The Essay - Part 2

Construcivism and Bruner.

This essay is constructivist in its shape. That derives partly from choice and partly from the fact that the course which is eliciting it is also , to some extent, deliberately or unconsciously, constructivist. Concurrently, the metaphoric framework I have evolved is deconstructive in that my key words and concepts are typical signifiers that slide in and out of one another and overlap in a phallogocentric jouissance that is a reflection of the amorphousness of words and the indeterminacy of concepts that resist, ideally, fixity. Constructivism, based primarily on what Piaget stressed, the concept of cognitive structures - schemas - , is a wide theory of learning that comprises several perspectives and includes thinkers as diverse as J. Bruner and the neo-Marxist Vygotsky. Bruner's contribution can be summed up in the following points.
1.The signifier or the learner should be the active agent in the give and take of the signified; learning.
2.In the process of singification the learner is not also a finished referent-product but has a sign on him that reads 'under construction' like any good website.
3. In the same process he learns not only to construct ideas and hypotheses but also to make decisions based on models that have a cognitive structure embedded in them. He thereby arrives at meaning and patterns experience towards a definite qualitative end result and , in a sense, constructs himself with help from the world(environment) as a referent.
4. This includes extrapolation and transcending of subject boundaries , both typical of constructivist endeavours.
5.Facilitation has to bring out about the ability to recognize first principles on the learner's own initiative.
6. It must lead to a profitable exchange of views ( the Socratic dialogue and method of learning)
7.The top-down approach of delivering knowledge and information has to be jettisoned for simplification, taking into consideration age and level appropriateness.
8.The building blocks method is to be followed so that by the end of the project the learner can build the entire house by himself.
9.The facilitator has to motivate, structure, sequence and plan the interval and ratio of interventions that negotiate the minefield of reward and punishment.
10. The historical, social and cultural aspect has to be taken into consideration to inculcate "readiness" to learn in the 'signifier' of learning.
11. The learner needs order and organisation so that spiral learning will take place. whereby the learner builds on what has been previously constructed.
12. Facilitation leads to the ability and potential of the signifier to learn being maximised to the extent where inferences that go beyond the level mastered leads to facility with abstractions and filling in of the gaps.

Bruner doesn't take reinforcement into consideration and seems to place little emphasis on the learner's past or emotions or physiological needs. These can be considered flaws; not just in his theory but in constructivism in general in that it is is too psychological in in its orientation and seems to deals only with mind, brain, intellect and mental prowess to the detriment of other aspects of the learner and learning , unlike in the more holistic approach of Gardner. However, I remain drawn to Bruner's theory partly because of the lack of empirical proof for some of Gardner's classifications and partly because I am more of a mind- oriented personality than a heart or body-centred personality.