Review_Author: Michele Booth Kreisman
Book_Author: Jerome Bruner
Book_Title: The Culture of Education
Date: 3/7/99
Time: 2:55:07 PM
Remote Name: 128.175.144.158
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Bruner contends that there are two views of how the mind works. The first sees the mind as a computational device (Information Processing). The second view asserts that the mind is realized by human culture; hence, there are different strategies within this approach for inquiry into how this mind is improved through "education". |
According to Bruner, psychological theory, applied to education, has fostered use of the philosophical theory of "other minds". Much of our teaching practice is based on our ideas of how the mind works, how it learns and what makes it grow. Reform efforts are focused on the need to equip educators with the best available theory of the child's mind.
Upon perusal of four major views of human development, Bruner discovers two main dimensions. The inside-outside dimension explains what adults can do from the outside to foster learning (the bulk of traditional educational psychology rests on this assumption). Objectivist theories are not shared with the "subjects" to help them. Instead, they are seen as objects to learn from. In contrast, the intersubjective-objectivist dimension is concerned with formulating a theory of teaching and learning to share with the child in order to facilitate the child's efforts (mastery through reflection, improvement through feedback). The remainder of the book explores modern advances which have intergrated the dimensions.
Bruner goes on to explain that educational truths are afflicted by antinomies (pairs of large truths which contradict each other). He gives a few examples of these antinomies, one of which provides a rather interesting interpretation of Head Start (are we merely pushing middle class values on minority cultures?)... In another example, Bruner explains the reason for the decrease in American, public, educational achievement. In his opinion, we don't take the various cultures of our country into account. America is changing he says (in summary), "deal with it, and don't blame the teachers".
He offers some advice for educational reformers. "In our focus on standards and performance, we have overlooked how teachers teach and how pupils learn". He feels that education should be focused on agency (taking control of one's own mental activity), reflection (understanding), collaboration (mind is in the head, but also with others) and culture (the way of life we create and call "reality"). Teaching, he feels, should encourage students to generate their own hypotheses through negotiation with others. They should be taught to challenge existing culture through study of societal problems.
Bruner also questions the current movement to reform American math and science education. "Did we forget that great advances were led also by playwrites, poets, philosophers and music teachers?" He wonders why we expect teachers and schools to mend our society when they did not create the conditions that make American education so difficult (extreme inequality, the drug problem, etc.).
It is clear that Bruner is an advocate of the problem solving approach to learning. He feels that "our instruction of science, from start to finish, should be mindful of the lively processes of science making, rather than being an account only of 'finished science', as represented in a textbook or demonstration'".
Bruner also explains his view of how achievement and knowledge is situated. Intelligence, he states, involves the reference books one uses; the computer programs and databases one relies on; and the network of friends, colleagues and mentors on whom one leans for feedback, help advice or company. He reminds the readers taht "your chance of winning a nobel prize increases if you have worked in a lab with somebody who has already won". He contends that the mind is an extension of the hands and tools that you use and the jobs to which you apply them.
In the final chapter, Bruner explains that the book to this point has been based on theories of cultural psychology (mind-in-culture). "Psychology can illustrate the interaction between biological, evolutionary, individual psychological and cultural insights in helping us grasp the nature of human mental functioning. He feels that we cannot understand man without reference to culture, "mind creates culture and culture creates mind".
Before concluding I would like to present a statement by Bruner, which seems slightly contradictory with his support of cultural education. In chapter 6, he states "as a teacher, you deepen the child's understanding at the stage of development which leads to better, earlier and deeper thinking in the next stage". This sounds like individualized instruction to me. In our current public school system, it is not uncommon to find classrooms with 30-35 pupils. I think it is a bit unrealistic to think that a teacher will be able to provide such luxury. The only way for this to be even slightly possible would be to have a federally regulated curriculum that is steady and unchanging from grade to grade. Even then, children will learn at vastly different rates.
In closing, although there were many interesting insights and examples provided, I felt that this book was dissapointingly written in the traditional academic, passive voice. It may be endurable to the more patient, "philosophical" types; those who enjoy lofty, unclear, noncommittal statements (some of which Bruner did not provide much evidence as back-up). At some points during this theoretical trip, it was almost as if the author was in a fuzzy day-dreaming state. I patiently read through the unnecessary words until I found clear statements to "grab onto". It was difficult to follow Bruner's non-linear style of writing. He seemed to hastily jump from one topic to the next.
I do not want to completely fault the author here. Some people may enjoy the philosophical style he provides. Others, like myself, prefer practical, research-based lessons from which to learn. He did provide a few of these, which I found informative and enlightening.
