Learning Theory: Cognitive Flexibility: Discovery-Based Learning

Discovery-Based Learning

• Overview:  Jerome Bruner believed that students learn best by discovery and that the learner is a problem solver who interacts with the environment testing hypotheses and developing generalizations. The major condition for the exploration of alternatives was "the presence of some optimal level of uncertainty". This related directly to the student's curiosity to resolve uncertainty and ambiguity.
  
  According to this idea, the teacher would design discrepant event activities that would pique the students' curiosity. For example, the teacher might fill a glass with water and ask the students how many pennies they think can be put in the jar without any water spilling.
  
  According to Bruner, any domain of knowledge (physics, chemistry, biology, earth science) or problem or concept within that domain (law of gravitation, atomic structure, homeostasis, earthquake waves) can be represented in three ways or modes: by a set of actions (enactive representation), by a set of images or graphics that stand for the concept (iconic representation); and by a set of symbolic or logical statements (symbolic representation).
  
  According to Bruner, instruction should lead the learner through the content in order to increase the student's ability to "grasp, transform and transfer" what is learned. In general sequencing should move from enactive (hands-on, concrete), to iconic (visual), to symbolic (descriptions in words or mathematical symbols).
  

More..........................  Jerome Bruner and Discovery Learning