Jerome Bruner: Biography Of The Promoter Of The Cognitive Revolution
Jerome Seymour Bruner (United States, 1915 – 2016) is one of the psychologists who have most influenced the development of psychology in the 20th century, and for good reason. After receiving his doctorate from Harvard University in 1941, he carried out a series of works and research on perception and learning that led him to confront behaviorists, such as BF Skinner, who understood this process as a product of memorizing responses. appropriate (or “useful”) when faced with certain stimuli.
When, during the 1950s, Bruner acted as the driving force behind the cognitive revolution that would end in the creation of the Center for Cognitive Studies from Harvard and the consolidation of cognitive psychology, the crisis of the behaviorist paradigm worsened and the cognitivist current began to be forged, which today is the dominant one in practically the entire world.
In addition to his contributions to cognitive psychology, Jerome Bruner has spent several decades teaching at both Harvard and Oxford, retiring from teaching at the age of 90.
Like many other researchers dedicated to cognitive psychology, Jerome Bruner spent a lot of time studying the way we learn during our first years of life This led him to develop a theory about three basic ways to represent reality which, at the same time, are three ways of learning based on our experiences. Its about enactive modelhe iconic model and the symbolic model.
According to Bruner, these models or modes of learning are presented in a staggered manner, one after the other following an order that goes from the most physical mode and related to what is immediately accessible to the symbolic and abstract. It is a theory of learning greatly inspired by the work of Jean Piaget and his proposals about the stages of cognitive development.
The similarities between the ideas of Jerome Bruner and those of Piaget do not end there, since in both theories learning is understood as a process in which the consolidation of certain learning allows things to be learned that could not be understood before.
1. Enactive model
The enactive model that Bruner proposed is the learning mode that appears first, since It is based on something that we do from the first days of life: physical action, in the broadest meaning of the term. In this, the interaction with the environment serves as the basis for acting representation, that is, the processing of information about what we have nearby that reaches us through the senses.
Thus, in Jerome Bruner’s enactive model, learning is carried out through imitation, manipulation of objects, dancing and acting, etc. This is a mode of learning comparable to Piaget’s sensorimotor stage. Once certain learning has been consolidated through this mode, the iconic model appears
2. Iconic model
The iconic mode of learning is based on the use of drawings and images in general that can be used to provide information about something beyond themselves. Examples of learning based on the iconic model are the memorization of countries and capitals by looking at a map, the memorization of different animal species by looking at photographs, or drawings or films, etc.
For Jerome Bruner, the iconic mode of learning represents the transition from the concrete to the abstract and therefore presents characteristics that belong to these two dimensions.
3. Symbolic model
The symbolic model is based on the use of language, whether spoken or written As language is the most complex symbolic system that exists, it is through this learning model that the contents and processes related to the abstract are accessed.
Although the symbolic model is the last to appear, Jerome Bruner emphasizes that the other two continue to occur when learning in this way, although they have lost a good part of their prominence. For example, to learn the movement patterns of a dance we will have to resort to the enactive mode regardless of our age, and the same will happen if we want to memorize the parts of the human brain.
Learning according to Jerome Bruner
Beyond the existence of these modes of learning, Bruner has also held a particular vision of what learning is in general. Unlike the traditional conception of what learning is, which equates it to the almost literal memorization of content that is “stored” in the minds of students and apprentices, Jerome Bruner understands learning as a process in which the learner has an active role
Starting from a constructivist approach, Jerome Bruner understands that the source of learning is intrinsic motivation, curiosity and, in general, everything that generates interest in the learner.
Thus, for Jerome Bruner, learning is not so much the result of a series of actions as a continuous process that is based on the way the individual classifies the new information that comes to him to create a meaningful whole. Your success in grouping pieces of knowledge and classifying them effectively will determine whether the learning is consolidated and serves as a springboard to other types of learning or not.
The role of teachers and tutors
Although Jerome Bruner noted that the learner has an active role in learning, he also placed a lot of emphasis on the social context and, specifically, on the role of those who supervise this learning Bruner, like Vygotsky, maintains that learning is not done individually but within a social context, which leads him to the conclusion that there is no learning without the help of others, be they teachers, parents, friends with more experience. , etc.
The role of these facilitators is to act as guarantors that a guided discovery is made whose driving force is the curiosity of the learners In other words, they must put into play all the means so that the apprentice can develop their interests and obtain practice and knowledge in return. This is the basic idea of scaffolding.
It is therefore not surprising that, like other educational psychologists such as John Dewey, Bruner proposed that schools should be places that give vent to students’ natural curiosity, offering them ways to learn through inquiry and the possibility of developing their interests thanks to the participation of third parties who guide and act as references.
The spiral curriculum
Jerome Bruner’s research has led him to propose a spiral educational curriculum in which the contents are reviewed periodically so that each time the contents already learned are reconsolidated in light of the new information available.
Bruner’s spiral curriculum graphically captures what he understands by learning: the constant reformulation of what has been internalized to make it richer and full of nuances as various experiences are lived.
