The first is the incentive principle. Bruner stressed that in the process of cognitive learning, we should pay attention to children's psychological tendency and motivation. This is an extremely important factor in the success or failure of teaching activities. He believes that motivation can be divided into internal motivation and external motivation. "Curiosity", "ability" and "reciprocity" all urge children to study longer and have better results. Therefore, teachers should pay full attention to the intrinsic motivation to promote children's learning, which is more important than the extrinsic motivation such as "reward" and "competition". Because intrinsic motivation promotes the intrinsic motivation of children's learning. Specifically, we need to pay attention to three aspects: first, teachers should stimulate children's greatest enthusiasm for learning and inquiry activities in teaching; Second; Teachers should help children keep their enthusiasm for learning and exploring activities in teaching; Third, teachers should let children know the specific objectives of activities and provide relevant knowledge in teaching, so that learning and exploration activities have the right direction. Bruner said: "If teaching is effective, then learning with the help of teaching staff must be less dangerous, risky or distressing than studying alone."
The second is the structural principle. Bruner believes that any subject knowledge has a structure, and the structure reflects the relationship or regularity between things. Teachers should pay attention to let children master the structure of subject knowledge in the teaching process. Because "any concept or problem or knowledge can be expressed in an extremely simple form, so that any learner can understand it in a recognizable form". Moreover, the three expressions of the structural characteristics of subject knowledge (namely, reproduction form, economic principle and effective intensity) vary with children's age, different "styles" and their adaptability to the differences with subject knowledge.
The third is the principle of procedure. Bruner believes that the procedure of teaching activities will affect children's ability to acquire and develop knowledge. Therefore, teachers should pay attention to the design and selection of the best teaching procedures in the teaching process. This program should consider the development of children's cognition, and through a series of steps, state a question or a lot of knowledge in an orderly way to improve children's ability to master, transform and transfer what they have learned. Bruner emphasized: "Under any given condition, the optimal order depends on various factors, including the past learning and development stages. Individual differences in material properties, etc. " Specifically, we should take into account the speed of learning, the role of anti-forgetting, the possibility of transferring the acquired knowledge to new situations, the representation form of the acquired knowledge, and the fact that the available knowledge is economical and effective.
The fourth is to strengthen the principle. Bruner believes that teachers should pay attention to letting children know their learning results through feedback in the teaching process, so that children can gradually have the ability of self-correction, inspection and reinforcement, thus strengthening effective learning. He stressed: "The efficiency of learning also depends on whether the knowledge about the results can be used for correction at a certain moment and occasion. Teaching should help to set a more appropriate time and speed for correcting knowledge. " In Bruner's view, whether the feedback information provided by teachers is useful depends on when and where children can make the feedback information work, under what conditions children can use the feedback information, and in what way children can accept the feedback information. However, when implementing the reinforcement principle, we must prevent children from relying on teachers' corrections forever and from following teachers' instructions.
4? On Discovery Learning
In teaching methods, Bruner advocates "discovery learning". He believes that children should express the structure of subject knowledge in their own unique way of observing things under the guidance of teachers, and discover things with the help of teachers or other materials provided by teachers. Bruner emphasized that discovery is the main means of educating children. "Human learning seems to have an indispensable part. Like discovery, this is an opportunity to explore the situation as much as possible. " He also stressed: "If we want to look forward to what is particularly important to the school, we have to ask how to train generations of children to find and discover problems."
In discovery learning, Bruner believes that teachers should pay attention to the following aspects. First, encourage children to think and explore actively. Discover that children are the main body of learning, and let children realize that they can use their brains by their own education. Teachers should encourage children to say "Let me think with my head" and "Let me put myself in the other's shoes" to cultivate the habit or attitude of thinking. In this way, children can be proactive, think with their own abilities and succeed.
The second is to pay attention to the compatibility of old and new knowledge. Discovery learning requires children to know the connection between new knowledge and old knowledge, incorporate new knowledge into their existing subject knowledge structure, and make knowledge their own. Bruner stressed: "acquiring some new knowledge related to the established knowledge field can help to regain what may be suitable for it when needed."
The third is to cultivate students' skills in using assumptions and comparisons. Bruner believes that children can solve problems more effectively by comparing hypotheses. He said: "In the process of discussion, children learned how to construct hypotheses instead of how to test them, which is a great progress. ..... I believe children need more such exercises ... "He also said:" By guiding children to explore and compare, it is easier for children to organize their knowledge in some way, which can help them find something in special situations that need to be discovered. "
Bruner also pointed out that analytical thinking and intuitive thinking must be combined in discovery learning. He said that the purpose of a balanced school education is obviously to let children go forward intuitively when necessary and analyze at an appropriate time. According to Bruner's idea, children should be encouraged to show perfect analytical efficiency in specific training, and at the same time, they should maintain a sound awareness of using intuitive thinking both in intellectual activities and in daily life.
The so-called "discovery learning" refers to students' learning methods. For teachers' teaching methods, that is "discovery teaching". Bruner stressed: "Discovery teaching involves not so much the process of guiding students to discover what happened there as the process of discovering ideas in their own minds." Of course, "discovery learning" and "discovery teaching" are closely related and are two complementary aspects in the teaching process.