Download Cognitive Theory of Jerome Bruner

Jerome Bruner was born on October 1, 1915 in New York, NY and was a psychologist
from Harvard and Duke. He taught recently in Harvard and Oxford. One thing that is not really
known about him is that he became an astronaut in 1957. One of the more important quotes that I
found him to say is “Education must, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of
alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them.” This quote is
basically the overall sum of how I feel about education and how we should teach the students.
Hopefully if I become the teacher that I envision, the methods of Bruner as well as the ones from
Freire would also influence the way I teach my students. The thought behind trying to make the
students want to learn based on the sheer interest of learning would be the most gratifying feeling
for an educator.
During the time that Bruner graduated from Duke and Harvard he decided to join the
military to study the mind of the soldiers during the times of propaganda. During this time a lot
of the processes of cognitive thought were primarily based on the theories of Piaget. Within
Piaget’s thought of children grow cognitively by stages gave Bruner a thought of a different way
of how children grew cognitively.
Bruner influenced a lot of what we thought of the cognitive development of children. One
thought we have put into his theories is the process in which we try to get the students to
understand the material of the classroom. Bruner’s theory is based on four key concepts that the
school system should be into. The first one is the importance of structure within the classroom.
He believes that as long as the teacher is under control of what they are doing, then the students
would understand the material a lot better and that there won’t be as much chaos compare to a
classroom that doesn’t. this concept is one that is self-explanatory in that the teacher should be
able to know what they are doing and in what order they are doing it in. The next concept is the
readiness of learning that the students have. He thinks that the school is wasting the students’
time in trying to teach them material that is subject to the curriculum and ignoring other subjects
because they might be too hard for the students to understand. He believes that as long as the
concept of spiral curriculum is intact, then the students would be able to understand a lot of the
material that the teachers might not have thought was so difficult to teach. The concept of spiral
curriculum is the thought that as long as you as an educator repeatedly go over some of the
material, the students would understand the material a lot better. The concept of spiral
curriculum is one that I believe is very essential to teaching students. As someone who has used
that concept of study and get through certain classes, the idea of going over certain material is
something that genuinely works in helping students.
The third concept that Bruner explains is the intuitive and analytical thinking of students.
He thinks that this is important for students to develop this thought process and for teachers to
give the students an opportunity to think in that way. To have that process of thought would
allow you to have a clearer mind in understand material and information and for that reason,
Bruner believes that having intuitive thinking is important to have for students. And the last
concept from his theory is the motives for learning. And I believe that this is one of the most
important concepts that he has in his theory. Bruner believes that students should want to learn
because of the sheet interest of the information instead of the competition of grades and
averages. He believes that the school system is more interested in making the grades rather than
getting the students a true interest in the information that is presented to them. We should as
educators give the students an opportunity to gain an interest in the material instead of just giving
them the information for a grade based on the curriculum. This concept is the one that I believe
is the most important and one that I will strictly base a lot of my teaching strategies on. Bruner
throughout his career as a psychologist and educator was considered as a constructivist. His
thoughts on that student should be their own educators and allowing themselves the opportunity
to gain the information and understand it all is one that he thinks will pay off in itself.
Bruner’s knowledge of how the cognitive development is shown in classrooms around the
country. The practice of teachers letting their students decide on what topic they would like to
research and do an assignment is a pure example of letting the students choose the interest of
what they want to understand, compared to a teacher that always selects the topic in which they
have to research. Another concept within the classroom that exemplifies the theory of Bruner is
whenever teachers allow their students to go outside of the classroom to explore the material that
is needed to understand the class. Giving the students more freedom in what they decide to do
allow them to understand the material a lot better.
Overall, Bruner is one of the most influential educators and theorists that benefitted the
school system for the better. His concepts of giving students freedom also allows them to
understand the material as well as getting them to develop an interest in certain subjects rather
than learning for the sake of getting good grades and passing a class. Bruner alongside Freire are
some of the most influential theorists that I have read and based on their readings, a majority of
my teaching strategies is influenced by them.
Works Cited
Smith, M.K. (2002) ‘Jerome S. Bruner and the process of education’, the encyclopedia of
informal education. [http://infed.org/mobi/jerome-bruner-and-the-process-ofeducation/ Retrieved: October 16, 2013]
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Bruner - Learning Theory in Education - Simply
Psychology. Retrieved fromhttp://www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html
Jerome S. Bruner." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia
Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/82186/Jerome-SBruner>.
Edwin Joa
October 16, 2013
Professor Hernandez
Theorist #2 Jerome Bruner