ABSTRACT
Jerome Bruner, like Piaget, describes development in terms of stages, but unlike Piaget sees them related to the technological advance of a culture. According to Bruner, cognitive development is the process by which human beings increase their mastery in achieving and using knowledge and cognition includes strategies for reducing the complexity of the world. He identifies three modes of representation which allows this to happen: the active, the iconic and the symbolic. Each of these has a powerful effect on mental life at different ages and each continues to function and interact with the others throughout later life.
In 1959, following the concern with the state of American education generated by the launch of the Sputnik by the Russians, Bruner chaired the ‘Woods Hole Conference on Education’. This stimulated his interest in education and resulted in the Process of Education published in 1960, in which he outlined a theory of the organization and structure of education on a set of basic premises. It was partly as a result of this conference that Bruner became involved in the development of a social studies course, ‘Man: A Course of Study’ (MACOS) aimed primarily at children in the middle years. Whilst he was Guggenheim fellow at the University of Cambridge he studied cognition and cognitive development and visited Piaget in Geneva.
The article which follows was written specifically for this publication and attempts to draw together the major features of Bruner’s contribution to our understanding of important educational issues. As will be seen, a major difference between the views of Piaget and those of Bruner is the importance Bruner attaches to language in cognitive development. The influence of language on learning has been the focus of much of Bruner’s most recent work, in particular his studies of young children’s talk and their learning to use language. His ideas have significantly influenced the work of Mercer and Edwards in this area (pp. 323-31).
