Current Read

The Process of Education by Jerome Bruner

"Grasping the structure of a subject is understanding it in a way that permits many other things to be related to it meaningfully. To learn structure in short, is to learn how things are related."

Jerome S. BRUNER (2009). “The Process of Education, Revised Edition”, p.7, Harvard University Press

Jerome Bruner analysed how teachers teach and how students learn and wrote his book in order for others to understand the two processes. In a given chapter, he provides the history of how teachers taught in the past with how students really learn, helping readers see the disconnect. Bruner then provides the method/answer to help teachers see the process of teaching so that students may learn more efficiently.

I particularly enjoyed the first three chapters of the book because the topics are so broad and can be applied to anyone teaching any topic. Some of the first topics covered that I found engaging were structure and readiness to learn. These topics helped me reflect on my own teaching because I found it comforting that some of the information I already knew and agreed with, and other information was new and I felt like this new information would really help my teaching in the future.

Every teacher should have to read this book before they teach as well as a few years into teaching. Some of these ideas I most likely would not have understood had I not had experience teaching. But other parts of this book I would have loved to know before I started teaching! I find that the best books are ones that can be read multiple times and the reader can still learn from over and over again, and Bruner has for sure accomplished that.

Below I have included my notes that I took while reading the book.