Jerome Bruner on Discovery Learning

Jerome Bruner is the mind behind a constructivist learning theory (1966) which is still used in classrooms today.  He was concerned with how knowledge is represented and organized through different methods of thinking or representation.  The technique he founded was titled “discovery learning”, which is as self-explanatory as it sounds.  Discovery learning is a teaching technique which encourages gaining knowledge for yourself instead of someone doing it for you.  Bruner believed that learning is more effective when students construct their own knowledge, and they can do this by organizing and categorizing information using a coding system.  Bruner also believed that it is more effective for students to discover this coding system themselves rather than have a teacher give it to them.  

Discovery learning is a student-centered, or constructivist, approach which gives students complete power and control over their own discoveries.  The role of teachers in this type of instruction is not to teach information directly, but simply to facilitate the learning process.  A good lesson plan that follows this approach would include helping the students discover the relationship between parts of information they discover themselves.  

This practice was implemented with the intention of assisting students in becoming inquisitive learners who ask lots of questions.  It also encourages students to do their own research, rather than just believe everything someone tells them.  

While Bruner’s theory was considered revolutionary at the time, he later published a piece about the issues to consider when leading students through discovery based learning.  He discussed six problems: 

1. Attitude

1. Bruner emphasized how students should attempt to connect knowledge learned in school with their own unique, outside experiences.  

2. Compatibility

1. This covered exactly how knowledge in school should coincide with, or “be compatible with”, knowledge learned outside of school.  Compatibility go hand-in-hand with each other.  

3. Activation

1. Bruner reminds teachers that it can be difficult to get students excited about school.  Getting children engaged with a lesson is the most important part of discovery learning.  If the students don’t care about the broader topic or lesson, they won’t want to put in work and have the motivation to problem solve by without help.

4. Practice

1. This issue just reiterates the idea that repetition gives results.  If a student doesn’t practice consistently with the material, they won’t grasp the concept.  

5. Desensitization

1. This is the difference between actually learning something and just spitting back information that was drilled into your head.  If a student is able to complete an assignment correctly for a grade but didn’t actually learn anything from the lesson, then there was no point to begin with.  

6. Capacity

1. As teachers, we have to bear in mind how much information students can take at one time.  We have to remind ourselves when teaching that younger students especially can only retain so much information at one time.  Throwing a lot of information at them and expecting them to use all of it to solve a problem will not work.  

   
   

Bruner made some excellent points releasing this statement.  These six aspects of discovery learning are so important to keep in mind when letting students think for themselves. In my opinion, I think it is important also for teachers to be closely monitoring exactly what each student is gaining during a discovery learning experiment.  We want to make sure the students are getting the full and proper information from the lesson.