Bruner - 1 © Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D. This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Essential Learning Theories and Their Applications, published by Rowman and Littlefield. BRUNER’S LEARNING THEORY Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D. Minnesota State University, Mankato www.Readocity.com Jerome Bruner’s learning theory posits that learning is an active process in which learners construct new knowledge based on their current knowledge. A closer look at some of the basic elements of Bruner’s ideas related to teaching and learning are included below. Some of the Basic Elements • Natural inclination. Humans have a natural desire to make sense out of their environment (Bruner, 1977). Learning experiences should be based on this natural inclination. • Categories and concepts. When humans experience reality, the human brain naturally seeks to induce order on a field by creating categories based on reoccurring patterns (Bruner, 1966). The term for this specific cognitive operation is inductive analysis (see below). A category is a classification of objectives based on common properties. A concept is a mental representation of items within a category. A concept has defining attributes which clearly describe the elements necessary for a thing to be a concept. • Basic structure. Grasping the basic structure of concepts being taught is essential for meaningful learning. This enables learners to see the relationships between related concepts and it makes conceptual knowledge more easily retained and transferred. Also, understanding the basic structure of a concept enables students to understand them at higher levels of complexity later. Thus, the initial instruction should enable students to easily see the basic structure of what is to be learned (Bigge & Shermis, 1992). • Simple-to-complex. Both skills and concepts should be taught in their simplest form first. This provides a platform upon which to attach more sophisticated or complex skills and concepts later. • Whole-to-part instruction. When teaching skills and concepts, whole-to-part instruction enables students to see how the individual parts relate to the whole. In other words, providing the big picture first gives students a context for learning the individual parts. This is like showing the picture of the complete jigsaw puzzle first so that students know where the individual pieces go. The opposite would be to present the individual pieces and expect students to put them together in order to see the big picture. As an example of whole-to-part instruction, Ms. Lee was teaching her middle school students how to write. She first created writing activities and assignments that asked her students to use writing to describe their ideas (whole). Then, skills related to grammar and punctuation were taught in the context of students’ own writing (parts). The opposite of this (part-to-whole instruction) would be trying to teach writing by teaching just grammar and punctuation in isolation apart from students’ own writing. This approach has not been shown to be very effective (Johnson, 2016; Weaver, 2009). • All levels. The basic foundations of any subject can be taught in some intellectually honest form to any child and any stage of development if it is broken down at the appropriate