The+Process+of+Education+Chapter+5


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The Process of Education by Jerome Bruner

__Chapter 5__:

Summary:** In chapter five, “Motives For Learning”, Jerome Bruner discusses what objectives an educator should hope to achieve in educating youths. Bruner believes that the quality of an education does not rely only on what we teach, but how we teach it and how the information taught interests the student as well. We should aim the idea of teaching towards the average student, while at the same time challenging the advanced student as well. By doing this the educator would be able to educate all students, including the students who may need a little more help. The most important thing is to catch the attention of the student. A teacher uses two different objectives, short-run and long-run objectives.The short-run objectives may catch the attention of the student while the long-run may take a longer time to arouse the student. Some people feel that short-run objectives are needed for long-run objectives while others feel short-run objectives are not helpful at all because you can not see where they lead you. An example of a short-run objective maybe pictures of World War I or bringing in a Holocaust survivor, while the long-run objective may be to have the student completely understand what happened in World War I. If a child has interest in what he/she is learning, along with an understanding of it, the child should learn more easily.

What we learn outside of school will also aid children in becoming interested to learn. Education is very important to Americans. In fact, we live in a society that believes our children should have a better education than ourselves. This may be due to the new era of scientific technology, which has made school more interesting. Because of this new era, science and technology need to be taught in the schools. With help from federal funds, Bruner believes, America will become a meritocracy with extremely competitive school systems.A consequence of meritocracy is the overemphasis of examination performance. Because we are in an era of scientific technology it will be more difficult to find teachers in non-scientific subjects, such as literature or art due to a lack in interest. While teaching these non-scientific subjects more energy will need to be devoted in order to make the subjects interesting.

“But the idea that teaching should be aimed at the average student in order to provide something for everybody is an equally inadequate formula. The quest, it seems to many of us, is to devise materials that will challenge the superior student while not destroying the confidence and will-to-learn of those who are less fortunate” pg. 70
 * Key Passages:**

“At the same time, interests are developing, the world opens up. Schoolwork is only a part of the quickened life of the growing child” pg. 72

“Several tentative recommendations have already been made in the spirit of suggesting needed research. Principal among these were increasing the inherent interest of materials taught, giving the student a sense of discovery, translating what we have to say into the thought forms appropriate to the child, and so on.” pg. 73

“To sum up the matter, motives for learning must be kept from going passive in an age of spectatorship, they must be based as much as possible upon the arousal of interest in what there is to be learned, and they must be kept broad and diverse in expression.” pg. 80

"A meritocracy, however, implies a system of competition in which students are moved ahead and given further opportunities on the basis of their achievement, with position in later life increasingly and irreversibly determined by earlier school records. not only later educational opportunities but subsequent job opportunities become increasingly fixed by earlier school performance." pg. 77

"Short-run arousal of interest is not the same as the long-term establishment of interest in the broader sense. Films, audio-visual aids, and other such devices may have the short run effect of catching attention. in the long run, they may produce a passive person waiting for some sort of curtain to go up to arouse him." pg. 72

Meritocracy- a system of competition in which students are moved ahead and given further opportunities on the basis of their achievement, with position in later life increasingly and irreversibly determined by earlier school records.
 * Key Terminology:**

Short-run objectives- something that catches the students attention right away. For example: films or audio-visual aids.

Long-run objectives- are what we hope to achieve overall.

Interest- an important motive for learning. Make what the child is learning appealing.


 * Discussion Guiding Questions**
 * 1) Bruner believes that one consequence of a meritocracy is that examination performance may be overemphasized.Can you give an example of this in America?
 * 2) What is an example of a short-run objective and a long-run objective?
 * 3) According to Bruner, why should teaching be aimed at the average student?
 * 4) "There appear to be several things implied by the pursuit of excellence that have relevance not only to what we teach, but to how we teach and how we arouse the interest of our students." (Bruner) Why is interest and important motive for learning?