Jerome Seymour Bruner
Jerome Seymour Bruner (1915-)
Jerome Seymour Bruner is a psychologist who has made significant contributions to human cognitive psychology and cognitive learning theory in educational psychology.
In his research on the development of children, Bruner suggests that, when presented with a new concept in mathematics, children learn best when the concept is introduced as follows:
1. Enactive Phase
Regardless of his/her age your child needs to actively use objects to explore any new concept. For example:
Addition
Have 2 groups of cars, biscuits or lego bricks, add one group to the other then count by moving the objects.
Fractions of a Number
To find a third of 12, give your child the correct number of objects (these can be anything as long as they can be physically moved.) Use post-its to show the fraction, for example 3 post-its for thirds. Now share (divide) the objects between the post-its. That will give 4 objects on each post-it so one third of 12 is 4. From here you can push 2 post-its together to make two thirds.
Be patient. In order to fully understand the concept, your child will need lots of enactive practise before they are ready to move on. This stage is both necessary and important for complete understanding.
2. Iconic Phase
Once your child is confidently using the objects and successfully answering the problems, he/she can move onto this phase. Here, marks on the paper represent the objects. For example, use drawn cars instead of real ones or dots instead of biscuits, etc. These can still be counted/crossed out/ marked to assist with the calculation.
3. Symbolic Phase
Once your child is confidently using the drawn objects and successfully answering the problems, he/she can move onto this phase. Here, calculations are given exclusively with symbols and words.
For example, 3 + 4, or 1/4 of 12
In order for real understanding to occur, it is important that you support your child through these stages at home as, for any number of reasons, your child may not get the opportunity to do so at school (peer pressure, absence, school ethos, time constraints or lack of teacher understanding, amongst others.)