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Jerome Bruner |
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1915 -
American psychologist
Professor of psychology at Harvard (1952-72), Oxford (1972-80), and presently at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
Wrote The Process of Education (1960), which emphasized curriculum innovation grounded in theories of cognitive development.
Learning is an active, social process in which students construct new ideas or concepts based on current knowledge. The student selects information, originates hypotheses, and makes decisions in the process of integrating experiences into their existing mental constructs.
The teacher encourages students to discover principles by themselves. The teacher and students should actively discuss issues and concepts (i.e., socratic learning). The teacher must translate information to be learned into a form appropriate to the learner's current state of understanding.
A variety of teaching methods, many choices available to the student, and multi-age peer groups all facilitate learning.
Good informational page on Bruner,
theories, writings
http://www.gwu.edu/~tip/bruner.html
Bruner, J. (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.