Theory of concept Learning (Jerome Burners)

Theory of concept Learning

Jerome Bruners develop the theory of concept learning. This theory is related to cognitivist principle. The main ideas of the theory can be summarized as follows:

i) Learning is an active process. Learners select and transform information.

ii) Learners make appropriate decisions, postulate hypotheses, and test their effectiveness.

iii) Learners use prior experience to fit new information into the pre-existing structures.

iv) Scaffolding is the process through which able peers or adults offer supports for learning. This assistance becomes gradually less frequent as it becomes unnecessary.

v) The intellectual development includes three stages. The enactive (learning through action) stage, which refers to learning through actions. The iconic stage, which refers to the learner's use of pictures or models.  The symbolic stage refers to the development of the ability to think in abstract terms.

vi) The notion of spiral curriculum states that a curriculum should revisit basic ideas, building on them until the student grasps the full formal concept.

vii) Although extrinsic motivation may work in the short run, intrinsic motivation has more value

viii) it has constructivist nature

ix) Bruner focused on acquiring knowledge through discovery

x) According to him concepts, principles, and ideas are to be discovered and not present and understood.

Bruner's important ideas are as below:

1) Learning through discovery:  Learning will be meaningful, useful and memorable for students if they focused on understanding the structure of subject matter. In order to get structure of information students must be active. They must identify key principles for themselves rather than simply accept teacher's explanation. This process has been called discovery learning. Teachers should give examples in the classroom students should discover the interrelationship.

2) Intuitive thinking: Based on certain questions asked by the teacher, the students formulate some hypothesis or make guesses. They could check their guesses through systematic research.

3) Guided discovery: In discovery students work largely on his or her own but in guided discovery the teacher provides some direction. Unguided discovery is appropriate for preschool children but not in secondary level. Guided discovery is preferred. Students are presented with interesting questions or interesting problems.

      The teacher provide appropriate materials, encourage students to make observation, form hypotheses and do experiments, instead of explaining how to solve the problem. by using examples as well as non-examples the teacher help students to attain concept.

Principles of Bruner's theory

1. Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness).
2. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization).
3. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given).

Implications on the learning process

Bruner’s learning theory has direct implications on the teaching practices. Here are some of these implications:

1. Instruction must be appropriate to the level of the learners. For example, being aware of the learners’ learning modes (enactive, iconic, and symbolic) will help you plan and prepare appropriate materials for instruction according to the difficulty that matches learners’ level.
2. The teachers must revisit material to enhance knowledge. Building on pre-taught ideas to grasp the full formal concept is of paramount importance according to Bruner. Feel free to re-introduce vocabulary, grammar points, and other topics now and then in order to push the students to a deeper comprehension and longer retention.
3. Material must present in a sequence giving the learners the opportunity to: 1) acquire and construct knowledge, and 2) transform and transfer his learning.
4. Students should be involved in using their prior experiences and structures to learn new knowledge.
5. Help students to categorize new information in order to able to see similarities and differences between items.
6. Teachers should assist learners in building their knowledge. This assistance should fade away as it becomes unnecessary.

Teachers should provide feedback that is directed towards intrinsic motivation. Grades and competition are not helpful in the learning process. Bruner states that learners must “experience success and failure not as reward and punishment, but as information”