Jerome Bruner and the Theory of Assisted Pedagogy

Jerome Bruner: Pedagogy as Assisted Development

Despite a possible translation error, we must analyze and evaluate Jerome Bruner's idea that pedagogy is an "assisted developmental psychology," based on academic discussion and bibliography.

Today, we recognize that Man is not simply an animal that reasons and speaks; he has developed a rational mind that other animals lack. His faculty of thought and the communication of concepts have introduced a completely new mechanism for the fundamental biological process of Evolution. Without this term, we would be unable to discuss human development comprehensively.

The Dual Evolution of Humanity

Thanks to science and research, we now know that man undergoes a Dual Evolution: one biological and the other cultural. Humanity has created a psychogenetic mechanism (a means of transmitting information from one generation to the next), which overlaps a biological mechanism dependent exclusively on genes. While biological evolution continues over time, it is assumed that these changes are relatively minor, though they may eventually become a limiting factor.

Sociogenetic Transmission and Learning

Man, in himself, could not evolve from a biological standpoint alone because he is immersed in a society. This society passes on and improves customs, ideas, and world conceptions from generation to generation, building upon those adopted by those before them. The changes that essentially concern humanity today depend on the sociogenetic transmission of information through teaching and learning.

Piaget and the Duration of Childhood

According to Jean Piaget, both psychological and biological development are terms related to the duration of childhood; the "higher" the species, the longer this period lasts. Usually, childhood in the animal kingdom is relatively short, with the exception of man, as the human infant has much more to learn.

Psychosocial and Spontaneous Development

In the threefold development of the child, we distinguish two fundamental aspects:

• The psychosocial aspect: Everything the child receives from the outside.
• The spontaneous aspect: What the child learns or thinks independently.

We know that the psychosocial aspect is subject to the spontaneous. This spontaneous development constitutes the obvious and necessary precondition for formal school development.

The Universal Stages of Human Intelligence

The development of human intelligence is a staged process consisting of phases or levels of knowledge. The sequence in which we shape these forms of intelligence is universal and follows a prescribed order. A person must have the "pitch," or mental structures, upon which knowledge is built. One cannot simply deduce a person's intellectual development based solely on their age.