative

Teaching method

• Inquiry based process• Focuses on learning through experience

• Spiral construction of curriculum (revisits concepts)

Advantages of Discovery Learningactive engagement promotes motivation Promotes ownership of learningthe development of creativity and problem

solving skills. a tailored learning experience

Criticisms of discovery learningToo much information (cognitive overload) Often requires vast resources unavailable in

traditional classroom.Lack of teacher control

Potential misconceptions Teachers may fail to recognize

misconceptions

Examples of discovery learninglearning with and through narrativescase-based learningguided discovery problem-based learningsimulation-based learning incidental learning

Importance of Narrative

What are the roles of narratives in the following narrative?

How is this an example of discovery learning?

Repairing Photocopiers

When I arrived at Xerox, back in the 1980s, the company was spending millions and millions of dollars a year training its 23,000 "tech reps" around the world-the people who repair its copiers and printers. Lots of that training-it was like classroom instruction seemed to have little effect. Xerox wanted me to come up with some intelligent-tutoring or artificial-intelligence system for teaching these people troubleshooting. Fortunately, before we did so, we hired several anthropologists to go live in their "tribe" and see how they actually worked.

What the anthropologists learned surprised us. When a tech rep got stuck by a machine, he or she didn't look at the manual or review the training; he or she called another tech rep. As the two of them stood over the problematic machine, they'd recall earlier machines and fixes, then connect those stories to a new one that explained some of the symptoms. Some fragment of the initial story would remind them of another incident, which suggested a new measurement or tweak, which reminded them of another story fragment and fix to try, and so on. Troubleshooting for these people, then, really meant construction of a narrative, one that finally explained the symptoms and test data and got the machine up and running again. Abstract, logical reasoning wasn't the way they went about it; stories were.

This article was originally published in Change, Growing Up Digital, March/April 2000, pp 10-20. It is reprinted with the author's permission and permission of the Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation. It was published by Heldref Publications, 1319 18th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036-1802. Copyright © 2000.

Websites consultedKearsley, G (2008). Constructivist theory. Retrieved

February 14, 2008, from Explorations in Learning and Instruction Web site: http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html Jerome Seymour Bruner. (2006).

In Encyclopedia of World Biography [Web]. Thompson Gale. Retrieved 2/18/2008, from http://www.bookrags.com/biography/jerome-seymour-bruner/

Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2008, February). Discovery Learning (Bruner) at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved February 18, 2008 from

Bruner, , Jerome S. (2001). In Gale encyclopedia of Psychology [Web]. Retrieved 2/18/2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0000/ai_2699000048