THE CONTRIBUTION OF PSYCHOLOGY TO EDUCATION

Edward L. Thorndike (1910)

Teachers College, Columbia University
First published in The Journal of Educational Psychology, 1, 5-12.

Psychology is the science of the intellects, characters and behavior of animals including man. Human education is concerned with
certain changes in the intellects, characters and behavior of men, its problems being roughly included under these four topics: Aims,
materials, means and methods.
Psychology contributes to a better understanding of the aims of education by defining them, making them clearer; by limiting them,
showing us what can be done and what can not; and by suggesting new features that should be made parts of them.
Psychology makes ideas of educational aims clearer. When one says that the aim of education is culture, or discipline, or efficiency, or
happiness, or utility, or knowledge, or skill, or the perfection of all one's powers, or development, one's statements and probably one's
thoughts, need definition. Different people, even amongst the clearest-headed of them, do not agree concerning just what culture is, or
just what is useful. Psychology helps here by requiring us to put our notions of the aims of education into terms of the exact changes
that education is to make, and by describing for us the changes which do actually occur in human beings.
Psychology helps to measure the probability that an aim is attainable. For example, certain writers about education state or imply that
the knowledge and skill and habits of behavior which are taught to the children of today are of service not only to this generation and
to later generations through the work this generation does, but also to later generations forever through the inheritance of increased
capacity for knowledge and skill and morals. But if the mental and moral changes made in one generation are not transmitted by
heredity to the next generation, the improvement of the race by direct transfer of acquisitions is a foolish, because futile aim.
[p. 6] Psychology enlarges and refines the aim of education. Certain features of human nature may be and have been thought to be
unimportant or even quite valueless because of ignorance of psychology. Thus for hundreds of years in the history of certain races
even the most gifted thinkers of the race have considered it beneath the dignity of education to make physical health an important aim.
Bodily welfare was even thought of as a barrier to spiritual growth, an undesirable interferer with its proper master. Education aimed
to teach it its proper place, to treat it as a stupid and brutish slave. It is partly because psychology has shown the world that the mind is
the servant and co-worker as well as the master of the body, that the welfare of our minds and morals is intimately bound up with the
welfare of our bodies, particularly of our central nervous systems, that today we can all see the eminence of bodily health as an aim of
education.
To an understanding of the material of education, psychology is the chief contributor.
Psychology shares with anatomy, physiology, sociology, anthropology, history and the other sciences that concern changes in man's
bodily or mental nature the work of providing thinkers and workers in the field of education with knowledge of the material with
which they work. Just as the science and art of agriculture depend upon chemistry and botany, so the art of education depends upon
physiology and psychology.
A complete science of psychology would tell every fact about every one's intellect and character and behavior, would tell the cause of
every change in human nature, would tell the result which every educational force --every act of every person that changed any other
or the agent himself --would have. It would aid us to use human beings for the world's welfare with the same surety of the result that
we now have when we use falling bodies or chemical elements. In proportion as we get such a science we shall become masters of our
own souls as we now are masters of heat and light. Progress toward such a science is being made.
Psychology contributes to understanding of the means of education, first, because the intellects and characters of any one's parents,
teachers and friends are very important means of educating him, and, second, [p. 7]because the influence of any other means, such as
books, maps or apparatus, cannot be usefully studied apart from the human nature which they are to act upon.
Psychology contributes to knowledge of methods of teaching in three ways. First, methods may be deduced outright from the laws of
human nature. For instance, we may infer from psychology that the difficulty pupils have in learning to divide by a fraction is due in
large measure to the habit established by all the thousands of previous divisions which they have done or seen, the habit, that is, of
"division -- decrease" or "number divided -- result smaller than the number." We may then devise or select such a method as will
reduce this interference from the old habits to a minimum without weakening the old habits in their proper functioning.
Second, methods may be chosen from actual working experience, regardless of psychology, as a starting point. Thus it is believed that
in the elementary school a class of fifteen pupils for one teacher gives better results than either a class of three or a class of thirty.
Thus, also, it is believed that family life is better than institutional life in its effects upon character and enterprise. Thus, also, it is
believed that in learning a foreign language the reading of simple discussions of simple topics is better than the translation of difficult
literary masterpieces that treat subtle and complex topics. Even in such cases psychology may help by explaining why one method
does succeed better and so leading the way to new insights regarding other questions not yet settled by experience.

Third, in all cases psychology, by its methods of measuring knowledge and skill, may suggest means to test and verify or refute the
claims of any method. For instance, there has been a failure on the part of teachers to decide from their classroom experience whether
it is better to teach the spelling of a pair of homonyms together or apart in time. But all that is required to decide the question for any
given pair is for enough teachers to use both methods with enough different classes, keeping everything else except the method
constant, and to measure the errors in spelling the words thereafter in the two cases. Psychology, which teaches us how to measure
changes in human nature, teaches us how to decide just what the results of any method of teaching are.
[p. 8] So far I have outlined the contribution of psychology to education from the point of view of the latter's problems. I shall now
outline very briefly the work being done by psychologists which is of special significance to the theory and practice of education and
which may be expected to result in the largest and most frequent contributions.
It will, of course, be understood that directly or indirectly, soon or late, every advance in the sciences of human nature will contribute
to our success in controlling human nature and changing it to the advantage of the common weal. If certain lines of work by
psychologists are selected for mention here, it is only because they are the more obvious, more direct and, so far as can now be seen,
greater aids to correct thinking about education.
The first line of work concerns the discovery and improvement of means of measurement of intellectual functions. (The study of
means of measuring moral functions such as prudence, readiness to sacrifice an immediate for a later good, sympathy, and the like,
has only barely begun.) Beginning with easy cases such as the discrimination of sensory differences, psychology has progressed to
measuring memory and accuracy of movement, fatigue, improvement with practice, power of observing small details, the quantity,
rapidity and usefulness of associations, and even to measuring so complex a function as general intelligence and so subtle a one as
suggestibility.
The task of students of physical science in discovering the thermometer, galvanometer and spectroscope, and in defining the volt,
calorie erg, and ampre, is being attempted by psychologists in the sphere of human nature and behavior. How important such work is
to education should be obvious. At least three-fourths of the problems of educational practice are problems whose solution depends
upon the amountof some change in boys and girls. Of two methods, which gives the greater skill? Is the gain in general ability from a
"disciplinary" study so great as to outweigh the loss in specially useful habits? Just how much more does a boy learn when thirty
dollars a year is spent for his teaching than when only twenty dollars is spent? Units in which to measure the changes wrought by
education are essential to an adequate science of education. And, though the students of education may establish these units by their
own investigations, they can use and will need all the experience of psychologists in the search for similar units.
[p. 9] The second line of work concerns race, sex, age and individual differences in all the many elements of intellect and character
and behavior.
How do the Igorottes, Ainus, Japanese and Esquimaux differ in their efficiency in learning to operate certain mechanical contrivances?
Is the male sex more variable than the female in mental functions? What happens to keenness of sensory discrimination with age?
How do individuals of the same race, sex and age differ in efficiency in perceiving small visual details or in accuracy in equaling a
given length, or in the rapidity of movement? These are samples of many questions which psychologists have tried to answer by
appropriate measurements. Such knowledge of the differences which exist amongst men for whatever reason is of service to the
thinker about the particular differences which education aims to produce between a man and his former self.
These studies of individual differences or variability are being supplemented by studies of correlations. How far does superior
vividness and fidelity in imagery from one sense go with inferiority in other sorts of imagery? To what extent is motor ability a
symptom of intellectual ability? Does the quick learner soon forget? What are the mental types that result from the individual
variations in mental functions and their inter-correlations? Psychology has already determined with more or less surety the answers to
a number of such questions instructive in their bearing upon both scientific insight into human nature and practical arrangements for
controlling it.
The extent to which the intellectual and moral differences found inhuman beings are consequences of their original nature and
determined by the ancestry from which they spring, is a matter of fundamental importance for education. So also is the manner in
which ancestral influence operates. Whether such qualities as leadership, the artistic temperament, originality, persistence,
mathematical ability, or motor skill are represented in the germs each by one or a few unit characters so that they "Mendelize" in
inheritance, or whether they are represented each by the coperation of so many unit characters that the laws of their inheritance are
those of "blending" is a question whose answer will decide in great measure the means to be employed for racial improvement.
Obviously both the amount and [p. 10] the mode of operation of ancestral influence upon intellect and character are questions which
psychology should and does investigate.
The results and methods of action of the many forces which operate in childhood and throughout life to change a man's original nature
are subjects for study equally appropriate to the work of a psychologist, a sociologist or a student of education, but the last two will
naturally avail themselves of all that the first achieves. Although as yet the studies of such problems are crude, speculative and often
misguided, we may hope that the influence of climate, food, city life, the specialization of industry, the various forms of the family
and of the state, the different "studies" of the schools, and the like will come to be studied by as careful psychologists and with as
much care as is now the case with color-vision or the perception of distance.
The foundation upon which education builds is the equipment of instincts and capacity given by nature apart from training. Just as
knowledge of the peculiar inheritance characteristic of any individual is necessary to efficient treatment of him, so knowledge of the
unlearned tendencies of man as a species is necessary to efficient planning for education in general.

Partly in conscious response to this demand and partly as a result of growing interest in comparative and genetic psychology, there
have been in the last two decades many studies by psychologists of both the general laws of instinct and their particular natures, dates
of appearance and disappearance, and conditions of modifiability. The instincts of attitude-- of interest and aversion -- are of course to
be included here, as well as the tendencies to more obviously effective responses.
It is unfortunately true that the unlearned tendencies to respond of ants and chickens have been studied with more care than those of
men, and also that the extreme complexity and intimate mixture with habits in the case of human instincts prevent studies of them,
even when made with great care, from giving entirely unambiguous and elegant results. But the educational theorist or practitioner
who should conclude that his casual observations of children in homes and schools needs no reinforcement from the researches of
psychologists would be making the same sort of, thought [sic] not so great, an error as the pathologist or physician who should neglect
the scientific studies of bacteria and protozoa. Also the psychologist who condemns these [p. 11] studies in toto because they lack the
precision and surety of his own studies of sensations and perceptual judgments is equally narrow, though from a better motive.
The modifications of instincts and capacities into habits and powers and the development of the latter are the subjects of researches in
dynamic psychology which are replacing the vague verbal and trite maxims of what used to be called "applied psychology" by definite
insights into reality far in advance of those which common-sense sagacity alone can make. We are finding out when and why "practice
makes perfect" and when and why it does not; wherein the reinforcement of a connection between situation and response by resulting
satisfaction is better than the inhibition of alternative connections by discomfort and wherein it is not; what the law of diminishing
returns from equal amounts of practice is, what it implies, and how it is itself limited; how far the feelings of achievement, of failure
and of fatigue are symptomatic of progress, retardation and unfitness for work. Such a list of topics could be much extended even now
and is being increased rapidly as more psychologists and more gifted psychologists come to share in the study of the learning process.
Only twenty years ago a student could do little more than add to his own common-sense deductions from the common facts of life the
ordered series of similar deductions by the sagacious Bain. Bain utilized all the psychology of his day as well as the common fund of
school-room experience, but today his book is hopelessly outgrown. Although it was the source of the minor books on the topic during
the eighties and nineties, no one would now think of presenting the facts of the science of education by a revised edition of Bain.
Other lines of psychological work deserve more than mention. Incidental contributions from studies of sensory and perceptual
processes, imagery and memory, attention and distraction, facilitation, inhibition and fatigue, imitation and suggestion, the rate and
accuracy of movement and other topics-- even from studies made with little or no concern about the practical control of human nature
-- sum up to a body of facts which do extend and economize that control. The special psychology of babies, children and adolescents
is obviously important to education. False infant psychology or false child psychology is harmful, not because it is infant psychology,
but because it is false.
[p. 12] I give only mention to these so as to save space in which to call attention to another relation between psychology and education
which is not sufficiently known. The science of education can and will itself contribute abundantly to psychology. Not only do the
laws derived by psychology from simple, specially arranged experiments help us to interpret and control mental action under the
conditions of school-room life. School-room life itself is a vast laboratory in which are made thousands of experiments of the utmost
interest to "pure" psychology. Not only does psychology help us to understand the mistakes made by children in arithmetic. These
mistakes afford most desirable material for studies of the action of the laws of association, analysis and selective thinking. Experts in
education studying the responses to school situations for the sake of practical control will advance knowledge not only of the mind as
a learner under school conditions but also of the mind for every point of view.
Indeed I venture to predict that this journal will before many years contain a notable proportion of articles reporting answers to
psychological questions got from the facts of educational experience, in addition to its list of papers reporting answers to educational
questions got from the experiments of the laboratory.
All that is here written may seem very obvious and needless, and meet the tragic fate of being agreed with by every one who reads it. I
hope that it is obvious and needless, and that the relation between psychology and education is not, in the mind of any competent
thinker, in any way an exception to the general case that action in the world should be guided by the truth about the world; and that
any truth about it will directly or indirectly, soon or late, benefit action.

II. Influences and Developments
Curriculum has had strong historical roots. From before Tyler crafted the major questions that we ask about curriculum (Tyler,1949),
theorists have been concerned about the ways in which teachers and schools plan learning experiences for all learners. These pre-
occupations have influenced the development of Curriculum theory from the outset. Invariably, curriculum has long been influenced
by factors outside of the school. Such influences include history, society, psychology and politics.

Social and Political Influences and Curriculum Evolution
Social and political developments have continuously contributed to ideas about the components and definitions of curriculum. At the
turn of the century Franklin Bobbit constructed his definition of curriculum on the basis of objectives based on adult work life
(Bobbit,1918). Social emphasis was on the advancement of science and industry this approach also influenced the curriculum theories
of other thinkers of the time. John Dewey's definition of curriculum which though [4] a more progressive in that it focused on learning
by doing rather than rote learning and dogmatic instruction also [5] maintained some influence from this area of science and industry.
In 1891 William Torrey Harris introduced the idea of organized learning and learning with text books. Has practical application of a
systematization of the curriculum laid the groundwork for an industrialized model of curriculum implementation.
Other societal influences to the curriculum include legal decisions and government policy. Brown v. Board of Education was a
landmark case in the history of American education. The case was in response to social events which entrenched racialized schooling
and curriculum in the United States. From the 1892 Plessy v. Ferguson case, the precedent of "separate but equal" was set, resulting in
separate schools for white and black children. The Brown decision set the stage for more aggressive centralized decision- making at
the Federal level with regards to public education. It set the stage for Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Furthermore, it is unlikely that the Department of Education would have been
established in 1979, were it not for the Brown decision in 1954.
Social and political influences have contributed to education having mandated norms. There are mandated times that are alloted for
each subject as well as mandated subjects. In many sectors, such as local school districts and school boards, curriculum is considered
to be the official written document from the higher authority. Such a document is seen as a mandated template that must be followed
by all teachers.
Technology Advances
Technological change is redefining not only how we communicate, but in turn, is redefining how we need to educate. The ready
availability of information has lessened the necessity for a curriculum that is teacher centered and rooted in the aim to prepare citizens
for an industrial society. The development of analytical skills and higher order thinking is increasingly an important focus of the
modern curriculum. The stakeholders and interest groups in this process are many and varied, with pressure for change and reform
brought from teachers, schools and school councils, government authorities, industry and students themselves. All have differing
perspectives on the best curriculum planning models to deal with this change.
As technology advances and the world undergoes massive changes, theorists will redefine definitions. Influences of future times will
regulate new definitions. It would only make sense for the definition of curriculum to change as advances have been made in the
world and will continue to be made. A true researcher or theorists will collect new data, conduct new experiments to challenge and
add to the beginning founders definitions of curriculum. As you read and research you to will either create or adapt your own
definition of curriculum and this definition will be a result of whats going on in the world, your economic status and your views of
education.
New technology based definitions would include wording to accommodate the times. In preparing for the working world, which at
present is technical, curriculum would include electronic, computerized verbiage. What was once known as a textbook will become
prehistoric. More and more computer based learning is occurring and curriculum will be designed to facilitate future life skills.

Psychology in Curriculum
Many psychologist have conducted and completed studies to determine how individuals learn. For example Janet Shibley Hyde
compiled a meta-analytical study that lasted about ten years. Her study was based on the notion that men and women learned
differently. In 1990 Shibley and her colleagues published a report stating that males and females were cognitively different but social
and cultural factors influence their performances. In 2005 Elizabeth Spelke, at Harvard University, reviewed a variety of prior
research and ascertained that most of the reviewed studies and papers suggested that an adults ability, "for math and science have a
genetic basis in cognitive systems that emerge in early childhood but give men and women on the whole equal aptitude for math and
science" (American Psychology Association). Where men and women varied in studies, researchers found that social context to be a
major influence. Spelke believes that differences that develop later in life, often demonstrated in career choices, are based more on
clutural factors that abilities.

Modern curriculum uses the findings of studies in psychology to produce effective learning and teaching in the classroom. Effective
learning and teaching will produce productive working adults. If the results from the above study were to influence curriculum gender
stereotyping might do away. There would no longer be a need for only boys to play in the block area and only girls playing in the
housekeeping area. Curriculum will have equivocally and all students would be learning the same life skills.

Moving toward contemporary educational psychology.
In the 1960s a number of educational psychologists developed approaches to teaching that foreshadowed some of the contemporary
applications and arguments. Jerome Bruner's early research on thinking stirred his interest in education. Bruner's work emphasized the
importance of understanding the structure of a subject being studied, the need for active learning as the basis for true understanding,
and the value of inductive reasoning in learning. Bruner believed students must actively identify key principles for themselves rather
than relying on teachers' explanations. Teachers should provide problem situations stimulating students to question, explore, and
experimenta process called discovery learning. Thus, Bruner believed that classroom learning should take place through inductive
reasoning, that is, by using specific examples to formulate a general principle.
J erome Bruner (1915 - )
Constructivism & Discovery Learning

Biography

Born New York City, October 1, 1915. He received his A.B. degree from Duke University in 1937 and his Ph.D in 1947 from
Harvard. He was on the faculty in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.from 1952 - 1972.

In 1960 Bruner published The Process of Education. This was a landmark book which led to much experimentation and a broad range
of educational programs in the 1960's. Howard Gardner and other young researchers worked under Bruner and were much-influenced
by his work. In the early 70's Bruner left Harvard to teach at University of Oxford for several years (1972 - 1979). He returned to
Harvard in 1979.

Later he joined the New York University of Law, where he is a senior research fellow (at the age of 93).

Theory

Bruner was one of the founding fathers of constructivist theory. Constructivismis a broad conceptual framework with numerous
perspectives, and Bruner's is only one. Bruner's theoretical framework is based on the theme that learners construct new ideas or
concepts based upon existing knowledge. Learning is an active process. Facets of the process include selection and transformation of
information, decision making, generating hypotheses, and making meaning from information and experiences.

Bruner's theories emphasize the significance of categorization in learning. "To perceive is to categorize, to conceptualize is to
categorize, to learn is to form categories, to make decisions is to categorize." Interpreting information and experiences by similarities
and differences is a key concept.

Bruner was influenced by Piaget's ideas about cognitive development in children. During the 1940's his early work focused on the
impact of needs, motivations, & expectations (mental sets) and their influence on perception. He also looked at the role of strategies
in the process of human categorization, and development of human cognition. He presented the point of view that children are active
problem-solvers and capable of exploring difficult subjects. This was widely divergent from the dominant views in education at the
time, but found an audience.

Four Key themes emerged in Bruner's early work:
Bruner emphasized the role of structure in learning and how it may be made central in teaching. Structure refers to relationships
among factual elements and techniques. See the section on categorization, below.

He introduced the ideas of "readiness for learning" and spiral curriculum. Bruner believed that any subject could be taught at any stage
of development in a way that fit the child's cognitive abilities. Spiral curriculum refers to the idea of revisiting basic ideas over and
over, building upon them and elaborating to the level of full understanding and mastery.

Bruner believed that intuitive and analytical thinking should both be encouraged and rewarded. He believed the intuitive skills were
under-emphasized and he reflected on the ability of experts in every field to make intuitive leaps.

He investigated motivation for learning. He felt that ideally, interest in the subject matter is the best stimulus for learning. Bruner did
not like external competitive goals such as grades or class ranking.

Eventually Bruner was strongly influenced by Vygotsky's writings and began to turn away from the intrapersonal focus he had had for
learning, and began to adopt a social and political view of learning. Bruner argued that aspects of cognitive performance are facilitated
by language. He stressed the importance of the social setting in the acquisition of language. His views are similar to those
ofPiaget, but he places more emphasis on the social influences on development. The earliest social setting is the mother-child dyad,
where children work out the meanings of utterances to which they are repeatedly exposed. Bruner identified several important social
devices including joint attention, mutual gaze, and turn-taking.

Bruner also incorporated Darwinian thinking into his basic assumptions about learning. He believed it was necessary to refer to human
culture and primate evolution in order to understand growth and development. He did, however, believe there were individual
differences and that no standard sequence could be found for all learners. He considered instruction as an effort to assist or shape
growth.In 1996 he published The Culture of Education.. This book reflected his changes in viewpoints since the 1960's. He adopted
the point of view that culture shapes the mind and provides the raw material with which we constrict our world and our self-
conception.




Four features of Bruner's theory of instruction.
1. Predisposition to learn.... This feature specifically states the experiences which move the learner toward a love of learning in
general, or of learning something in particular. Motivational, cultural, and personal factors contribute to this. Bruner emphasized
social factors and early teachers and parents' influence on this. He believed learning and problem solving emerged out of exploration.
Part of the task of a teacher is to maintain and direct a child's spontaneous explorations.

2. Structure of knowledge....it is possible to structure knowledge in a way that enables the learner to most readily grasp the
information. This is a relative feature, as there are many ways to structure a body of knowledge and many preferences among learners.
Bruner offered considerable detail about structuring knowledge.

Understanding the fundamental structure of a subject makes it more comprehensible. Bruner viewed categorization as a fundamental
process in the structuring of knowledge. (See the section below on categorization.)

Details are better retained when placed within the contest of an ordered and structured pattern.

To generate knowledge which is transferable to other contexts, fundamental principles or patterns are best suited.

The discrepancy between beginning and advanced knowledge in a subject area is diminished when instruction centers on a structure
and principles of orientation. This means that a body of knowledge must be in a simple enough form for the learner to understand it
and it must be in a form recognizable to the student's experience.

3. Modes of representation: visual, words, symbols.

4. Effective sequencing- no one sequencing will fit every learner, but in general, increasing difficulty. Sequencing, or lack of it, can
make learning easier or more difficult.
Form and pacing of reinforcement

Categorization:

Bruner gave much attention to categorization of information in the construction of internal cognitive maps. He believed that
perception, conceptualization, learning, decision making, and making inferences all involved categorization.

Bruner suggested a system of coding in which people form a hierarchical arrangement of related categories. Each successively higher
level of categories becomes more specific, echoing Benjamin Bloom's understanding of knowledge acquisition as well as the related
idea of instructional scaffolding (Bloom's Taxonomy).

Categories are "rules" that specify four thing about objects.

1. Criterial attributes - required characteristics for inclusion of an object in a category. (Example, for an object to be included in the
category "car" it must have an engine, 4 wheels, and be a possible means of transportation,

2. The second rule prescribes how the criteral attributes are combined.

3. The third rule assignees weight to various properties. (Example, it could be a car even if a tire was missing, and if it was used for
hauling cargo it would be shifted to a different category of "truck" or perhaps "van".

4. The fourth rule sets acceptance limits on attributes. Some attributes can vary widely, such as color. Others are fixed. For example a
vehicle without an engine is not a car. Likewise, a vehicle with only two wheels would not be included in "car".

There a several kinds of categories:

Identity categories - categories include objects based on their attributes or features.

Equivalent categories (provide rules for combining categories. Equivalence can be determined by affective criteria, which render
objects equivalent by emotional reactions, functional criteria, based on related functions (for example, "car", "truck", "van" could all
be combined in an inclusive category called "motor vehicle"), or by formal criteria, for example by science, law, or cultural
agreement. For example, and apple is still an apple whether it is green, ripe, dried, etc (identity). It is food (functional), and it is a
member of of a botanical classification group (formal).

Coding systems are categories serve to recognize sensory input. They are major organizational variables in higher cognitive
functioning. Going beyond immediate sensory data involves making inferences on the basis of related categories. Related categories
form a "coding system." These are hierarchical arrangements of related categories.
Bruner's theories introduced the idea that people interpret the world largely in terms of similarities and differences.

This is a significant contribution to how individuals construct their unique models of the world.

Application

Bruner emphasized four characteristics of effective instruction which emerged from his theoretical constructs.

1. Personalized: instruction should relate to learners' predisposition, and facilitate interest toward learning,

2. Content Structure: content should be structured so it can be most easily grasped by the learner

3. Sequencing: sequencing is an important aspect for presentation of material

4. Reinforcement: rewards and punishment should be selected and paced appropriately.

Intellectual Development

Bruner postulated three stages of intellectual development.

The first stage he termed "Enactive", when a person learns about the world through actions on physical objects and the outcomes of
these actions.

The second stage was called "Iconic" where learning can be obtained through using models and pictures.

The final stage was "Symbolic" in which the learner develops the capacity to think in abstract terms. Based on this three-stage notion,
Bruner recommended using a combination of concrete, pictorial then symbolic activities will lead to more effective learning.
Jerome S. Bruner (1915- ) is one of the best known and influential psychologists of the twentieth century. He was one of the key
figures in the so called cognitive revolution but it is the field of education that his influence has been especially felt. His books The
Process of Education and Towards a Theory of Instruction have been widely read and become recognized as classics, and his work on
the social studies programme Man: A Course of Study (MACOS) in the mid-1960s is a landmark in curriculum development.
More recently Bruner has come to be critical of the cognitive revolution and has looked to the building of a cultural psychology that
takes proper account of the historical and social context of participants. In his 1996 book The Culture of Education these arguments
were developed with respect to schooling (and education more generally). How one conceives of education, he wrote, we have
finally come to recognize, is a function of how one conceives of the culture and its aims, professed and otherwise (Bruner 1996: ix-
x).
Jerome S. Bruner life
Bruner was born in New York City and later educated at Duke University and Harvard (from which he was awarded a PhD in 1947).
During World War II, Bruner worked as a social psychologist exploring propaganda public opinion and social attitudes for U.S. Army
intelligence. After obtaining his PhD he became a member of faculty, serving as professor of psychology, as well as cofounder and
director of the Center for Cognitive Studies.
Beginning in the 1940s, Jerome Bruner, along with Leo Postman, worked on the ways in which needs, motivations, and expectations
(or mental sets) influence perception. Sometimes dubbed as the New Look, they explored perception from a functional orientation
(as against a process to separate from the world around it). In addition to this work, Bruner began to look at the role of st rategies in the
process of human categorization, and more generally, the development of human cognition. This concern with cognitive psychology
led to a particular interest in the cognitive development of children (and their modes of representation) and just what the appropriate
forms of education might be.
From the late 1950s on Jerome Bruner became interested in schooling in the USA and was invited to chair an influential ten day
meeting of scholars and educators at Woods Hole on Cape Cod in 1959 (under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences and
the National Science Foundation). One result was Bruners landmark book The Process of Education (1960). It developed some of the
key themes of that meeting and was an crucial factor in the generation of a range of educational programmes and experiments in the
1960s. Jerome Bruner subsequently joined a number of key panels and committees (including the Presidents Advisory Panel of
Education). In 1963, he received the Distinguished Scientific Award from the American Psychological Association, and in 1965 he
served as its president.
Jerome S. Bruner also became involved in the design and implementation of the influential MACOS project (which sought to produce
a comprehensive curriculum drawing upon the behavioural sciences). The curriculum famously aimed to address three questions:
What is uniquely human about human beings?
How did they get that way?
How could they be made more so? (Bruner 1976: 74)
The project involved a number of young researchers, including Howard Gardner, who subsequently have made an impact on
educational thinking and practice. MACOS was attacked by conservatives (especially the cross-cultural nature of the materials). It was
also difficult to implement requiring a degree of sophistication and learning on the part of teachers, and ability and motivation on the
part of students. The educational tide had begun to move away from more liberal and progressive thinkers like Jerome Bruner.



In the 1960s Jerome Bruner developed a theory of cognitive growth. His approach (in contrast to Piaget) looked to environmental and
experiential factors. Bruner suggested that intellectual ability developed in stages through step-by-step changes in how the mind is
used. Bruners thinking became increasingly influenced by writers like Lev Vygotsky and he began to be critical of the intrapersonal
focus he had taken, and the lack of attention paid to social and political context. In the early 1970s Bruner left Harvard to teach for
several years at the university of Oxford. There he continued his research into questions of agency in infants and began a series of
explorations of childrens language. He returned to Harvard as a visiting professor in 1979 and then, two years later, joined the faculty
of the new School for Social Research in New York City. He became critical of the cognitive revolution and began to argue for the
building of a cultural psychology. This cultural turn was then reflected in his work on education most especially in his 1996
book: The Culture of Education.
The process of education
The Process of Education (1960) was a landmark text. It had a direct impact on policy formation in the United States and influenced
the thinking and orientation of a wide group of teachers and scholars, Its view of children as active problem-solvers who are ready to
explore difficult subjects while being out of step with the dominant view in education at that time, struck a chord with many. It was
a surprise, Jerome Bruner was later to write (in the preface to the 1977 edition), that a book expressing so structuralist a view of
knowledge and so intuitionist an approach to the process of knowing should attract so much attention in America, where empiricism
had long been the dominant voice and learning theory its amplifier (ibid.: vii).
Four key themes emerge out of the work around The Process of Education(1960: 11-16):
The role of structure in learning and how it may be made central in teaching. The approach taken should be a practical one. The
teaching and learning of structure, rather than simply the mastery of facts and techniques, is at the center of the classic problem of
transfer If earlier learning is to render later learning easier, it must do so by providing a general picture in terms of which the
relations between things encountered earlier and later are made as clear as possible (ibid.: 12).
Readiness for learning. Here the argument is that schools have wasted a great deal of peoples time by postponing the teaching of
important areas because they are deemed too difficult.
We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of
development. (ibid.: 33)
This notion underpins the idea of the spiral curriculum A curriculum as it develops should revisit this basic ideas repeatedly,
building upon them until the student has grasped the full formal apparatus that goes with them (ibid.: 13).
Intuitive and analytical thinking. Intuition (the intellectual technique of arriving and plausible but tentative formulations without
going through the analytical steps by which such formulations would be found to be valid or invalid conclusions ibid.: 13) is a much
neglected but essential feature of productive thinking. Here Bruner notes how experts in different fields appear to leap intuitively into
a decision or to a solution to a problem (ibid.: 62) a phenomenon that Donald Schn was to explore some years later and looked
to how teachers and schools might create the conditions for intuition to flourish.
Motives for learning. Ideally, Jerome Bruner writes, interest in the material to be learned is the best stimulus to learning, rather than
such external goals as grades or later competitive advantage (ibid.: 14). In an age of increasing spectatorship, motives for learning
must be kept from going passive they must be based as much as possible upon the arousal of interest in what there is be learned, and
they must be kept broad and diverse in expression (ibid.: 80).
Bruner was to write two postscripts to The Process of Education: Towards a theory of instruction (1966) and The Relevance of
Education (1971). In these books Bruner put forth his evolving ideas about the ways in which instruction actually affects the mental
models of the world that students construct, elaborate on and transform (Gardner 2001: 93). In the first book the various essays deal
with matters such as patterns of growth, the will to learn, and on making and judging (including some helpful material around
evaluation). Two essays are of particular interest his reflections on MACOS (see above), and his notes on a theory of instruction.
The latter essay makes the case for taking into account questions of predisposition, structure, sequence, and reinforcement in preparing
curricula and programmes. He makes the case for education as a knowledge-getting process:
To instruct someone is not a matter of getting him to commit results to mind. Rather, it is to teach him to participate in the process
that makes possible the establishment of knowledge. We teach a subject not to produce little living libraries on that subject, but rather
to get a student to think mathematically for himself, to consider matters as an historian does, to take part in the process of knowledge-
getting. Knowing is a process not a product. (1966: 72)
The essays in The Relevance of Education (1971) apply his theories to infant development.
The culture of education
Jerome Bruners reflections on education in The Culture of Education (1996) show the impact of the changes in his thinking since the
1960s. He now placed his work within a thorough appreciation of culture: culture shapes the mind it provides us with the toolkit by
which we construct not only our worlds but our very conception of our selves and our powers (ibid.: x). This orientation presupposes
that human mental activity is neither solo nor conducted unassisted, even when it goes on inside the head (ibid.: xi). It also takes
Bruner well beyond the confines of schooling.
Conclusion
Jerome S. Bruner has had a profound effect on education and upon those researchers and students he has worked with. Howard
Gardner has commented:
Jerome Bruner is not merely one of the foremost educational thinkers of the era; he is also an inspired learner and teacher. His
infectious curiosity inspires all who are not completely jaded. Individuals of every age and background are invited to join in. Logical
analyses, technical dissertations, rich and wide knowledge of diverse subject matters, asides to an ever wider orbit of information,
intuitive leaps, pregnant enigmas pour forth from his indefatigable mouth and pen. In his words, Intellectual activity is anywhere and
everywhere, whether at the frontier of knowledge or in a third-grade classroom. To those who know him, Bruner remains the
Compleat Educator in the flesh (Gardner 2001: 94)


I am an education psychologist best known for my "Conditions of Learning" which identified the mental conditions of
learning and was published in 1965. I was born in North Andover, Maine in 1916 and died in 2002. I earned my
Ph.D. in psychology from Brown University in 1940. I went on to work as a professor for Connecticut College, Penn
State University and Florida State University. I also served as Director of the U.S. Air Force Perceptual and Motor
Skill Laboratory were I began developing my principles of my learning theory.
I am considered to be a major contributor to the systematic approach of instructional design. My learning theory is
summarized as The Gagne Assumption and consists of five types of learning (each requires a different type of
instruction) and nine events of instruction. I've also identified a hierarchy of eight conditions to learning.
Five Types of Learning - learning is similar to processing it is sequential and builds on prior knowledge.
1. Verbal Information
2. Intellectual Skills
3. Cognitive Strategies
4. Motor Skills
5. Attitude
Nine Events of Instruction - these events apply to each of the 5 types of learning but not necessarily in the same
order for each type.
1. Gaining attention - pique the learners interest
2. Informing learners of objectives - discuss what will be taught
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning - ask questions to call upon what they already know
4. Presenting the stimulus - teach the lesson
5. Providing learning guidance - allow teacher facilitated student practice
6. Eliciting performance - have learner complete a task on what was taught
7. Providing feedback - let learner know how they did on the task
8. Assessing performance - evaluate learner on their knowledge of what was taught
9. Enhancing retention and transfer - provide activity to help learners remember what was taught
Eight Conditions of Learning - the hierarchal structure is listed lowest to highest, you must master each step
before reaching the next.
1. Signal learning: the learner makes a general response to a signal
2. Stimulus-response learning: the learner makes a precise response to a signal
3. Chaining: the connection of a set of individual stimulus & responses in a sequence.
4. Verbal association: the learner makes associations using verbal connections
5. Discrimination learning: the learner makes different responses to different stimuli that are somewhat alike
6. Concept learning: the learner develops the ability to make a generalized response based on a class of
stimuli
7. Rule learning: a rule is a chain of concepts linked to a demonstrated behavior
8. Problem solving: the learner discovers a combination of previously learned rules and applies them to solve a
novel situation
The Gagne Assumption ~ is for each of the different types of learning (learning goals) that exist different
instructional conditions are required.

Robert Mills Gagn (August 21, 1916 April 28, 2002) was an American educational psychologist best
known for his "Conditions of Learning". Gagn pioneered the science of instruction during World War II when
he worked with the Army Air Corps training pilots. He went on to develop a series of studies and works that
simplified and explained what he and others believed to be 'good instruction.' Gagn was also involved in
applying concepts of instructional theory to the design of computer-based training and multimedia-based
learning [reference?].
Gagn's work is sometimes summarized as the Gagn assumption. The assumption is that different types of
learning exist, and that different instructional conditions are most likely to bring about these different types of
learning.
Learning process[edit]
Gagn's theory stipulates that there are several types and levels of learning, and each of these types and levels
requires instruction that is tailored to meet the needs of the pupil. While Gagne's learning blueprint can cover all
aspects of learning, the focus of the theory is on the retention and honing of intellectual skills. The theory has
been applied to the design of instruction in all fields, though in its original formulation special attention was
given to military training settings.
[3]
This theory stipulates that there are several different types or levels of learning. The significance of these
classifications is that each different type requires different types of instruction. Gagne identifies five major
categories of learning: verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes.
Different internal and external conditions are necessary for each type of learning. For example, for cognitive
strategies to be learned, there must be a chance to practice developing new solutions to problems; to learn
attitudes, the learner must be exposed to a credible role model or persuasive arguments.
Gagne suggests that learning tasks for intellectual skills can be organized in a hierarchy according to
complexity: stimulus recognition, response generation, procedure following, use of terminology,
discriminations, concept formation, rule application, and problem solving. The primary significance of the
hierarchy is to identify prerequisites that should be completed to facilitate learning at each level. Prerequisites
are identified by doing a task analysis of a learning/training task. Learning hierarchies provide a basis for the
sequencing of instruction.
In addition, the theory outlines nine instructional events and corresponding cognitive processes:
1. Gaining attention (reception)
2. Informing learners of the objective (expectancy)
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval)
4. Presenting the stimulus (selective perception)
5. Providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)
6. Eliciting performance (responding)
7. Providing feedback (reinforcement)
8. Assessing performance (retrieval)
9. Enhancing retention and transfer (generalization).
These events should satisfy or provide the necessary conditions for learning and serve as the basis for designing
instruction and selecting appropriate media (Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1992).
Application
While Gagne's theoretical framework covers all aspects of learning, the focus of the theory is on intellectual
skills. The theory has been applied to the design of instruction in all domains (Gagner & Driscoll, 1988). In its
original formulation (Gagne, 1 962), special attention was given to military training settings. Gagne (1987)
addresses the role of instructional technology in learning.


Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of
human intelligence, first developed by Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (18961980). It is primarily known
as a developmental stage theory but, in fact, it deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to
acquire, construct, and use it. To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a
result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Accordingly, children construct an understanding of the
world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their
environment.
[1]
Moreover, Piaget claimed the idea that cognitive development is at the center of human organism, and
language is contingent on cognitive development. Below is a short description of Piaget's views about the nature of
intelligence, followed by a description of the stages through which it develops until maturity.
Piaget's Stages
An Overview of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental
development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on
understanding the nature of intelligence.
Stage Age Characteristics Developmental Changes
Sensorimotor
Stage

Birth to
2 Years
The infant knows the world through their movements
and sensations.
Infants learn that things continue to exist even
though they cannot be seen (object
permanence).
They are separate beings from the people and
objects around them.
They realize that their actions can cause things
to happen in the world around them.
Learning occurs through assimilation and
accommodation.
Preoperational
Stage

2 to 7
Years
Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use
words and pictures to represent objects. They also tend
to be very egocentric, and see things only from their
point of view.
Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and
struggle to see things from the perspective of
others.
While they are getting better with language and
thinking, they still tend to think about things in
very conrete terms.
Concrete
Operational Stage

7 to 11
Years
During this stage, children begin to thinking logically
about concrete events.
They begin to understand the concept of
conservation; the the amount of liquid in a
short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny
glass.
Thinking becomes more logical and organized,
but still very concrete.
Begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from
specific information to a general principle.
Formal
Operational Stage

12 and
Up
At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to
think abstractly and reason about hypothetical
problems.
Abstract thought emerges.
Teens begin to think more about moral,
philosophical, ethical, social, and political
issues that require theoretical and abstract
reasoning.
Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from
a general principle to specific information.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development
Background and Key Concepts of Piaget's Theory
By Kendra Cherry
Jean Piaget's theory has become one of the most influential theories of cognitive development.
According to psychologist Jean Piaget, children progress through a series of four key stages of cognitive
development marked by shifts in how they understand the world. Piaget believed that children are like "little
scientists" and that they actively try to explore and make sense of the world around them. Through his
observations of his own children, Piaget developed a stage theory of intellectual development that included four
distinct stages: the sensorimotor stage, from birth to age 2; the preoperational stage, from age 2 to about age 7;
the concrete operational stage, from age 7 to 11; and the formal operational stage, which begins in adolescence
and spans into adulthood.
Jean Piaget's Background
Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland in 1896. After receiving his doctoral degree at age 22, Piaget formally
began a career that would have a profound impact on both psychology and education. After working
with Alfred Binet, Piaget developed an interest in the intellectual development of children. Based upon his
observations, he concluded that children were not less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently.
Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could have thought of it."
Piaget's stage theory describes the cognitive development of children. Cognitive development involves changes
in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget's view, early cognitive development involves processes based upon
actions and later progresses into changes in mental operations.
A Quick Summary of Cognitive Development
The Sensorimotor Stage: During this stage, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory
experiences and manipulating objects.

The Preoperational Stage: At this stage, kids learn through pretend play but still struggle with logic and
taking the point of view of other people.

The Concrete Operational Stage: Kids at this point of development begin to think more logically, but their
thinking can also be very rigid. They tend to struggle with abstract and hypothetical concepts.

The Formal Operational Stage: The final stage of Piaget's theory involves an increase in logic, the ability to
use deductive reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas.


It is important to note that Piaget did not view children's intellectual development at a quantitative process; that
is, kids do not just add more information and knowledge to their existing knowledge as they get older. Instead,
Piaget suggested that there is a qualitativechange in how children think as they gradually process through these
four stages. A child at age 7 doesn't just have more information about the world than he did at age 2; there is a
fundamental change in how he thinks about the world.
In order to better understand some of the things that happen during cognitive development, it is important to
first examine a few of the important ideas and concepts introduced by Piaget. The following are some of the
factors that influence how children learn and grow:
Key Concepts
Schemas - A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing.
Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world.
In Piaget's view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge.
As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas.
For example, a child may have a schema about a type of animal, such as a dog. If the child's sole experience has
been with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small, furry, and have four legs. Suppose then that
the child encounters a very large dog. The child will take in this new information, modifying the previously
existing schema to include this new information.
Assimilation - The process of taking in new information into our previously existing schemas is known as
assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective, because we tend to modify experience or information
somewhat to fit in with our preexisting beliefs. In the example above, seeing a dog and labeling it "dog" is an
example of assimilating the animal into the child's dog schema.
Accommodation - Another part of adaptation involves changing or altering our existing schemas in light of
new information, a process known as accommodation. Accommodation involves altering existing schemas, or
ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this
process.
Equilibration - Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between assimilation and
accommodation, which is achieved through a mechanism Piaget called equilibration. As children progress
through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous
knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation). Equilibration
helps explain how children are able to move from one stage of thought into the next.