Jerome Bruner

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Lore & Background

Bruner's early research on perception helped launch what some called the 'New Look' psychology. In a 1947 study, children from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds were asked to estimate the size of coins or wooden disks the size of American pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and half-dollars. The results showed that the value and need the poor and rich children associated with coins caused them to significantly overestimate the size of the coins, especially when compared to their more accurate estimations of the same size disks. Another study with Leo Postman showed slower reaction times and less accurate answers when a deck of playing cards reversed the color of the suit symbol for some cards. In 1956, Bruner published the book A Study of Thinking, which formally initiated the study of cognitive psychology. Soon afterward he helped found the Harvard Center of Cognitive Studies. Beginning around 1967, he turned his attention to developmental psychology and coined the term 'scaffolding' to describe an instructional process in which the instructor provides carefully programmed guidance, reducing the amount of assistance as the student progresses through task learning. Bruner proposed the spiral curriculum, a teaching approach in which each subject or skill area is revisited at intervals, at a more sophisticated level each time. This system is used in China and India.

Reader's Guide

Bruner's significance lies in his foundational role in cognitive psychology and educational theory. His work shifted psychology from behaviorist stimulus-response models to studying internal mental processes, as seen in his perception experiments and the 'New Look' approach. In education, his concepts of scaffolding, enactive-iconic-symbolic representation, and the spiral curriculum have influenced teaching methods. He suggested that students may experience tasks in three ways: enactive representation (action-based), iconic representation (image-based), and symbolic representation (language-based). Bruner's learning theory suggests that it is efficacious, when faced with new material, to follow a progression from enactive to iconic to symbolic representation. He also proposed that a learner is capable of learning any material so long as the instruction is organized appropriately. In 1961, he published the book Process of Education, writing that 'knowing how something is put together is worth a thousand facts about it.' From 1964 to 1996 Bruner sought to develop a complete curriculum for the educational system that would meet the needs of students in three main areas which he called Man: A Course of Study. Bruner was also credited with helping found the Head Start early childcare program. At Oxford, he focused on early language development, rejecting the nativist account of language acquisition proposed by Noam Chomsky and offering an alternative in the form of an interactionist or social interactionist theory of language development. He emphasized that children learn language in order to communicate, and meaningful language is acquired in the context of meaningful parent-infant interaction, learning 'scaffolded' or supported by the child's language acquisition support system (LASS).

Did You Know?

• Bruner was born blind as a result of cataracts on October 1, 1915, in New York City, and an operation at age 2 restored his vision.
• During World War II, Bruner served on the Psychological Warfare Division of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force committee under General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• Bruner turned 100 in October 2015 and died on June 5, 2016.
• He received a BA in 1937 from Duke University and a PhD from Harvard University in 1941.
• Bruner was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society.