MODULE 16

JEROME BRUNER’S CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY

Jerome Seymour Bruner (October 1, 1915

– June 5, 2016) was an American
psychologist who made significant
contributions to human cognitive
psychology and cognitive learning theory
in educational psychology. He is the main
driver of Constructivist Theory. He
developed constructivist theory which
suggests that learners construct new
knowledge based on their previous
knowledge.
Jerome S. Bruner

What is Bruner’s Theory on Constructivism?

- Bruner's theory on constructivism encompasses the idea of learning as an active
process wherein those learning is able to form new ideas based on what their current
knowledge is as well as their past knowledge.
- a cognitive structure is defined as the mental process which offers the learner the
ability to organize experiences and derive the meaning from them. These cognitive
structures allow the learner to push past the given information in constructing their
new concepts.
- So, basically ang Constructivism Theory kay maka learn tag new idea nga ma connect
nato sa atong current or past knowledge.
Constructivism
- Is an approach to learning that holds that people actively construct or make their own
knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner. (Elliott et
al.)
- In elaborating constructivists ideas Arends (1998) states that constructivism believes
in personal construction of meaning by the learner through experience, and that
meaning is influenced by the interaction of prior knowledge and new events.

The Learner, often a child, will take pieces of their past knowledge and experiences and
organize them to make sense of what they know, then bass further concepts and solve
additional problems based upon a combination of what they already process and what
they think should be processed next.

Stages of Representation (1966)

1. Enactive Stage (0-1 years old)
- then active stage is Bruner's first stage off representation. It is characterized by
Encoding and storing information. Objects are directly manipulated disregarding the
objects internal representation.
- which is the representation of knowledge through actions.
- Learn through movement or action
- Action based
Example:
- a baby shakes a rattle and hears a noise. The baby has directly manipulated the rattle
and the outcome was a pleasurable sound. In the future, the baby may shake his
hand, even if there is no rattle, expecting his hand to produce the rattling sounds. The
baby does not have an internal representation of the rattle and, therefore, does not
understand that it needs the rattle in order to produce the sound.

2. Iconic Stage (1-6 years old)

- Learn through images or icons
- Using visual materials can help children to understand verbal instructions and to
retain knowledge.
- In this stage, external objects have internal representation through visual forms of
mental icon and images.
- This stage involves an internal representation of external objects visually in the form
of a mental image or icon.
Example:
- A child drawing an image of a tree or thinking of an image of a tree would be
representative of this stage.
- Gipa drawing mo sa inyong teacher og fruit. Nagpakita dayun syag different kinds of
fruit sa tv aron naam oy maawatan.

3. Symbolic Representation stage (7 years onward)

- During this stage, information storage takes place through symbols or codes such as
language, each symbol is representative of something it relates to.
- is when information is stored in the form of a code or symbol such as language. Each
symbol has a fixed relation to something it represents.
Example:
- the word 'dog' is a symbolic representation for a single class of animal. Symbols,
unlike mental images or memorized actions, can be classified and organized. In this
stage, most information is stored as words, mathematical symbols, or in other symbol
systems.

Jerome believed that the intellectual development of an individual should be the primary
goal of Education instead of rote memorization

The Principles of Constructivism

1. Learning is an active process
- The second notion is that is that learning is an active rather than passive process.
- The passive view of teaching views the learner as an empty vessel to be filled with
knowledge, whereas constructivism states that learners construct meaning only
through active engagement with the world (such as experiments or real-world
problem solving). Information may be passively received, but understanding Cannot
be, for it must come from me Making meaningful connections between prior
knowledge, new knowledge, and the process involved in learning.
Example:
- Gitudluan mo sa inyong teacher og basic math sa high school (prior knowledge nimo)
pag abot nimog college nadugangan napud imong prior knowledge kay naa nmn say
new lesson about math. And na connect nimo ang sa high school math and sa imong
new knowledge sa college.
 2. All knowledge is socially constructed
- Learning is a social activity
- It is something we do together, in interaction with each other, rather than an abstract
concept. (Dewey, 1938)
- Vygotsky in 1978 he believed that community plays a central role in the process of
“making meaning” for Vygotsky the environment in which the children grow up will
influence how they think and what they think about.
- Thus, old teaching and learning is a matter of sharing and negotiating socially
constituted knowledge.
Example:
- Ning dako ka sa Christohanon nga family sge mog pray, listen og Christian songs, mag
read mog bible together sa imong parents, etc. So ang tendency ana is modako sad ka
nga mahinadlokon kay Lord. And maka think ka nga ang environment nga imong
nadak-an is very calm and not toxic.

3. All knowledge is personal

- Each individual learn has a distinctive point of view, based on existing knowledge and
values. This means that the same lesson, teaching or activity may result in different
learning by each pupil, as the subjective interpretations differ.
Example:
- Para sa akoa mas sayon ang EDU compared sa MAT. For other mas sayon ang MAT
compared sa EDU. Inana sya kay lahi lahi man tag personal knowledge. (mura syag
individual differences on learning)

4. Learning exists in the mind

- the constructivist theory posits that knowledge can only exist within the human mind,
and that it does not have the match any real-world reality (Driscoll, 2000). Learners
will be constantly trying to develop their own individual mental model of the real
world from their perceptions of that world.
- as they perceive each new experience, the learner will continually update their own
mental models to reflect the new information, and will, therefore, construct their own
interpretation of reality.
 5. Constructivist approaches to teaching
- Constructivist learning theory underpins a variety of student-centered teaching
methods and techniques which contrast with traditional education, whereby
knowledge is simply passively transmitted by the teachers to students.
What is the role of the teacher in a constructivist classroom?

• From this perspective, a teacher acts as a facilitator of learning rather than an

instructor.

• the teacher makes sure he/she understands the students preexisting concepts and
guides the activity to address them and then build on them. (Oliver, 2002)

• scaffolding is the key feature of effective teaching, where the adult continually adjusts
the level of his or her health in response to the learner's level of performance.

• in the classroom, scaffolding can include modeling is skill, providing hints or cues, and
adapting material or activity. (Coppie & Bredekamp, 2009)

What are features of a constructivist classroom?

- Tam (2002) lists the following four basic characteristics of constructivist learning
environments, which must be considered when implementing constructivist teaching
strategies.

• Knowledge will be shared between teachers and students.

• teachers and students will share authority.
• teacher’s role is one of a facilitator or guide
• learning groups will consist of small numbers of heterogeneous students.
Heterogeneous students
- Heterogeneous students are a group of students with unique abilities sharing in a
classroom. All the students stand to benefit from this kind of grouping, making it easy
for the teacher as well.
 Traditional Classroom
• Strict adherence to a fixed
curriculum is highly valued.
• learning is based on repetition.
• teacher centered.
• teachers disseminate information to
students; students are recipients of
knowledge (passive learning).
• teacher’s role is directive, rooted in
authority.
• student work primarily alone
(competitive).
Constructivist Classroom
• Pursuit of student questions and
interests is valued.
• learning is interactive, building on
what the student already knows.
• student centered.
• teachers have a dialogue with
students, helping students construct
their own knowledge (active
learning).
• teacher’s role is interactive, rooted in
negotiation.
• students work primarily in groups
(cooperative)