Discovery learning was proposed by the American psychologist Jerome Bruner (1915-2016), who spent his entire career studying how children learn .
According to him, the ultimate goal of teaching is to ensure that the student acquires a general understanding of the structure of an area of knowledge. That is to say, it speaks of a deeper knowledge of things and that, in addition, is being built progressively.
Examples of this type of learning are found in certain human activities, both in children and adults, such as: trial and error puzzle solutions , most scientific research, music or architecture.
But why? We are going to discover it through knowing what exactly this type of learning is and how it is built.
Before delving into all this, let us know the four central elements of Bruner’s theory, that is, the necessary pillars for learning to take place .
Bruner’s theory: what does it take to learn?
Thus, Bruner’s theory is characterized by four characteristics or fundamental elements , which enable the child to learn. These are:
- Reinforcement (learning is favored by positive reinforcement).
- Motivation (condition that predisposes the child to learning; their interest is only maintained when there is intrinsic motivation).
- The structure (the objective of teaching is that the student comes to understand the fundamental structure of knowledge).
- The organization and sequence of the contents (any student can understand the ideas, problems and knowledge of any subject if they are presented in a simple and structured way).
“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”
-Chinese proverb-
Discovery learning in children: what is it?
Bruner is the author of the concept of “discovery learning”. This type of learning is learning that must be inductive , that is, it must start from facts and particular situations; the child, to get to it, experiments and tests different hypotheses.
Thus, it moves away from traditional learning that is based solely on the support of readings and the teacher’s explanations.
It is a type of learning that we can assimilate, in part, to another that we already described in its day, experiential or experiential learning, although they are not exactly the same, and we will see why.
How does discovery learning occur?
To promote learning by discovery, according to Bruner, we must encourage children to be, through guided discovery , the ones who discover the structure of the subject, of the knowledge or task in question, etc.
In this case, the teachers, fathers or mothers, are in charge of posing appropriate situations and problems that lead the children to try to discover the solutions and answers.
Thus, they are presented with a challenge, an unknown, a mystery to be solved… and they have to “decipher it”, finding the solution.
In this way, Bruner believes that children’s learning, especially in the classroom, can take place inductively: from the simple questions, details and examples raised by the teacher or parent, the child (or student ) arrives at the formulation of a general principle , depending on the interactions and the structure of the material.
Example-rule method
In this way, Bruner proposes the use of a technique to stimulate learning by discovery: the so-called “example-rule method”. But what does this technique or method consist of?
Basically, it is that as fathers, mothers or teachers, we propose particular examples so that the child , from them, can induce the general principle in which they are included.
A simple example for young children, to understand it: we say to the child, “if I say cat, bird, snake and frog, what am I talking about?” The child has to induce the general category, which in this case would be “animals”.
Scaffolding: building learning from aids
Another of the concepts related to learning by discovery, and also proposed by Bruner, is that of “scaffolding”.
This concept suggests the following: ” the effective support that the adult provides to the child is the one that adjusts to their skills and abilities at all times”, and that varies as the child may have more responsibilities in the activity.
The adult adapts his support
In other words, the adult has to adjust and adapt this support , depending on the abilities and needs of the child (and also their age); therefore, it is an adjusted support, but in a temporary way (it is not an eternal support, since what is intended is to promote the autonomy of the child in their learning).
Transfers responsibility and control to the child
In other words, in order to promote learning by discovery, the adult gradually offers the child greater control and responsibility for the situation (and therefore, for his own learning process), and for this he progressively withdraws his help, as the child progresses on the task.
And it is that, in this case, the goal of the activity, or the meaning, is that progressive transfer of responsibility to the child. We speak, therefore, of a concept very similar to that of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development.
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development as a similar concept
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development refers to the range of skills that a person is capable of performing with assistance (ie, with help), but cannot yet perform independently.
In other words, it is ” the distance between the level of effective development of the student (what he is able to do on his own) and the level of potential development ( what he would be able to do with the help of an adult or a teacher). most capable companion) .”
Activities to promote discovery learning
How to promote this type of learning? We propose two types of activities (from which other ideas may arise), which can be useful for both parents and teachers:
Propose challenges and projects
One idea is to choose a work topic, for example based on the child’s interests and motivations.
Technology can be used to investigate while learning; You can pose it to your child as a challenge. For example, “we are going to discover which characters in the history of the 20th century were important and why”.
Encourage discussions and exchange of views
Another idea to promote discovery learning is through “mini-debates” or spaces for reflection. If it’s from home, you can do it as a family, with siblings… raise a fun or interesting topic and reflect on it . For example, at dinner time (but plan it as a game).
Thus, it is about building a space (also at school) to express opinions, share experiences… and that children can learn from each other (in addition, it is a good opportunity to also develop empathy).
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