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Jerome Bruner's Theory of Education: From Early Bruner To Later Bruner

The document discusses Jerome Bruner's theory of education over his career and the implications for curriculum theory. It argues that Bruner's early views emphasized transmitting cultural content to students, while his later views emphasize understanding culture as context and helping students experience different ways of meaning-making. The key change is Bruner's concept of culture shifting from content to transmit to context that shapes values and experience.

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Radika Widiatmaka
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172 views2 pages

Jerome Bruner's Theory of Education: From Early Bruner To Later Bruner

The document discusses Jerome Bruner's theory of education over his career and the implications for curriculum theory. It argues that Bruner's early views emphasized transmitting cultural content to students, while his later views emphasize understanding culture as context and helping students experience different ways of meaning-making. The key change is Bruner's concept of culture shifting from content to transmit to context that shapes values and experience.

Uploaded by

Radika Widiatmaka
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Jerome Bruner’s Theory of Education:

From Early Bruner to Later Bruner

KEIICHI TAKAYA
Tokyo Women’s Medical University

ABSTRACT: Though a psychologist by training, Jerome Bruner


has always been, and still is, one of the leading figures in
education. His theory of education in the 1960s and the 1970s
directly influenced the programs of education formulated during
those decades. The influence of his theory after the 1980s seems to
be less direct, and some who read his 1996 book, The Culture of
Education, may have an impression that his educational theory
has changed. In this paper, I will review the historical significance
of the changes in Jerome Bruner’s work over his career and their
implications for curriculum theory. I will argue that there are, in
fact, significant changes in Bruner’s views.

KEYWORDS: Jerome Bruner, curriculum theory, culture, culture


as context, culture of education, structure of discipline,
understanding, spiral curriculum, discovery learning, narrative.

Introduction
In this paper, I will review the historical significance of the changes in
Jerome Bruner’s work over his career and their implications for
curriculum theory. Though a psychologist by training, Jerome Bruner
has always been, and still is, one of the leading figures in education. His
theory of education in the 1960s and 1970s (characteristically seen in
The Process of Education, 1960/1977), directly influenced the programs
of education formulated during those decades.1 The influence of his
theory after the 1980s seems to be less direct, and some who read his
1996 book, The Culture of Education, may have an impression that his
educational theory has changed.
I will argue that there are, in fact, significant changes in Bruner’s
views. The key to understanding the changes in Bruner’s theory is his
concept of culture. In short, his earlier view implied a logic of cultural
transmission. Culture represented educational content to be transmitted
to the student, and the primary issues for curriculum theory were to
locate the most valuable part of culture that would enhance individuals’
cognitive capacity and to work out an effective way of communicating

Interchange, Vol. 39/1, 1–19, 2008. © Springer 2008


DOI: 10.1007/s10780-008-9039-2
2 KEIICHI TAKAYA

the content to students. On the other hand, his recent view emphasizes
the importance of understanding culture as context in which values and
meanings of students’ experience may be interpreted. So, his primary
concerns are to help students experience various modes of meaning-
making and communicating and to create a community in which
multiple ways of learning take place as opposed to the largely
cultureless mode of learning which dominates schools.
The kind of psychology that conceives of learning as essentially an
individual process in which the individual’s mind acquires neutral and
objective knowledge is the major cause of cultureless learning. He has
always tried to overcome this classical epistemological position since the
earliest stages of his career, but it did not have strong practical
implications when he was enormously popular among those who were
concerned about the state of the curriculum. His earlier view attracted
attention from both lay and academic persons and was used as a
principle of curriculum reform from the 1950s to the 1970s. His recent
view does not seem to provide educators as straightforward a guideline
for curriculum development as his earlier view did; rather, it provides
us with perspectives to understand and assess the characteristics of the
education we have today.

The Concept of Culture


From the early stages of his career, Bruner has been interested in the
notion of culture; how culture shapes the mind. In fact, his
dissatisfaction with existing psychological theories’ inadequacy to deal
with the way culture shapes the human mind motivated him for the
research on the human mind that involves not only psychology but also
philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, and so on. He wrote, “though it is
obvious to say that the child is born into a culture and formed by it, it
is not plain how a psychological theory of cognitive development deals
with this fact” (1966, p. 6).
Bruner describes that “culture” – being aware that culture is not a
simple entity but a phenomenon that consists of various layers of
cultures and subcultures – denotes an environment in which we live,
and it embodies “a set of values, skills, and ways of life.” He also says
that “culture” is the “toolkit” for sense-making and communicating
(1996, p. 3); as such, it enhances our (presumably) natural endowment
in action, perception, sense-making, and thought (1966, p. 126; cf. also,
1971, p. 53). An example of the toolkit is the language that is commonly
used in a particular cultural tradition; it includes not only grammar and

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