Process of Education

Jerome S. Bruner, The Process of Education, Harvard University Press (1960)


PREFACE
Suggests: Talk physics with students instead of talk about it to them
 - spiral curriculum
 - combining natural ways of thinking that he had not combined before
 - any subject can be taught to any child at any age in some honest form 
-education cannot be changed without affecting the society
curriculum: it is more for teachers than it is for students


PREFACE, 1960
The book represents set of views that came out of a ten day meeting by 35 scientists, scholars and educators on education.


INTRODUCTION
What shall we teach and to what end?
skills of a specific type and general understanding
structure of a subject: learning how things are related 
- understanding the structure of a subject is the key
- permits many other things to be relate to it meaningfully 


Four themes of the book :
1- the role of structure in learning and how it may be made central in teaching - 
        - rather than simply the mastery of facts ans techniques is the center of classical problem of transfer
2- Readiness for learning 
       - teaching of important subjects have been tried to be taught, even though they are very difficult 
       - basic ideas of science, math are very powerful in their simplest ways 
3- Nature of intuition: intellectual techniques of arriving at plausible but tentative formulations without going through the analytic steps
4- Desire to learn and how it may be stimulated - interest in learning is the best stimulus for learning rather than grade or competitive advantange


Finally he concentrates on how best to aid the teacher in the task of instruction: - how to support all these with a good scaffolding


THE IMPORTANCE OF STRUCTURE
Two ways of how learning can help us in the future:
1- specific transfer of training: its specific applicability to tasks 
2- non-specific transfer: transfer of principles and attitudes 
     - broadening and deepening of knowledge in terms of basic and general ideas
-to be able to transfer the knowledge and recognize the applicability of an idea to a new situation, learner need to understand general nature of the subject
Four points for teaching fundamental structure of a subject:
1- understanding fundamentals makes subject more comprehensible
2- detailed material is kept in memory by the use of simplified representations - if some details are forgotten, from the basic formulas the rest can be reconstructed
3- understanding fundamental principles and ideas are the main road for transfer of training
4- constant reexamining material taught for its fundamental character, one is able to narrow the gap between advanced knowledge and elementary knowledge


MOTIVES OF LEARNING
long-run steps vs short-run steps - which gets one toward the long run
teaching should be aimed at a balanced level for every student
one has to come up with the mid point in creating the motivation in class, somewhere between apathy and wild excitement
motives of learning: much possible upon the arousal of interest, should be kept broad and diverse in expression.


AIDS TO TEACHING
Bruner describes the devices used to aid for teaching as devices for vicarious experience: film, tv, sound recording
Also models e.g. model of a respiratory system serves as an aid in teaching
model devices: sequential programs 
dramatizing devices
automatizing devices: teaching machines


To sum up, Bruner supports the idea of having a teacher as the scaffolder, and devices to support the teaching, this could be a computer animation, simulation, game etc in our decade. These devices should not be conflicted with teacher .