Jerome Bruner

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Jerome Bruner

• Cheryl Johnson
• Karen Maiden
• Regina McDonald
• Amanda McGuire

Photo courtesy of http//oaks.nvg.org/bruner-sayin
gs.html
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Table of Contents

• Biography
• Cognitive Development
• Enactive
• Iconic
• Symbolic
• Classroom Applications
• Technology in the Classroom
• Discovery Learning
• Cultural Trend
• Final Thought
• Quiz

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Biography

• Education
• PhD, Harvard, 1941 (Psychology)
• BA, Duke University, 1937
• Affiliations
• American Psychological Association
• Law Society Association
• Society for Research in Child Development
• Publications
• The Culture of Education, 1996
• Acts of Meaning, 1991
• Actual Minds, Possible Worlds, 1987
• The Process of Education, 1960

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Cognitive Development

• Like Piaget, Bruner believed in stages of
  instruction based on development.
• Enactive (birth to age 3)
• Iconic (age 3 to 8)
• Symbolic (from age 8)
• Each mode is dominant at different phases of
  development but all are present and accessible
  always.

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Enactive
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Iconic
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Symbolic
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Classroom Applications

• Provide study materials, activities, and tools
• Examples of all three to help children learn
  about dinosaurs
• Construct a model of a dinosaur (enactive)
• Watch a film about dinosaurs (iconic)
• Consult reference texts and discuss findings
  (symbolic)

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Technology in Classroom

• Manipulatives for enactive stage
• Safari Montage and other video footage for iconic
  mode
• Simulations to discover/develop their own
  approach for symbolic mode
• Educators equip students with basic skills to
  access information to increase their knowledge
  and desire to learn

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Discovery Learning

• Discovery learning is an approach to
  instruction through which students interact with
  their environment by exploring and manipulating
  objects, wrestling with questions and
  controversies, or performing experiments
  (Ormrod, 2000, p. 442).

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Cultural Trend

• Became critical of the cognitive revolution
• Began to argue for the building of a cultural
  psychology beyond the confines of schooling (The
  Culture of Education)
• Appreciation of culture culture shapes the
  mindprovides us with the toolkit by which we
  construct not only our worlds but our very
  conception of our selves and our powers

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Howard Gardners Comments

• Jerome Bruner is not merely one of the foremost
  educational thinkers of the era he is also an
  inspired learner and teacher. His infectious
  curiosity inspires all who are not completely
  jaded. Individuals of every age and background
  are invited to join inIn his words,
  Intellectual activity is anywhere and
  everywhere, whether at the frontier of knowledge
  or in a third-grade classroom. (Gardner, 2001,
  pg. 94)

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Quiz

• To which mode does this classroom activity
  belong
• learning subtraction by showing 6 items and
  physically removing 4 of them?
• Enactive
• Iconic
• Symbolic

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Not quite

• Review notes for a hint
• Try again
• I have no idea. Tell me the correct answer

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The Correct Answer is

• The Enactive mode
• In the Enactive mode students learn through their
  own actions. By actually removing the items the
  students gain an understanding of subtraction and
  learn that 6 minus 4 equals 2.
• (In the iconic stage, when they progress to math
  work without counting, they will see 6-4 and
  know the answer is 2.)

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Sources

• Bruner, Jerome. Retrieved June 3, 2008. NYU
  Department of Psychology Web site
  http//www.psych.nyu.edu.
• Flores, Nicole. Jerome Bruners educational
  theory. Retrieved June 3, 2008. New Foundation
  Web site http//www.newfoundations.com.
• Gardner, H. (2001). Fifty modern thinkers on
  education. from Piaget to the present, London
  Routledge.
• Hollyman, David. Retrieved June 3, 2008. Jerome
  Bruner a web overview. http//au.geocities.com.
• Smith, M.K. (2002). Jerome Bruner and The process
  of education. Retrieved June 3, 2008 from The
  encyclopedia of informal education Web site
  http//www.infed.org.
• Ormond, J (2000). Educational Psychology
  developing learners (3rd ed).
• Roblyer, M.D. (2003). Integrating educational
  technology into teaching, (3rd ed.). Columbus,
  Ohio Merrill Prentice Hall.

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