Jerome S. Bruner
SchoolCognitive Psychology
Lived1915 – 2016
FromUnited States
Cognitive Psychology

Jerome S. Bruner

Learning is an active making of meaning.

American cognitive and educational psychologist who emphasized meaning-making, discovery learning and representation.

Learning is an active process of constructing meaning.
— Jerome S. Bruner

Who they were

Jerome Bruner saw the learner as an active builder, not a passive vessel. He argued that we understand by discovering principles ourselves, that ideas can be represented through action, image or symbol, and that almost anything can be taught honestly at any age if returned to with growing depth.

Famous books

What they left on the shelf

Their big idea

Discovery Learning

Jerome Bruner held that deep understanding comes from actively exploring and discovering principles rather than receiving facts passively, supported by a spiral curriculum that revisits core ideas at rising levels of complexity.

Questions in their spirit

What they’d ask you

Sit with one. Answer online, or in the app.

All questions

Carry the idea forward

Bruner — What they’d ask you

Psipas asks you one small, honest question at a time — and builds the picture from your answers.