Jerome Bruner

Jerome Bruner (1915- ) is an American psychologist, who has contributed to cognitive learning theory in educational psychology.

Related Topics:
1915 - American - Psychologist - Cognitive - Learning theory - Educational psychology

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Bruner's ideas are based on categorization. "To perceive is to categorize, to conceptualize is to categorize, to learn is to form categories, to make decisions is to categorize." Bruner maintains people interpret the world in terms of its similarities and differences. Similar to Bloom's Taxonomy Bruner suggests 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.

Related Topics:
Categorization - Bloom's Taxonomy - Benjamin Bloom - Instructional scaffolding

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He has also suggested that there are two primary modes of thought: the narrative mode and the paradigmatic mode. In narrative thinking, the mind engages in sequential, action-oriented, detail-driven thought. In paradigmatic thinking, the mind transcends particularities to achieve systematic, categorical cognition. In the former case, thinking takes the form of stories and "gripping drama." In the latter, thinking is structured as propositions linked by logical operators.

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