BRUNER’S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY

BRUNER’S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY /

BRUNER’S THEORY OF CONCEPT FORMATION

          According to Jerome S. Bruner “A theory of instruction, in short is concerned with how, what one wishes to teach, can best be learned, with improving rather than describing learning”.

          Bruner has also suggested 4 important features of the theory of instruction. They are:

(a)        Predisposition to learn :

Predispose means, “Liable before the event”.  This theory is concerned with the experiences and contexts which will tend to make the child willing and able to learn when be enters the school.

(b)        Structure of knowledge :

It must prescribe the ways in which a body of knowledge is to be structured.  So that it will be easily learnt by the learner.

(c)    Sequence:

A theory of instruction should specify the most effective sequence in which the learning materials are to be presented to the students effectively.

(d)  Reinforcement:

A theory of instruction must specify the nature of rewards, moving from intrinsic rewards to intrinsic rewards.  According to him cognitive development is the interaction between.

Bruner regards human brain as having three modes of representation.  They are enactive, iconic, and symbolic.

Enactive: (age of 3) (motor actions and (movements) – pre – Schooling stage)

The earliest representative level is enactive. The infant represent objects and events through appropriate motor response. That is the child learns the concepts through touching, sucking and grasping. In that level, the teacher should teach the concept to the child through play way method and direct experience. It representation refers to “action” performed by a child.

Eg:1

Let us considers, how child learns the concept of “addition” in enactive stage. We give 3 chocolate to one child and 2 chocolate to another child. Then we ask to join these chocolate and count it. Finally the child says 5 chocolate.

Eg:2

Let us consider how children learn the concept of balance. Infants below the age of 3 learn the concept of balance if they are exposed to an experience of balance like see-saw.

In figure (i) One child is heavier while the other child is light. The light child, should naturally slide back to achieve the balance.

In figure (ii) the balance is maintained because both the children have the same weight. This mode of representation by providing experience to the child is known as enactive.

Iconic :  (5 to 9) (sensory images or mental pictures) - Childhood stage.

In the next higher stage, children conceive objects or events without action. They think in terms of the figures or the images of objects. This stage is known as ‘iconic’. In this stage, the children have visual memory. In this stage the teacher should use the various teaching aids to teach the lesson.

Eg:1

Let us considers, how child learns the concept of “addition” in this stage.

Suppose we ask “what is the value of 2+3=?” to the children. The student says the answer by using his/her finger counting. Ie. The child adds two fingers and three fingers.

Eg:2

For children in age group of 5 to 9, to learn the concept of balance it is enough if it explained through a model or a schematic representation as shown below:

 Symbolic: (above 10) (words, symbols, formula) - Adolescence stage.        

          In the last stage, mental representation in children is through symbols or language. During this stage only children’s thinking is dominated by use of concepts. At this stage children are able to develop abstract images because they are able to translate experience into language and use language as an instrument of thinking.

Eg:1

Let us considers, how child learns the concept of “addition” in this symbolic stage. In this stage the student read the questions and given the answer immediately. Suppose we ask what is the value of 2+3=?. Then the student says the answer “5” immediately.

Eg:2

In the third stage of symbolic representation, action and image are replaced by language. The balance and its arms are described verbally through symbols.  Here W1 and W2 and two weights and d1 and d2 are the balancing arms of the respective weights. W1,d1, and w2, d2 are known as ‘moments’ acting on opposite directions.

  w₁ d₁ = w₂ d₂.

Educational Implication

ü  It helps students ‘learn how to learn’. Bruner calls the development of heuristics learning methods and procedures that will be useful in solving new problems.

ü  It produces a sense of excitement and self motivation

ü  It allows students to proceed in ways that fit their own abilities.

ü  It may help strengthen the students’ self concept.

ü  Students become accountable to themselves for their learning.

ü  It aids the students in effective memory and transfer to new learning situations.

ü  It encourages students to think intuitively, logically and to formulate and test hypotheses.

ü  It provides students with a sense of inner satisfaction independent of extrinsic rewards.

ROBERT M. GAGNE’S THEORY

ROBERT M.GAGNE’S THEORY

Robert M.Gagne was one of those who had turned from the study of basic problems in a laboratory to the practical tasks of training in the air force during world war II.  He found that the best known psychological principles like reinforcement are inadequate in their application in certain fields like ‘radar tracing’, ‘aerial gunning’ etc. as a result, he proposed a taxonomy of learning known as ‘hierarchy of learning’. Gagne proposed that all learning were not alike. He divided learning into 8 types or categories, and arranged them in a hierarchy because; each kind of learning begins with a different capability for performance. The mastery attained in performance of one type becomes the prerequisite for the next higher type of learning.

 The varieties of learning that Gagne distinguished are:

Signal learning:

The individual learns to make a general response to a signal. This is similar to the classical conditioned response of Pavlov.

S-R Learning:

          The learner acquires a precise response to a discriminated stimulus. What is learnt here may be connection as enunciate by Thorndike, or discriminated operant (skinner)

Chaining:

In this what is acquired is a chain of 2 or more S-R connections. The conditions for acquiring this have been elaborated by Skinner.

Verbal associations:

This is the learning of chains that are verbal. The conditions for this resemble those for other chains like motor chains.

Discrimination learning:

The individual learns to discriminate and make a different identifying response to as many stimuli that may resemble each other in physical appearances.

Concept learning:

The learner learns to give a common response to a class of stimuli that may so differ from each other widely in physical appearances but have some common characteristics or attributes

Rule learning:

A rule is a chain of 2 or more concepts. It helps control behaviour in the manner suggested by a verbalised rule of the form, “if A, then B”, where A and B are two previously learned concepts.

Problem solving:

It is a kind of learning that requires the internal events that are usually called thinking. Two or more previously acquired rules are some how combined to produce a new capability that depends on higher order rule.

 According to Gagne, one should master a lower order leaning. Before attempting to learn the next higher order learning. For example, if one should bet the skill of solving a particular type of problem in mathematics he should know the rules and the formulae related to that type of problem. To know these formulae and the rules to apply them, he should know the concepts involved in these rules or formulae.

For example, though ‘addition’ and ‘multiplication’ belong to similar type of linking of numbers, yet ‘addition’ and ‘multiplication’ are different. One should know when to add and when to multiply.

Similarly the similarity and difference between ‘divisions’ and ‘subtraction’ should also be known. The prerequisite for these is the knowledge of different symbols to link numbers, the prerequisite for which is the skill of spelling and writing numbers.

All these varieties of learning occur in a school situation. Most instruction in school deals with discrimination, concept formation, rules and problem solving. Each of these requires different conditions of instructions.