NR The Process of Education - Bruner annotations

3 stages of the intellectual development of a child:

1. preoperational stage - trial-and-error in nature; child cannot grasp the concept of reversibility; merely active learning
2. stage of concrete operations - operational learning; child can do trial-and-error in its head (internal); logic of relations; only immediate present reality
3. stage of formal operations - ability to operate on hypothetical propositions

According to Bruner, when a person learns any subject matter there are 3 processes of learning involved. These processes combine to make an "episode" of learning. (curriculum unit)

3 processes of learning:

1. acquisition - collection of new info; usually it is info that contradicts what a person believed intuitively
2. transformation - application of new knowledge towards a new problem
3. evaluation - a check to see if new knowledge fit the different task

There is a problem with depending on grades as the only reward for learning. How are children going to self motivate when they graduate and no longer receive grades? Idea of "spiral curriculum"

Favorite quote: "If the hypothesis with which this section was introduced is true - that any subject can be taught to any child in some honest form - then it should follow that a curriculum ought to be built around the great issues, principles, and values that a society deems worthy of the continual concern of its members." p52