Jerome Bruner postulated a development theory which asserted that the role of education should be viewed through the lenses of intellectual development rather than the memorization of facts. He made several assumptions in this regard (Olson, 2014). First, the educational curriculum should focus on problem-solving skills through the processes of discovery and inquiry. Secondly, he intimated that subject matter should conform to the ways in which the child visualizes the world. He also emphasized on the mastery of skills and a teaching system characterized by organized concepts. He also believed that culture should be at the forefront in the provision of instruction. Bruner goes ahead to outline the three stages of cognitive representation including the enactive, iconic, and symbolic representation. The enactive stage appears first and occurs between the age of 0 and 1 year old (Rutten & Soetaert, 2013).
According to Burner, the enactive stage primarily involves not only the encoding but also the storage of information in the memory (Kolb, 2014).It can occur in several ways including the movement of muscles or shaking a rattle. One of the hallmarks of this stage is that the child has the ability to replicate past events via motor responses. Although this typically begins at the age of between 0 and 1, it develops as one continues to grow into adulthood. On a broader scale, the enactive stage involves various physical and motor responses. It is regarded as a primary way in which children can manipulate the objects found within their environment. Bruner maintained that “knowledge is stored primarily in the form of motor responses” (Bornstein & Bruner, 2014). Therefore, it remains critical to appreciate that the primary way of learning is through experimentation and motor skills. All the information that the child acquires during this stage would otherwise not have been imparted through verbal interventions.
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References
Bornstein, M. H., & Bruner, J. S. (2014). Interaction in human development. Psychology Press.
Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT Press.
Olson, D. R. (2014). Jerome Bruner: The cognitive revolution in educational theory . Bloomsbury Publishing.
Rutten, K., & Soetaert, R. (2013). Narrative and rhetorical approaches to problems of education. Jerome Bruner and Kenneth Burke revisited. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 32(4), 327-343.
