Describe Jerome Bruner's discovery approach to learning and relate it to the theory of constructivism. How does this approach depart from traditional educational practice?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Discovery learning was one of Jerome Bruner's ideas for improving school learning. Bruner maintained that traditional approaches to instruction focus too much on preselected and prearranged materials that result in learning that does not generalize beyond the classroom. Rather, he believed that teachers should confront students with problems and help them seek solutions independently, or through group discussions. In his theory, the most important things that students can learn are to discover how ideas relate to each other and to their existing knowledge, and how to independently solve problems. This is best accomplished through personal discovery. This is a constructivist approach to learning, which emphasizes the individual's interpretation and creation of ideas based upon past experience and current interactions with the learning environment. By contrast, traditional educational practice reflects a transmission model. A subject-matter expert (the teacher) provides to novices (students) a predetermined body of knowledge, often in the absence of a meaningful context. If a context is provided, it is that of the teacher or some other subject-matter expert.