Jerome Bruner

Jerome Bruner 1915-


“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….” Howard Gardner.


Jerome Bruner is widely acknowledged for his influence on educational practice and his advocacy of discovery learning. His books 'The Process of Education' and 'Towards a Theory of Instruction' have become recognized as classic of educational psychology. Bruner advocated the teaching of the structure of subjects with real life processes as the point of introduction. This corresponds with his theories of intellectual development. He proposed three key stages:

1) The enactive where a person learns about the world through actions on objects;
(from birth to about age 3)
2)The iconic stage where learning occurs through using models and pictures;
(from about age 3 to about age 8)
3) The symbolic stage which describes the capacity to think in abstract terms;
(from about age 8)

Bruner’s idea of moving from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract is compatible with the Steiner education approach where practical hands-on experience is raised to a feeling relationship through mental picturing and finally progresses to abstract thinking. For instance, geography lessons in the Steiner school (usually in class 3) give initial focus to the local area-that which can be physically explored by the child. Children learn to map (picture) their local area. They start recognizing how the parts are inter-related and understanding their place in the picture. In the later years the perspective is widened, step by step, to encompass the whole earth and its place in the solar system. This approach is consistent with Bruner:

“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”
Bruner’s ‘spiral curriculum’ where ideas are revisited, expanded upon and gradually formalized is also much in keeping with Waldorf school practice. So too his approach to learning motivation. Rather than striving for outer signs of achievement, Bruner argued that the interest inspired by the learning material is the ideal stimulus to active learning.

Bruner discouraged educators from shying away from themes of importance at an early age because they are considered “too hard”. He argued that this results in time-wasting and the underestimation of children’s abilities: “any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development”. In Steiner education we embrace this concept. For example, teaching Aesop’s fables in class 2 is a perfect opportunity for fundamental conversations on morals and ethics.

Education is not "teaching a fact for its own sake, but for teaching children to go on beyond what is given." It should never become "just a transmission of what we know, without a sense of what is possible."

In relation to the use of ICT, I would suggest that, in accordance with Bruner, this sort of learning-involving a strong focus on the abstract- should begin after the age of 8. Prior to this age, discovery based learning should find its footing firmly in the real world context.