Jerome Bruner

Inductive and Discovery Learning

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

DISCOVERY LEARNING AND INTERVENTION

The cognitive development of children can be accelerated through teaching and intervention by the teacher. True learning involves figuring out how to use what you already know in order to go beyond what you already think. - Bruner (1983)

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

Bruner (1965:20)
Mastery of the fundamental ideas of a field involves not only the grasping of general principles, but also the development of an attitude toward learning and inquiry, toward guessing and hunches, toward the possibility of solving problems on ones own.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 6

The Goal of Education by Bruner

The goal of education should be intellectual development and that the science curriculum should foster the development of problemsolving skills through inquiry and discovery.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

Inductive Approach to Learning

Teachers present students with problems/ examples and help them seek solutions either independently or by engaging in group discussions (Inductive Approach Specific to General). Perceptions or conceptions that children arrive at on their own are usually more meaningful than those proposed by others.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 8

Inductive Reasoning
The teacher presents examples and the students work with the examples until they discover the interrelationships and formulate a general principle.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

Activity: Pouring Air

You know how to pour water from one container to another. Thinkhow can you show air being poured from one container to another?

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

10

Conclusion
Air takes up space.

Moral: Activities in life naturally fill up our time. Thats why we need to plan our time properly and manage our lives well.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

11

Question
What is required of the teacher and the learner in the process of discovery learning?

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

12

Role of Teachers in Discovery Learning

Present both examples and nonexamples of concepts Help students see connections among concepts with questions Pose questions and allow students to find an answer Encourage students to make intuitive guesses.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 13

Role of Students in Discovery Learning

Active learning by students as the basis for understanding. Uses basic, pre-requisite knowledge. Uses inductive reasoning by starting with the specific and moving to the general. Actively use their intuition, imagination, and creativity. Apply problem solving strategies.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 14

Advantages of Discovery and Inquiry Teaching by Bruner

Intellectual Potency: Individual learns and develops his mind only by using it. Intrinsic rather than extrinsic motives: As a consequence of succeeding at discovery, the student receives a satisfying thrill an intrinsic or self-satisfying reward.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 15

Advantages of Discovery and Inquiry Teaching by Bruner (2)

Learning the heuristics of discovery: Through discovering, a student slowly learns how to organize and carry out investigations. Conservation of memory: Something you reasoned out yourself is probably still fresh in your mind but concepts you were told or heard in a lecture may have escaped your mind. The biggest problem of memory is not storage but retrieval of data. The key to retrieval is organization.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 16

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

17

The Expository-Discovery ExpositoryContinuum Totally studentTotally teacherdominated Student absorb information Deductive Teachers facilitate their students in their investigations of teacherestablished topics dominated Children explore subjects of their own interests in ways most comfortable to them Inductive Expository GuidedInquiry Free Discovery

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

18

The FreeFreeDiscovery Method

Ultimate Freedom

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

19

FreeFree-Discovery Methodology
Students decide what is important for them to learn. Students set up their individual and unique learning activities to explore the topics they have chosen. Teacher acts as a resource and coinquirer.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

20

Discovery learning is suitable for

Understanding the ways in which ideas connect with one another. The possibility of solving problems on our own. How what we already know is relevant to what we are trying to learn.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

21

Primary Advantages of Free Discovery Learning to Science Education Free facilitation of the constructivist paradigm. The cognitive engagement of all students (for they will not be studying something that does not interest them). The opportunity to develop process skills. The meaningfulness of the material learned.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 22

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

23

Disadvantages of Free Discovery Learning

Does not provide enough structure. Can lead to frustration in the beginning as children wean themselves from dependence on teacher. Reduces the teachers control of content. Requires additional materials and equipment. May present management problems each child is studying something different at the same time. Time consuming.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 24

Guided Inquiry Method

Giving some structure to the T&L Process

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

25

GuidedGuided-Inquiry Method
Teacher selects the topic and sets the direction. The students ask questions that, in turn, set new directions.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

26

GuidedGuided-Inquiry Method
The teacher suggests open-ended activities that the students
can pursue to find out what they need. inquire into what they dont understand. develop their own conclusions as they construct their own conceptualizations. check their conclusions against further investigations to see if they possess validity. discuss their conclusions with one another. involved in hands-on and minds-on activities. use resources.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 27

Teacher as Guide by the Side

Teacher serves as guide (not director), facilitator, resource person and co-inquirer.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

28

Advantages of GuidedGuidedInquiry
Encourages students to construct their own conceptualizations while exposing them to the content suggested at that grade or level. It allows students to pursue certain topics in depth. It permits students to ask and investigate their own questions.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 29

Advantages of GuidedGuidedInquiry
Provides enough structure to eliminate the feeling of wandering in free-discovery. Students are given the parameters to start their inquiries and such necessary constraints (time, group size, materials etc.) The class is manageable.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 30

Advantages of GuidedGuidedInquiry
The content of the curriculum is covered. There is the mastery of science processes.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

31

Disadvantages of GuidedGuidedInquiry
Inquiry may take more time than is allowed for science. When students develop their own questions, the questions do not necessarily relate to the required curriculum.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

32

Disadvantages of GuidedGuidedInquiry
Teachers may be uncomfortable responding to all questions posed by children. Teachers may feel unprepared to help children with difficult questions because of their perceived lack of background knowledge.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

33

Disadvantages of GuidedGuidedInquiry
Teachers may be more comfortable with greater classroom structure than the freedom suggested by open-ended inquiry.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

34

JEROME BRUNER
Jerome Bruner believes that meaningful learning occurs when students grasp the structure of a field of study (the nature of fundamental ideas and how they relate to one another) and when they discover these relationships themselves.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

35

(A) STRUCTURES
Students need to learn the structures of the field of knowledge they are learning that is, understanding basic ideas and how those ideas are interrelated

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

36

BASIC IDEAS
They can be represented by a diagram, picture, statement or formula. They can be represented in different forms of representation. They can be applied in various kinds of new problems.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

37

THREE MODES OF REPRESENTATION BY BRUNER

Children of different ages represent the world to themselves in fundamentally different ways:

ENACTIVE MODE ICONIC MODE SYMBOLIC MODE

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

38

ENACTIVE MODE
Toddlers and preschoolers: Think of the world primarily in terms of the actions that can be performed on it.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

39

ICONIC MODE
Childhood: Ideas are represented primarily in terms of pictures or images.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

40

SYMBOLIC MODE
Late childhood and early adolescence: Ideas tend to be represented in terms of verbal propositions, mathematical formulas, and logical symbols (Words and Numbers).
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 41

SPIRAL CURRICULUM
any subject can be taught to any child in some honest form- Bruner (1971)

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

42

SPIRAL CURRICULUM
Even young children can grasp the essence of basic ideas albeit in a simplified, intuitive fashion provided the presentation is geared to the childs predominant mode of representation. In later years, as a childs thinking becomes more mature, these same ideas can be reintroduced with more complexity. This technique of re-teaching the same idea in more complex form is known as spiral curriculum.
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 43

Pre-School: Learn the word water and can identify it. Wet. Primary School: Change of states of water: solid, liquid & gas. Floating and sinking Boiling and freezing point. Lower Secondary: Water is a compound (Matter) The use of water as a solvent. Upper Secondary: Viscosity, liquid density, buoyancy, surface tension, Bernoullis Principle
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 44

Language
The importance of language in the learning process
Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner 45

Bruners Opinion
Language is the main tool to help accelerate the cognitive development of children.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

46

The Tasks of a Teacher

To help students develop their linguistic abilities. Use language that is easy enough to understood by students, but still challenging enough to stretch their intellect.

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

47

Question
How is Bruners Theory similar and different from Piagets and Gagnes?

The Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer

Dr. Ng Kee Chuan - Jerome Bruner

48