Jerome Bruner and the Process of Education

8/20/2019 Jerome Bruner and the Process of Education

1/27

jerome bruner and the process ofeducation

Jerome Bruner has made a profound contribution to our appreciation of the process of education and to the development of curriculum theory. Weexplore his work and draw out some important lessons for informaleducators and those concerned with the practice of lifelong learning.

contents: introduction · jerome s. bruner - his life · the process of education · the culture of education· conclusion · further reading and references · links

It is surely the case that schooling is only one small part of how a culture inducts theyoung into its canonical ways. Indeed, schooling may even be at odds with aculture's other ways of inducting the young into the reuirements of communalliving.... What has become increasingly clear... is that education is not !ust about

conventional school matters like curriculum or standards or testing. What weresolve to do in school only makes sense when considered in the broader context ofwhat the society intends to accomplish through its educational investment in theyoung. "ow one conceives of education, we have finally come to recogni#e, is a function of how one conceives of culture and its aims, professed and otherwise. (Jerome S. Bruner 1996: ix-x)

Jerome S. Bruner (1915- ) is one of the best known and influential s!"holo#ists of the twentieth "entur!. $e was one of the ke! fi#ures in the so "alled %"o#niti&ere&olution% - but it is the field of edu"ation that his influen"e has been ese"iall! felt.$is books $he %rocess of &ducation and $owards a $heory of Instruction ha&e been widel! read and be"ome re"o#ni'ed as "lassi"s and his work on the so"ial studiesro#ramme - an: * +ourse of Stud! (*+,S) - in the mid-196s is a landmark in

"urri"ulum de&eloment. ore re"entl! Bruner has "ome to be "riti"al of the%"o#niti&e re&olution% and has looked to the buildin# of a "ultural s!"holo#! thattakes roer a""ount of the histori"al and so"ial "ontext of arti"iants. n his 1996 book $he ulture of &ducation these ar#uments were de&eloed with rese"t tos"hoolin# (and edu"ation more #enerall!). %$ow one "on"ei&es of edu"ation% he wrote %we ha&e finall! "ome to re"o#ni'e is a fun"tion of how one "on"ei&es of the"ulture and its aims rofessed and otherwise% (Bruner 1996: ix-x).

Jerome S. Bruner - life

Bruner was born in /ew 0ork +it! and later edu"ated at uke 2ni&ersit! and$ar&ard (from whi"h he was awarded a 3h in 194). urin# orld ar Bruner

worked as a so"ial s!"holo#ist exlorin# roa#anda ubli" oinion and so"ialattitudes for 2.S. *rm! intelli#en"e. *fter obtainin# his 3h he be"ame a member offa"ult! ser&in# as rofessor of s!"holo#! as well as "ofounder and dire"tor of the+enter for +o#niti&e Studies.

Be#innin# in the 194s Jerome Bruner alon# with 7eo 3ostman worked on the wa!sin whi"h needs moti&ations and exe"tations (or %mental sets%) influen"e er"etion.Sometimes dubbed as the %/ew 7ook% the! exlored er"etion from a fun"tionalorientation (as a#ainst a ro"ess to searate from the world around it). n addition tothis work Bruner be#an to look at the role of strate#ies in the ro"ess of human"ate#ori'ation and more #enerall! the de&eloment of human "o#nition. 8his"on"ern with "o#niti&e s!"holo#! led to a arti"ular interest in the "o#niti&e

de&eloment of "hildren (and their modes of reresentation) and ust what thearoriate forms of edu"ation mi#ht be.

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#introductionhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#brunerhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#brunerhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#processhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#processhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#culturehttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#culturehttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#conclusionhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#furtherhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#linkshttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#brunerhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#processhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#culturehttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#conclusionhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#furtherhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#linkshttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm#introduction


2/27

rom the late 195s on Jerome Bruner be"ame interested in s"hoolin# in the 2S* -and was in&ited to "hair an influential ten da! meetin# of s"holars and edu"ators at oods $ole on +ae +od in 1959 (under the ausi"es of the /ational *"adem! ofS"ien"es and the /ational S"ien"e oundation). ,ne result was Bruner%s landmark book $he %rocess of &ducation (196). t de&eloed some of the ke! themes of thatmeetin# and was an "ru"ial fa"tor in the #eneration of a ran#e of edu"ationalro#rammes and exeriments in the 196s. Jerome Bruner subse;uentl! oined anumber of ke! anels and "ommittees (in"ludin# the 3resident%s *d&isor! 3anel of (Bruner 196: 4)

8he roe"t in&ol&ed a number of !oun# resear"hers in"ludin# Howard Gardner whosubse;uentl! ha&e made an ima"t on edu"ational thinkin# and ra"ti"e. *+,S was atta"ked b! "onser&ati&es (ese"iall! the "ross-"ultural nature of the materials).t was also diffi"ult to imlement - re;uirin# a de#ree of sohisti"ation and learnin#on the art of tea"hers and abilit! and moti&ation on the art of students. 8heedu"ational tide had be#un to mo&e awa! from more liberal and ro#ressi&e thinkerslike Jerome Bruner.

n the 196s Jerome Bruner de&eloed a theor! of "o#niti&e #rowth. $is aroa"h (in"ontrast to 3ia#et) looked to en&ironmental and exeriential fa"tors. Brunersu##ested that intelle"tual abilit! de&eloed in sta#es throu#h ste-b!-ste "han#esin how the mind is used. Bruner%s thinkin# be"ame in"reasin#l! influen"ed b! writerslike 7e& ?!#otsk! and he be#an to be "riti"al of the intraersonal fo"us he had takenand the la"k of attention aid to so"ial and oliti"al "ontext. n the earl! 19s Brunerleft $ar&ard to tea"h for se&eral !ears at the uni&ersit! of ,xford. 8here he "ontinuedhis resear"h into ;uestions of a#en"! in infants and be#an a series of exlorations of"hildren%s lan#ua#e. $e returned to $ar&ard as a &isitin# rofessor in 199 and thentwo !ears later oined the fa"ult! of the new S"hool for So"ial @esear"h in /ew 0ork+it!. $e be"ame "riti"al of the %"o#niti&e re&olution% and be#an to ar#ue for the buildin# of a "ultural s!"holo#!. 8his %"ultural turn% was then refle"ted in his work

on edu"ation - most ese"iall! in his 1996 book: $he ulture of &ducation.

The process of education

$he %rocess of &ducation (196) was a landmark text. t had a dire"t ima"t on oli"! formation in the 2nited States and influen"ed the thinkin# and orientation of a wide#rou of tea"hers and s"holars ts &iew of "hildren as a"ti&e roblem-sol&ers who areread! to exlore %diffi"ult% sube"ts while bein# out of ste with the dominant &iew inedu"ation at that time stru"k a "hord with man!. %t was a surrise% Jerome Bruner was later to write (in the refa"e to the 19 edition) that a book exressin# sostru"turalist a &iew of knowled#e and so intuitionist an aroa"h to the ro"ess ofknowin# should attra"t so mu"h attention in *meri"a where emiri"ism had lon#

been the dominant &oi"e and %learnin# theor!% its amlifier% (ibid.: &ii).

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htmhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm


3/27

our ke! themes emer#e out of the work around $he %rocess of &ducation (196: 11-16):

The role of structure in learning and how it may be made central inteaching. 8he aroa"h taken should be a ra"ti"al one. %8he tea"hin# and learnin#of stru"ture rather than siml! the master! of fa"ts and te"hni;ues is at the "enter of

the "lassi" roblem of transfer... f earlier learnin# is to render later learnin# easier itmust do so b! ro&idin# a #eneral i"ture in terms of whi"h the relations betweenthin#s en"ountered earlier and later are made as "lear as ossible% (ibid .: 1A).

Readiness for learning. $ere the ar#ument is that s"hools ha&e wasted a #reatdeal of eole%s time b! ostonin# the tea"hin# of imortant areas be"ause the! aredeemed %too diffi"ult%.

e be#in with the h!othesis that an! sube"t "an be tau#ht effe"ti&el! in someintelle"tuall! honest form to an! "hild at an! sta#e of de&eloment. (ibid.: ==)

8his notion underins the idea of the spiral curriculum - %* "urri"ulum as itde&elos should re&isit this basi" ideas reeatedl! buildin# uon them until the

student has #rased the full formal aaratus that #oes with them% (ibid.: 1=).

Intuitive and analytical thinking. ntuition (%the intelle"tual te"hni;ue ofarri&in# and lausible but tentati&e formulations without #oin# throu#h the anal!ti"alstes b! whi"h su"h formulations would be found to be &alid or in&alid "on"lusions%ibid.: 1=) is a mu"h ne#le"ted but essential feature of rodu"ti&e thinkin#. $ereBruner notes how exerts in different fields aear %to lea intuiti&el! into a de"isionor to a solution to a roblem% (ibid.: 6A) - a henomenon that Donald Schön was toexlore some !ears later - and looked to how tea"hers and s"hools mi#ht "reate the"onditions for intuition to flourish.

otives for learning. %deall!% Jerome Bruner writes interest in the material to be

learned is the best stimulus to learnin# rather than su"h external #oals as #rades orlater "ometiti&e ad&anta#e% (ibid.: 14). n an a#e of in"reasin# se"tatorshi%moti&es for learnin# must be ket from #oin# assi&e... the! must be based as mu"has ossible uon the arousal of interest in what there is be learned and the! must beket broad and di&erse in exression% (ibid.: ).

Bruner was to write two %osts"rits% to $he %rocess of &ducation: $owards a theoryof instruction (1966) and $he (elevance of &ducation (191). n these books Bruner%ut forth his e&ol&in# ideas about the wa!s in whi"h instru"tion a"tuall! affe"ts themental models of the world that students "onstru"t elaborate on and transform%(Cardner A1: 9=). n the first book the &arious essa!s deal with matters su"h asatterns of #rowth the will to learn and on makin# and ud#in# (in"ludin# somehelful material around e&aluation). 8wo essa!s are of arti"ular interest - hisrefle"tions on *+,S (see abo&e) and his %notes on a theor! of instru"tion%. 8helatter essa! makes the "ase for takin# into a""ount ;uestions of redisositionstru"ture se;uen"e and reinfor"ement in rearin# "urri"ula and ro#rammes. $emakes the "ase for edu"ation as a knowled#e-#ettin# ro"ess:

8o instru"t someone... is not a matter of #ettin# him to "ommit results to mind.@ather it is to tea"h him to arti"iate in the ro"ess that makes ossible theestablishment of knowled#e. e tea"h a sube"t not to rodu"e little li&in# librarieson that sube"t but rather to #et a student to think mathemati"all! for himself to"onsider matters as an historian does to take art in the ro"ess of knowled#e-#ettin#. Dnowin# is a ro"ess not a rodu"t. (1966: A)

8he essa!s in $he (elevance of &ducation (191) al! his theories to infantde&eloment.

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htmhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htmhttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm


4/27

The culture of education

Jerome Bruner%s refle"tions on edu"ation in $he ulture of &ducation (1996) showthe ima"t of the "han#es in his thinkin# sin"e the 196s. $e now la"ed his work within a thorou#h are"iation of "ulture: %"ulture shaes the mind... it ro&ides us with the toolkit b! whi"h we "onstru"t not onl! our worlds but our &er! "on"etion of

our sel&es and our owers% (ibid.: x). 8his orientation %resuoses that humanmental a"ti&it! is neither solo nor "ondu"ted unassisted e&en when it #oes on Einsidethe headE (ibid.: xi). t also takes Bruner well be!ond the "onfines of s"hoolin#.

Conclusion

Jerome S. Bruner has had a rofound effe"t on edu"ation - and uon thoseresear"hers and students he has worked with. Howard Gardner has "ommented:

Jerome Bruner is not merel! one of the foremost edu"ational thinkers of the eraF he isalso an insired learner and tea"her. $is infe"tious "uriosit! insires all who are not"omletel! aded. ndi&iduals of e&er! a#e and ba"k#round are in&ited to oin in.

7o#i"al anal!ses te"hni"al dissertations ri"h and wide knowled#e of di&erse sube"tmatters asides to an e&er wider orbit of information intuiti&e leas re#nanteni#mas our forth from his indefati#able mouth and en. n his words %ntelle"tuala"ti&it! is an!where and e&er!where whether at the frontier of knowled#e or in athird-#rade "lassroom%. 8o those who know him Bruner remains the +omleat


5/27

Links

To cite this article: Smith .D. (AA) %Jerome S. Bruner and the ro"ess ofedu"ation% the encyclopedia of informal education

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm.I Mark K. Smith AA

Jerome BrunerFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Jerome Bruner

BornOctober 1, 1915 age 95!

"e# $ork, "$

Nationality %merican

Fields psychology

Known for

cognitive psychology

educational psychology!

Jerome Seymour Bruner born !ctober "# "$"%& is an 'merican ps(chologist who

has contributed to cogniti)e ps(cholog( and cogniti)e learning theor( in educational

ps(cholog(# as well as to histor( and to the general philosoph( of education. *runer is

currentl( a senior research fellow at the +ew ,ork -ni)ersit( School of aw. He

recei)ed his *.'. in "$0 from Duke -ni)ersit( and his 1h.D. from Har)ard

-ni)ersit( in "$2" under the guidance of Gordon 'llport.

*runer3s ideas are based on categori4ation: 56o percei)e is to categori4e# to

conceptuali4e is to categori4e# to learn is to form categories# to make decisions is to

categori4e.5 *runer maintains people interpret the world in terms of its similaritiesand differences. He has also suggested that there are two primar( modes of thought:

the narrati)e mode and the paradigmatic mode. 7n narrati)e thinking# the mind

engages in se8uential# action9oriented# detail9dri)en thought. 7n paradigmatic

thinking# the mind transcends particularities to achie)e s(stematic# categorical

cognition. 7n the former case# thinking takes the form of stories and 5gripping drama.5

7n the latter# thinking is structured as propositions linked b( logical operators.

7n his research on the de)elopment of children "$ *runer proposed three modes

of representation: enacti)e representation action9based iconic representation

image9based and s(mbolic representation language9based&. ;ather than neatl(

delineated stages# the modes of representation are integrated and onl( loosel(se8uential as the( 5translate5 into each other. S(mbolic representation remains the

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htmhttp://www.infed.org/hp-smith.htmhttp://www.infed.org/hp-smith.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#mw-headhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#p-searchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Educational_psychology)&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitivehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_theory_(education)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_educationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_educationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_University_School_of_Lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Artshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Artshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph.D.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph.D.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Allporthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childrenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childrenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languagehttp://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htmhttp://www.infed.org/hp-smith.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#mw-headhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#p-searchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Educational_psychology)&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitivehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_theory_(education)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_educationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_University_School_of_Lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Artshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph.D.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Allporthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childrenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language


6/27

ultimate mode# for it 5is clearl( the most m(sterious of the three.5 *runer3s theor(

suggests it is efficacious when faced with new material to follow a progression from

enacti)e to iconic to s(mbolic representation< this holds true e)en for adult learners. '

true instructional designer # *runer3s work also suggests that a learner e)en of a )er(

(oung age& is capable of learning an( material so long as the instruction is organi4ed

appropriatel(# in sharp contrast to the beliefs of 1iaget and other stage theorists.Driscoll# Marc(&. ike *loom3s 6a=onom(# *runer suggests a s(stem of coding in

which people form a hierarchical arrangement of related categories. >ach successi)el(

higher le)el of categories becomes more specific# echoing *en?amin *loom3s

understanding of knowledge ac8uisition as well as the related idea of instructional

scaffolding. 7n accordance with this understanding of learning# *runer proposed the

spiral curriculum# a teaching approach in which each sub?ect or skill area is re)isited

at inter)als# at a more sophisticated le)el each time. 7n "$@0 he was awarded the

*al4an 1ri4e for Human 1s(cholog( 5for his research embracing all of the most

important problems of human ps(cholog(# in each of which he has made substantial

and original contributions of theoretical as well as practical )alue for the de)elopment

of the ps(chological faculties of man5 moti)ation of the *al4an General 1ri4eAommittee&.

ontents

&hide'

• 1 (he "arrative )onstruction of *eality

• + an: % )ourse of -tudy

• . *ed spade e/periment

• 0 uotations

• 5 -ee also

• 2 "otes

• 3 *eferences

•

4 ibliography

o 461 ooks

o 46+ %rticles

• 9 Further reading

• 17 8/ternal links

1 edit 2 8he /arrati&e +onstru"tion of @ealit!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_designhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_designhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piagethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Bloomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Bloomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffoldinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffoldinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balzan_Prizehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Brunerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#The_Narrative_Construction_of_Realityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#The_Narrative_Construction_of_Realityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#The_Narrative_Construction_of_Realityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Man:_A_Course_of_Studyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Man:_A_Course_of_Studyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Man:_A_Course_of_Studyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Red_spade_experimenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Red_spade_experimenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Red_spade_experimenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Quotationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Quotationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Quotationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Bibliographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Bibliographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Bibliographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Bookshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Bookshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Bookshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Articleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Articleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Articleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Further_readinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Further_readinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Further_readinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerome_Bruner&action=edit&section=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_designhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piagethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Bloomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffoldinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffoldinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balzan_Prizehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Brunerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#The_Narrative_Construction_of_Realityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Man:_A_Course_of_Studyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Red_spade_experimenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Quotationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Bibliographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Bookshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Articleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#Further_readinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerome_Bruner&action=edit&section=1


7/27

7n "$$"# *runer published an article in Critical Inquiry entitled 56he +arrati)e

Aonstruction of ;ealit(.5 7n this article# he argued that the mind structures its sense of

realit( using mediation through 5cultural products# like language and other s(mbolic

s(stems5 &. He specificall( focuses on the idea of narrati)e as one of these cultural

products. He defines narrati)e in terms of ten things:

16 "arrative diachronicity: (he notion that narratives

take place over some sense of time6

+6 articularity: (he idea that narratives deal #ith

particular events, although some events may be left

vague and general6

.6 ntentional state entailment: (he concept that

characters #ithin a narrative have ;beliefs,

desires, theories, values, and so on; 3!6

06


8/27

*runer obser)es that these ten characteristics at once describe narrati)e and the realit(

constructed and posited b( narrati)e# which in turn teaches us about the nature of

realit( as constructed b( the human mind )ia narrati)e.

1 edit 2 an* - ourse of /tudy

Man: ' Aourse of Stud( usuall( known b( the acron(m MACOS or M.A.C.O.S.&

was an 'merican humanities teaching program based upon *runer3s theories#

particularl( his concept of the 5spiral curriculum5. 1opular in 'merica and *ritain in

the "$Bs and "$0Bs# the course was much critici4ed in the -nited States because of

its emphasis upon 8uestioning aspects of life# including belief and moralit(.C"

1 edit 2 (ed spade experiment

' classic ps(chological e=periment performed b( *runer and eo 1ostman showed

slower reaction times and less accurate answers when a deck of pla(ing cards

re)ersed the color of the suit s(mbol for some cards e.g. red spades and black hearts&.

CE

1 edit 2 3uotations

• Acts of Meaning (he Jerusalem@


9/27

nformation is indifferent #ith respect to

meaning666 p6 0!

o >iven pre@established meaning categories #ell@

formed enough #ithin a domain to provide a

basis for an operating code, a properlyprogrammed computer could perform prodigies of

information processing #ith a minimum set of

operations, and that is technological heaven6

Bery soon, computing became the model of the

mind, and in place of the concept of meaning

there emerged the concept of computability6

)ognitive processes #ere e?uated #ith the

programs that could be run on a computational

device, and the success of oneCs efforts to

CunderstandC, say, memory or concept

attainment, #as oneCs ability realistically tosimulate such human conceptualiDing or human

memoriDing #ith a computer program6 p6 2!

o f the cognitive revolution erupted in 1952,

the conte/tual revolution at least in

psychology! is occurring today6 pp6 175E2!

o Jerome runer argues that the cognitive

revolution, #ith its current fi/ation on mind

as ;information processor,; has led psychology

a#ay from the deeper obective of understandingmind as a creator of meanings6 Only by breaking

out of the limitations imposed by a

computational model of mind can #e grasp the

special interaction through #hich mind both

constitutes and is constituted by culture6

*evie# of


10/27

• "arrative therapy

• ichael White

1 edit 2 4otes

16 ̂ Hincheloe, Joe A6 I


11/27

• Acts of +eaning, oing6 Ethos, +5:1, 3@2+6 %vailable online at J-(O*6

• attingly, )6, Autkehaus, "6 )6 I (hroop, )6 J6

+774!6 runerCs -earch for eaning: % )onversation

bet#een sychology and %nthropology6 Ethos, .2, 1@

+46 %vailable online at lack#ell -ynergy6

1 edit 2 0urther reading

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BRUMEA.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Culture_of_Education&action=edit&redlink=1http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BRUCUL.htmlhttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/AMSMIN.htmlhttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BRUMAX.htmlhttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BRUMAX.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerome_Bruner&action=edit&section=10http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Value/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Value/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Value/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Cards/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Cards/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffoldinghttp://www.jstor.org/pss/640457/http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1548-1352.2008.00001/http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerome_Bruner&action=edit&section=11http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BRUMEA.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Culture_of_Education&action=edit&redlink=1http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BRUCUL.htmlhttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/AMSMIN.htmlhttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BRUMAX.htmlhttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BRUMAX.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerome_Bruner&action=edit&section=10http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Value/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Value/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Value/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Cards/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Cards/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffoldinghttp://www.jstor.org/pss/640457/http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1548-1352.2008.00001/http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerome_Bruner&action=edit&section=11


12/27

• Olson, avid +773!6 Jerome %runer: "ontinuum

(ibrary of Educational Thought6 )ontinuum6 -" 7@

4+20@407+@26

1 edit 2 &xternal links

• (roubling the oundary et#een sychology and

%nthropology: Jerome runer and


13/27

meaningful . . . It is narrative and narrative interpretation uponwhich folk psychology depends for achieving this kind of meaning.+tories achieve their meanings by e)plicating deviations from theordinary in a comprehensible form. Jerome Bruner p. -

A domain under the control of our own intentional states/ a domainwhere +elf as agent operates with world knowledge and with desiresthat are e)pressed in a manner congruent with conte)t and belief. 0he third class of events is produced "from outside" in a manner notunder our own control. It is the domain of "nature." In the 1rstdomain we are in some manner "responsible" for the course of events2 in the third not . . . (A* second class of events . . . comprisingsome indeterminate mi) of the 1rst and third . . . re3uires a moreelaborate form of interpretation in order to allocate proper causalshares to individual agency and to "nature." . . . the second isordinarily seen to be governed either by some form of magic or . . .

by the scientism . . Jerome Bruner p. -&-$

A study by 4eggy #iller concerns the narrative environments of young children in bluecollar Baltimore. In that intimateenvironment, the 5ow of stories recreating everyday e)periences is,to paraphrase #iller, "relentless." in every hour of recordedconversation there are 6.7 narratives, one every seven minutes. 0hey are simple narratives of a kind widely in everyday use inAmerican talk. A very considerable number deal with violence,aggression, or threats, and a not inconsiderable number deale)plicitly with death, with child abuse, with wifebeatings, and evenwith shootings. 0his lack of censorship, this parading of the "harshrealities". 0he stories, moreover, almost always portray the narratorin a good light. (0here is a need for that. TK * Jerome Bruner p. 68,abr

Autobiography . . . the act of constructing a longitudinal version of +elf." Jerome Bruner p. $9&

:ommunal ways of life are (not* easily changed. Jerome Bruner p.9-

:ultural commitment is a belief, an "ontology" that a certain modeof life merits or deserves support. 0hose committed to such a modewill be su;ering to do so if necessary. With Jerome Bruner p. 99

:ultural conte)ts . . . are always contexts o practice/ it is alwaysnecessary to ask what people are doing or trying to do in thatconte)t. Jerome Bruner p. $$6

Interpretation and meaning central to a cultural psychology


14/27

It is through folk psychology that people anticipate and =udge oneanother, draw conclusions about the worthwhileness of their lives.

Jerome Bruner p. $-

(0he American anthropologist* #argaret #ead (!$%&$6 raised*

such 3uestions as why life stages such as adolescence were sodi;erently de1ned among the +amoans. Jerome Bruner p. 8>

?arrative . . . also re3uires a sensitivity to what is canonical andwhat violates canonicality in human interaction. Jerome Bruner p.

?arrative re3uires something appro)imating a narratorsperspective/ it cannot, in the =argon of narratology, be "voiceless."

Jerome Bruner p.

?arrative . . . mediates between the canonical world of culture andthe more idiosyncratic world of beliefs, desires, and hopes. Itrenders the e)ceptional comprehensible and keeps the uncanny atbay


15/27

0here has been a lively debate in the burgeoning literature on"developing theories of mind" as to whether children have suchtheories before the age of four. Jerome Bruner p. -

or (Conald* +pence, then, the ego !or +elf is cast in the role of a

storyteller, a constructor of narratives about a life. Jerome Bruner p. $$$

'ow does the child "grasp the signi1cance" of situations !orconte)ts in a way that can help him or her master the lexicon andgrammar that 1ts those situationsD Jerome Bruner p. $

Information processing needs advance planning and precise rules. Jerome Bruner p. 7

0he ac3uisition of a 1rst language is very conte)tsensitive. JeromeBruner p. $

0here is . . . a constraining biological limit on immediate memory<Eeorge #illers famous "seven plus or minus two." But we haveconstructed symbolic devices for e)ceeding this limit/ codingsystems like octal digits, mnemonic devices, language tricks. Fecallthat #illers main point in that landmark paper was that byconversion of input through such coding systems we, asenculturated human beings, are enabled to cope with seven chunksof information rather than with seven its. @ur knowledge, then,becomes enculturated knowledge . . . (and* we have broken through

the original bounds set by the socalled biology of memory. Biologyconstrains, but not forevermore. Jerome Bruner p. 9$

?arrative is not =ust plot structure or dramatism. ?or is it =ust"historicity" or diachronicity. It is also a way of using language. 0o astriking degree, it relies upon the power of tropes&, abr

Foger Gewin, reviewing the primate literature of the last decades,concludes that it is probably sensitivity to the re3uirements of livingin groups that provides the criterion for evolutionary selection inhigh primates. Jerome Bruner p. 8

If the cognitive revolution erupted in $%7>, the conte)tual revolution!at least in psychology is occurring today. Jerome Bruner p. $&7>

0he biological substrate, the socalled universals of human nature, isnot a cause of action but, at most, a constraint upon it or a conditionfor it. Jerome Bruner p. 9&9$


16/27

0he e)istence of story as a form is a perpetual guarantee thathumankind will "go meta" on received versions of reality. JeromeBruner p. 77

0he organiing principle of folk psychology (is* narrative in nature

rather than logical or categorical. olk psychology is about humanagents doing things on the basis of their beliefs and desires, strivingfor goals, meeting obstacles which they best or which best them, allof this e)tended over time. Jerome Bruner p. -9-8

0he story is being put together. Jerome Bruner p. $99

0o say something useful about truth. . . (Forty says,* is to "e)plorepractice rather than theory". Jerome Bruner p. 9>

In the end, "learning theory" died, or perhaps it would be better tosay it withered away. Jerome Bruner p. $&-

Initial mastery (of language* can come only from participation inlanguage as an instrument of communication. Jerome Bruner p. 8

Is what we know "absolute," or is it always relative to someperspective, some point of viewD . . . is reality a constructionD

Jerome Bruner p. 9-

0here was . . . the standard way of adding a landscape of consciousness to the landscape of action in narrative. JeromeBruner p. %$

0he study of the human mind is so diHcult, so caught in thedilemma of being both the ob=ect and the agent of its own study.

Jerome Bruner p. )iii

A group of young sociologists led by 'arold Ear1nkel, mindful of thesorts of problems in epistemology such issues raised, took theradical step of proposing that in place of the classic sociologicalmethod


17/27

4eople narrativie their e)perience of the world and of their own rolein it. Jerome Bruner p. $$7

+cienti1c psychology will fare better when it recognies that itstruths, like all truths about the human condition, are relative to the

point of view that it takes toward that condition. And it will achieve amore e;ective stance toward the culture at large when it comes torecognie that the folk psychology of ordinary people is not =ust aset of selfassuaging illusions, but the cultures beliefs and workinghypotheses about what makes it possible and ful1lling for people tolive together, even with great personal sacri1ce. Jerome Bruner p.89

+ince :. +. 4eirce, we recognie that meaning depends not onlyupon a sign and a referent but also upon an interpretant . JeromeBruner p. >%.

+tories seem to be designed to give the e)ceptional behaviormeaning in a manner that implicates both an intentional state in theprotagonist !a belief or desire and some canonical element in theculture . . . The unction o the story is to fnd an intentional statethat mitigates or at least makes comprehensile a de!iatiotion roma canonical cultural pattern. Jerome Bruner p. -%7&

0hat we "store" speci1c archetypal stories or myths, as :. E. Junghas proposed . . . seems like misplaced concreteness. Father, Imean (humans have* a readiness or predisposition to organie

e)perience into a narrative form, into plot structures and the rest. Jerome Bruner p. -7

0he culture . . . provides us with guides and stratagems for 1nding aniche between stability and change/ it e)horts, forbids, lures,denies, rewards the commitments that the +elf undertakes. JeromeBruner p. $$&

0he interpreter has to grasp the narratives con1guring plot in orderto make sense of its constituents, which he must relate to that plot.But the plot con1guration must itself be e)tracted from the

succession of events. Jerome Bruner p. -8--

0he narratives opa3ueness, its circumstantiality, its genre, aretaken to be as important as or, in any case, inseparable from itscontent. Jerome Bruner p. $$8

?arrative organies e)perience. Jerome Bruner p. 87

tility is the multiplicative resultant of the value of a particularchoice and its sub=ective probability of being successfully e)ecuted,and it has been the cornerstone of formal economic theory since

Adam +mith. Jerome Bruner p. 96


18/27

Where veri1ability and verisimilitude seem to come together, tobring o; a successful convergence is to bring o; good rhetoric. With Jerome Bruner p. %-

0he new cognitive science . . . has gained its technical successes at

the price of dehumaniing the very concept of mind it had sought toreestablish. Jerome Bruner p. $

:onstructivism . . . is what legal scholars refer to as "the interpretiveturn". Jerome Bruner p. 97

:ulture is also constitutive of mind. Jerome Bruner p. 88

'uman re"exi!ity , our capacity to turn around on the past and alterthe present in its light, or to alter the past in the light of the present. Jerome Bruner p. $&%

I believe that we shall be able to interpret meanings and meaningmaking in a principled manner only in the degree to which we areable to specify the structure and coherence of the larger conte)ts inwhich speci1c meanings are created and transmitted. JeromeBruner p. >8>-

4eople hold beliefs not only about the present but about the pastand future, beliefs that relate us to time conceived of in a particularway

+elf too must be treated as a construction that, so to speak,proceeds from the outside in as well as from the inside out, fromculture to mind as well as from mind to culture. Jerome Bruner p.$&6

+tory, in a word, is vicarious e)perience, and the treasury of

narratives into which we can enter includes, ambiguously, either"reports of real e)perience" or o;erings of culturally shapedimagination. Jerome Bruner p. 7-

0he ssential +elf gave way to the :onceptual +elf with hardly ashot 1red. Jerome Bruner p. $&&

0he fact that the historians "empirical" account and the novelistsimaginative story share the narrative form is, on re5ection, ratherstartling. Jerome Bruner p. -7

0he values underlying a way of life, as :harles 0aylor points out, areonly lightly open to "radical re5ection." 0hey become incorporated


19/27

in ones self identity and, at the same time, they locate one in aculture. Jerome Bruner p. 9%

Wellformed stories, (Kenneth* Burke proposed, are composed of apentad of an Actor, an Action, a Eoal, a +cene, and an Instrument<

plus 0rouble. 0rouble consists of an imbalance between any of the1ve elements of the pentad/ an Action toward a Eoal isinappropriate in a particular +cene . . . an Actor does not 1t the+cene . . . or there is a dual +cene . . . or a confusion of Eoals.

Jerome Bruner p. 7&

When anybody is seen to believe or desire or act in a way that failsto take the state of the world into account, to commit a trulygratuitous act, he is =udged to be folkpsychologically insane unlesshe as an agent can be narratively reconstrued as being in the grip of a mitigating 3uandary or of crushing circumstances . . . folk

psychology has room for such reconstruals. Jerome Bruner p. -&

:ulture became the ma=or factor in giving form to the minds of those living under its sway. A product of history rather than of nature, culture now became the world to which we had to adapt andthe tool kit for doing so. Jerome Bruner p. $$$9

4ower of narrative, the ability not only to mark what is culturallycanonical but to account for deviations that can be incorporated innarrative. 0he achievement of this skill, as I shall try to show, is notsimply a mental achievement, but an achievement of social practice

that lends stability to the childs social life. or one of the mostpowerful forms of social stability . . . is the human propensity toshare stories of human diversity and to make their interpretationscongruent with the divergent moral commitments and institutionalobligations that prevail in every culture. Jerome Bruner p. >6

Fules . . . a;ected human action. Jerome Bruner p. 8

tterances were treated in the classical tradition asdeconte)tualied or unsponsored locutions. Jerome Bruner p. >9.

PrefaceGet Jerome Bruner inform and motivate you as you assess hiscomparative information 5ow as best you can. "A good theoreticianmakes many good practitioners" is embodied in good schooling, =ustas Kurt Gevin says "0here is nothing so practical as a good theory."(+op $$*

What follows is from a book that was written late in Brunerscareer, and shows consideration, 3uite like the "happiest wife" in theAmerican proverb "0he happiest wife is not she that gets the best

husband, but she that gets the best of that which she gets."

http://oaks.nvg.org/bruner-words.html#refhttp://oaks.nvg.org/bruner-words.html#ref


20/27

0he challenge is to make the best of what has come from the fontof consideration Tormod Kinnes

Ideas from The Culture ofEducation

#n the way to planned honour

0he intimate aspects of culture are transmitted . . . throughnarratives. (:oe $6*

#indlessness is one of the ma=or impediments to change. (:oe %*

Gearning and thinking are most often situated in a cultural settingand most often dependent upon the utiliation of cultural resources.(With :oe -*

While mind creates culture, culture also creates mind. (:oe $>7>>*

0o take a cultural view of education . . . re3uires that one considereducation and school learning in their situated, cultural conte)t. (:oe)*

:hildren show an astonishingly strong "predisposition to culture"2they are sensitive to and eager to adopt the folkways they see

around them. 0hey show a striking interest in the activity of theirparents and peers and with no prompting at all try to imitate whatthey observe. (:oe -*

4assing on knowledge and skill, like any human e)change, involvesa subcommunity in interaction. At the minimum, it involves a"teacher" and a "learner" or if not a teacher in 5esh and blood,then a vicarious one like a book, or 1lm, or display, or a "responsive"computer. (:oe 9&*

0he psychology of the future must . . . keep its eye on both the

biological and the cultural, and do so with proper regard for howthese shaping forces interact in the local situation. (:oe $>*

(0here are* two contradictory views about the nature and uses of mind, again both meritorious when taken singly. @ne side proclaimsthat learning is, as it were, principally inside the head, intrapsychic. .. .

0he contrastive view to this one is that all mental activity issituated in and supported by a more or a less enabling culturalsetting. . . . 'ow well the student does in mastering and using skills,knowledge, and ways of thinking will depend upon how favoring or

enabling a cultural "toolkit" the teacher provides for the learner.Indeed, the cultures symbolic toolkit actualies the learners very


21/27

capacities, . . . 0he cultural conte)ts that favor mental developmentare principally and inevitably interpersonal, for they involvesymbolic e)changes and include a variety of =oint enterprises withpeers, parents, and teachers. 0hrough such collaboration, thedeveloping child gains access to the resources, the symbol systems,

and even the technology of the culture. . . . the better endowedchild will get more from his interaction with the culture. (:oe >>6*

(What is called talent* is more multifaceted than any single score,like an IL test, could possibly reveal. ?ot only are there many waysof using mind, many ways of knowing and constructing meanings,but they serve many functions in di;erent situations. (:oe 97*

0he management of selfesteem is never simple and neversettled . . . Its supports include such homely resorts as a secondchance, honor for a good if unsuccessful try, but above all the

chance for discourse that permits one to 1nd out why or how thingsdidnt work out as planned. (:oe 8*

:ulture shapes mind . . . it provides us with the toolkit by which weconstruct not only our worlds but our very conceptions of our selvesand our powers. (:oe )*

A failure to e3uip minds with the skills for understanding and feelingand acting in the cultural world . . . risks creating alienation,de1ance, and practical incompetence. And all of these underminethe viability of a culture. (:oe -9-8*

Individual human beings construct "realities" and meanings thatadapt them to the system, at . . . personal cost, with . . . e)pectedoutcomes. (:oe $9*

@euvres (works* are often touchingly local, modest, yet e3uallyidentitybestowing. (:oe 99*

Culture is y $xchange %ystems too

rench historians of the socalled Annales school, refer to (some*shared and negotiable forms of thought as . . . styles of thinking that

characterie di;erent groups in di;erent periods living under variouscircumstances. (:oe 98*

In the institutionalied "markets" of a society . . . education is neverneutral, never without social and economic conse3uences . . .always political in this broader sense. (:oe 9*

Foland Barthes and 4ierre Bourdieu, make the case that school isprincipally an agent for producing, say, "little renchmen andrenchwomen" who will conform to the niche where they will end up.(:oe 886*

:ultures can . . . be conceived as elaborate e)change systems, withmedia of e)change as varied as respect, goods, loyalty, and


22/27

services. )change systems . . . are further legitimied by a comple)symbolic apparatus of myths, statutes, precedents, ways of talkingand thinking, and even uniforms. (:oe 9%8&*

(0he public schools* relation to such as the family and the labor

market, is only vaguely understood. (:oe $9* %tories

0here appear to be two broad ways in which human beings organieand manage their knowledge of the world, indeed structure eventheir immediate e)perience/ one seems more specialied fortreating of physical "things," the other for treating of people andtheir plights. 0hese are conventionally known as logical scientfcthinking and narrati!e thinking . . . 0hey have varied modes ofe)pression in di;erent cultures, which also cultivate themdi;erently. (:oe 8%-&*

Just as the underlying method of e)planation in science can andmust be taught with care and rigor, so too can the interpretive andnarrative methods of history, social studies, and even literature betaught with care and rigor. But they rarely are . . . (:oe %$*

?arrative as a mode of thinking, as a structure for organiing ourknowledge, and as a vehicle in . . . science education. (:oe $$%*

What is a narrativeD . . . A narrative involves a se3uence of events. 0he se3uence carries the meaning . . . But not every se3uence of

events is worth recounting. ?arrative is discourse, and the primerule of discourse is that there be a reason for it that distinguishes itfrom silence. ?arrative is =usti1ed or warranted by . . . it tells aboutsomething une)pected, or something that ones auditor has reasonto doubt. 0he "point" of the narrative is to resolve the une)pected,to settle the auditors doubt, or in some manner to redress ore)plicate the "imbalance" that prompted the telling of the story inthe 1rst place. A story, then, has two sides to it/ a se3uence of events, and an implied evaluation of the events recounted. (:oe $9$*

?arratives !truth or 1ction end with a coda, restoring teller and

listener to the here and now. (:oe %-*

All stories . . . are =usti1cations told from the perspective of a norm.(:oe %>*

Gogicalscienti1c thinking. Its value is so implicit in our highlytechnological culture that its inclusion in school curricula is taken forgranted. (:oe -$-9*

"0rouble narratives" appear again in mythic literature andcontemporary novels, better contained in that form than in reasoned

and logically coherent propositions. (:oe -&*


23/27

0he image of science as a human and cultural undertaking might beimproved if it were also conceived as a history of human beingsovercoming received ideas. (:oe -9*

Are narrative construals, then, =ust about particulars, idiosyncratic

accounts 1tted to the occasionD @r are there also some universals inthe realities they constructD . . . there are indeed universals, and . . .these are essential to life in a culture. (:oe $8&*

What, in fact, is gained and what lost when human beings makesense of the world by telling stories about it by using the narrativemode for construing realityD (:oe $9%*

0he characters and episodes of stories take their meanings from,are "functions" of, more encompassing narrative structures. +toriesas wholes and their constituent "functions" are . . .(taken to be*

tokens of more inclusive types. (:oe $8-*

'owever derivationally deep any scienti1c theory may be, its useshould lead to the formulation of falsi1able hypotheses, as Karl4opper would say. But you can falsify an awful lot of hypotheses,historians of science make clear, without bringing down the theoryfrom which they have been derived. (:oe $99*

Ciscussions of narrative reality lead not to re5ections on thenegotiation of meaning within the human community, but to theindignant re=ection of "stories" as sources of human illusion. (:oe $-6*

We people our world with characters out of narrative genres, makesense of events by assimilating them to the shape of comedy,tragedy, irony, romance. (:oe $8>*

Eenres . . . are culturally specialied ways of both envisaging andcommunicating about the human condition. (:oe $8>*

"very narrator has a point of view and we have an inalienable rightto 3uestion it." (:oe $86*

+kill can be improved with the aid of theory . . . when it descends

into habits. (:oe $79*

We accept a certain essential contestability of stories. (:oe $-8*

0he "narrative construal of reality," . . . is surprisingly diHcult todissect. (:oe $-*

4erspective, discourse, and conte)t/ . . . make sense of what peopletell you . . . taking this triad into account. (:oe $$8*

Interpretation and e)planation . . . cannot be reduced to each other.

)planation does not e)haust interpretation, nor does interpretatione)haust e)planation. . (:oe $$9*


24/27

0he process of science making is narrative. It consists of spinninghypotheses about nature, testing them, correcting the hypotheses,and getting ones head straight. n route to producing testablehypotheses, we play with ideas, try to create anomalies, try to 1ndneat pule forms that we can apply to intractable troubles so that

they can be turned into soluble problems, 1gure out tricks forgetting around morasses. 0he history of science . . . can bedramatically recounted as a set of almost heroic narratives inproblem solving. (:oe $9>*

0he comprehension of narrative is hermeneutic. (:oe $8*

0he ob=ect of hermeneutic analysis is to provide a convincing andnoncontradictory account of what a story means, a reading inkeeping with the particulars that constitute it. 0his creates thefamous "hermeneutic circle" trying to =ustify the "rightness" of one

reading of a te)t not by reference to the observable world or thelaws of necessary reason, but by reference to other alternativereadings. (:oe $8*

0hat narrative (storyteller* skill comes "naturally," that it does nothave to be taught (is not* true at all. It goes through de1nite stages,is severely impaired in brain damage, fares poorly under stress, andends up in literalism in one social community while becomingfanciful in a neighboring one (:oe -&*

#n &ntentions and $xperiences relatale to '(olk Pedagogy'

?ot only is folk psychology preoccupied with how the mind workshere and now, it is also e3uipped with notions about how the childsmind learns and even what makes it grow. (:oe ->*

0he challenge is always to situate our knowledge in the livingconte)t that poses the "presenting problem," . . . the schoolroomsituated in a broader culture. (:oe --*

Ci;erent approaches to learning and di;erent forms of instruction from imitation, to instruction, to discovery, to collaboration re5ectdi;ering beliefs and assumptions about the learner from actor, to

knower, to private e)periencer, to collaborative thinker. (:oe 7&*

0he childs grasp of anothers "intentional states" his beliefs,promises, intentions, desires, in a word his theories o mind, (countsfor something2 acts as a kind of "root belief" too*. (:oe 76*

#ore is re3uired to =ustify beliefs than merely sharing them withothers. 0hat "more" is the machinery of =usti1cation for ones beliefs,the canons of scienti1c and philosophical reasoning. Knowledge,after all, is )ustifed belief (:oe 7%*

vidence is used to check beliefs (:oe >$* %ound $ducation


25/27

0he richest country in the world generating poverty at a rate secondto noneD Is that "winning"D (:oe 66*

(In a* development of intersub=ective interchange (one is to*recognie the childs perspective in the process of learning. (:oe 7>*

It is un3uestionably the function of education to enable people,individual human beings, to operate at their fullest potential, toe3uip them with the tools and the sense of opportunity to use theirwits, skills, and passions to the fullest. 0he antinomic counterpart tothis is that the function of education is to reproduce the culture thatsupports it not only reproduce it, but further its economic, political,and cultural ends. (:oe >>*

0he claim of nonreductiveness and untranslatability often appears .. . in radical ethnic and antiimperialist movements . . . In education,

it doubtless fueled the "deschooling" movement . . . It e)pressessomething deep about the dilemmas of living in contemporarybureaucratied society. (:oe >6>%*

We have three antinomies, then/ the individualrealiation versusthe culturepreserving antinomy2 the talentcentered versus thetoolcentered antinomy2 and the particularism versus universalismantinomy . . . We need to realie human potential, but we need tomaintain a cultures integrity and stability. We need to recogniedi;ering native talent, but we need to e3uip all with the tools of theculture. We need to respect the uni3ueness of local identities and

e)perience, but we cannot stay together as a people if the cost of local identity is a cultural 0ower of Babel. (:oe >%&*

A teacher is an authority who is supposed to tell the child what thegeneral case is. (:oe ->*

:hildren had learned to treat ideas respectfully, pragmatically, andactively. (:oe *

+chool provides a powerful opportunity for e)ploring the implicationof precepts for practice. (:oe 6*

#iddleclass child rearing does produce middleclass kids. (:oe 8*

Idealied, American middleclass, childcentered child rearing lefttoo little room for the cultural identities and particularities of thevaried ethnic and lower socialclass children and families e)posed toit. It left une)amined the nature of . . . human cultures and theneeds human beings have for guarding a sense of their own identityand tradition. (:oe 6&6$*

What is needed in America . . . is not simply a renewal of the skillsthat make a country a better competitor in the world markets, but a

renewal and reconsideration of what I have called "school culture."(:oe 6-*


26/27

Collaoration/ sharing the resources of the mi) of human beingsinvolved in teaching and learning. #ind is inside the head, but it isalso with others. (:oe 6>*

'*ew (ield'

Get us look at the "new 1eld" of theories of mind . . . it is neither"new" nor can it, save by 1at, be called a "1eld." (:oe $&8*

Lueen liabeth wa asked by a historian/ "When did the Foyalamily decide to become respectableD" "Well," she said, "it wasduring Mictorias reign." . . . 0he moral of the story/ always look an"ideal condition" in the mouth. (:oe $96*

0he 4rinciple of Feasonable Ignorance, forbids us from holding that"any speakers are philosophically omniscient !even unconsciously.(:oe $86*

(It helps* to become more metacognitive to be as aware of howshe goes about her learning and thinking as she is about the sub=ectmatter she is studying. (:oe >-*

0he three classic antidotes for (a* peculiar kind of unconsciousnessof the automatic, of the ubi3uitous, are contrast , conrontation, andmetacognition . . . It wakes us up. (:oe $-*

Action, procedure, and cultural psychology. (:oe $7>*

0he human sciences in their very nature face a daunting challenge/to formulate a view of man that is sometimes incongruent with folkpsychology, but what is even more serious, incongruent with ourcultural ideals. Net the human sciences are also a part of the culturethat sustains. (:oe $>8*

Biologically "primary" . . . psychological dispositions and biologically"secondary" ones. 0he former, as it were, come naturally2 they canbe found in all human cultures . . . 4rimaries are cognitivedispositions . . . and their e)pression in action aids adaptation to thenatural world for navigating, getting about in a habitat, and so forth.Indeed, the e)ercise of these dispositions often leads to positivea;ect and, one might suppose, reinforcement . . . +econdariesre3uire transforming primary intuitions into a more formal, perhapsmore conscious representation into maps, graphs, formulas,pictograms, and the like. 0hese do not come as naturally asprimaries2 they are limited or even spottily distributed amongenculturated humans . . . very particular culture, in conse3uence,faces the decision as to which of the socalled secondarydispositions should be cultivated. (:oe $$*

0o account for what might be going on, (:olwyn* 0revarthen

borrowed the term "intersub=ectivity" from the +cottish philosopher#ac#urray. (:oe $7*


27/27

Intersub=ectivity . . . seems to be about "background knowledge" aswell as about a "target." (:oe $69*

:onsider what happens when intersub=ectivity is interfered with. (:oe$-*

Literature

Acom: Bruner, Jerome +. Acts o +eaning ,the Jerusalem-ar!ard/ectures0. :ambridge, #ass./ 'arvard niversity 4ress, $%%&.

Bign: Bruner, Jerome +. Beyond the &normation 1i!en2 %tudies inthe Psychology o Knowing. +elected, edited, and introduced by Jeremy Anglin. Gondon/ Allen and nwin, $%-.

Coe: Bruner, Jerome +. The Culture o $ducation. :ambridge,#ass./ 'arvard niversity 4ress, $%%>

Proe: Bruner, Jerome +/ The Process o $ducation. :ambridge,#ass./ 'arvard niversity 4ress, $%>>. (?orwegian/ Ol: Bruner, Jerome/ #m 3 l4re. @slo/ Creyer, $%&.*

oe: Bruner, Jerome +. The 5ele!ance o $ducation. dited by

Anita Eil. Gondon/ Allen and nwin, $%9.

!o": +mith, liot F., and Ciane #. #ackie. %ocial Psychology. 9nded. 'ove/ 4sychology 4ress, 9&&&.

Tato: Bruner, Jerome +. Toward a Theory o &nstruction.:ambridge/ 'arvard niversity 4ress, $%>>.

!ome links

Bruner, Jerome +. O Eoodman, :ecile :. !$%-. "Malue and need

as organiing factors in perception." Journal o Anormal and %ocialPsychology , -9, 88--.

(+tudy where poor children overestimate the sies of coins.*

Bruner, Jerome +. O 4ostman, Geo. !$%-%. "@n the perception of incongruity/ A paradigm." Journal o Personality , $6, 9&>998.
http://oaks.nvg.org/bibli.htmlhttp://oaks.nvg.org/bibli.html

Date post:	07-Aug-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	-
View:	224 times
Download:	0 times

Jerome Bruner and the Process of Education

Documents