Professor Jerome Bruner gave a public lecture on March 13th entitled ‘Cultivating the Possible‘ at the Martin Wood Lecture Theatre. He reflected on his early days at Oxford University and the beginning of theories about cognitive development in children. He went on to talk about the use of story-telling as a way of ‘cultivating a lively sense of the possible in the rising generation’.
Professor Bruner has a particular interest in the cognitive development of children and appropriate forms of education. His books on The Process of Education and Towards a Theory of Instruction have been widely read and are recognised as classics. His work on the social studies programme ‘Man: A Course of Study’ (MACOS) is a landmark in curriculum development. His most recent book The Culture of Education (1996) examines the historical and social context of pupils and their schooling.
My impression of his lecture was that he enlightened some of my thinking. When I reviewed what he said I could understand it. Before he spoke, however, I could not use the words to describe it. It is the thing that I possibly knew at some extent, but I could not pass to others. It was very subtle. He mentioned how to move from apprehending to constructivism. In Psychology, meaning making is a function of mind. That is the function of brain is to make things familiar in our lives. He emphasised the culture psychology, which I am quite interested in. What is the culture? There is no culture in the world without stories? Is it vast, or local? What’s the paradigm then? Also, there came with multiple ways of understanding. He wrapped up his lecture by pointing out several multiple principles.
…
