The so-called "discipline basic structure", Bruner explained, refers to the basic concepts and principles of the discipline and their interrelations, refers to the integrity of knowledge and the universal connection of things, rather than isolated facts and fragmentary knowledge conclusions, such as biological orientation, algebraic commutative law, distribution law and associative law, English structural rules and sentences in English teaching, etc. He believes that any subject has its basic structure, and any facts, arguments, ideas and concepts related to the subject can be continuously incorporated into a unified structure. This basic structure is a scientific factor that students must master, and it should be the core of the teaching process. Because students have mastered the basic structure of subject knowledge, they can independently face and go deep into new knowledge fields, thus constantly and independently understanding new problems and increasing new knowledge. This is very important in the era of "knowledge explosion"

Theoretical content

Bruner drew lessons from the methodological principles of structuralism and the research results of cognitive psychology, and put forward the basic structure theory of discipline. He systematically expounded his basic views on the basic structure of his discipline around such issues as "what to teach", "when to teach" and "how to teach".

Regarding the teaching task, what is the teaching task? This is the first question that teaching theory must answer, because it will determine the content and method of teaching process. Bruner believes that the task of teaching is to let every student master the basic knowledge and maximize the development of intelligence. He said: "We can also take the pursuit of excellent grades as the most general goal of education, but we should find out what the term pursuit of excellent grades means. The meaning here is not only students with excellent educational achievements, but also to help each student get the best intellectual development. " He emphasized that teaching should not only explore solutions to challenge outstanding students, but also "destroy the confidence and learning will of those less fortunate students". The teacher's task is not only to let students master the subject content as firmly as possible, but also to let students advance independently after completing formal school education as much as possible.

Emphasizing children's intellectual development is in line with the reality that the United States urgently needs to train a large number of scientific and technological talents under the conditions of modern technology. It has a distinct era, but it also shows a strong class nature. Bruner once pointed out that only by helping all students make full use of their intelligence can the United States have a good chance of survival in this complex industrial society. He once said: "As a symbol of our generation, emerging things may focus on emerging concerns about the goals of education and intellectual education, but it has not given up the ideal that education should be used as a means to cultivate citizens with balanced development in a democratic society." From this we can see the class essence of Bruner's educational theory.

Educational content

Bruner believes that the accumulation of human knowledge is growing rapidly, and new knowledge is constantly emerging. It is impossible for any subject to incorporate all the knowledge of this subject into the syllabus. Moreover, it is impossible for students to master all the cultural and scientific knowledge created by human beings in the limited study time. This requires the school to study the teaching content, so that what students learn will be more valuable in their later life. He believes that it is the best way to learn and master the concepts, definitions, principles and legal systems widely used in various disciplines. To this end, it emphasizes: "No matter what subject we choose to teach, we must make students understand the basic structure of the subject."

The so-called "discipline basic structure", Bruner explained, refers to the basic concepts and principles of the discipline and their interrelations, refers to the integrity of knowledge and the universal connection of things, rather than isolated facts and fragmentary knowledge conclusions, such as biological orientation, algebraic exchange law, distribution law, associative law, and English structural rules and sentences in English teaching. He believes that any subject has its basic structure, and any facts, arguments, ideas and concepts related to the subject can be continuously incorporated into a unified structure. This basic structure is a scientific factor that students must master, and it should be the core of the teaching process. Because students have mastered the basic structure of subject knowledge, they can independently face and go deep into new knowledge fields, thus constantly and independently understanding new problems and increasing new knowledge. This is very important in the era of "knowledge explosion". Bruner pointed out: "What students learn can almost be summed up as the more basic the concept of definition, the wider its applicability to new problems." Taking elementary algebra as an example, he said that as long as students master the exchange law, distribution law and associative law contained in the equation, they can solve problems independently according to these basic laws when they encounter new equations, because new topics are just "variants" of familiar topics. Learning grammar is the same, as long as you master the rules of sentence-making, you can make your own sentences. Therefore, the fundamental task of teachers is to constantly expand and deepen students' knowledge structure with the basic and universal knowledge and concepts of this subject.